Not really a Rant, but preventive Medicine?

[Shwa Girl]

I don't see how there is a difference in person or on the phone. Your example is to say that the person is Canadian born to Filipino parents - but what difference would that make? I'm very unclear as to how you see this as a difference?

There is scripting no matter where you are, what I have personally found is that the overseas agents are less likely to deviate from it as they do not want to use the incorrect words. English is a hard language to learn, and English as a second language can create some interesting(embarrassing) misunderstandings and I know our agents wanted to avoid those misunderstandings.

It has nothing to do with who's your Mother or who's your Daddy. The in store person living and working in Canada are more skilled at serving customers that are also living and working in Canada. Whether English is a person's first or second language is irrelevant. Good customer service is a skill that is difficult to learn --regardless of where a person originates.

When I am talking with a telephone customer service person, I am polite and calm -- regardless of where the person is. I suggest creative solutions and see if they are able to think outside the box.

As others have said, you can spend 30 minutes to 1 hour and get no satisfaction from overseas customer service reps. However, as I wrote before, North American telephone customer service reps have been able to solve our problems in under 30 minutes, in my experience.

[Safyre]

It has nothing to do with who's your Mother or who's your Daddy. The in store person living and working in Canada are more skilled at serving customers that are also living and working in Canada. Whether English is a person's first or second language is irrelevant. Good customer service is a skill that is difficult to learn --regardless of where a person originates.

When I am talking with a telephone customer service person, I am polite and calm -- regardless of where the person is. I suggest creative solutions and see if they are able to think outside the box.

As others have said, you can spend 30 minutes to 1 hour and get no satisfaction from overseas customer service reps. However, as I wrote before, North American telephone customer service reps have been able to solve our problems in under 30 minutes, in my experience.

I'm trying to follow your rationale here, please forgive me if I am misunderstanding.
You are saying that my example was invalid as when you walk into a Canadian store and have a Filipino serving you, you believe there to be a difference because this person lives in Canada? Is this then believing that because they live in Canada they know the culture, customers and language?

With respect to what 'others have said' about getting speedier service in the United States and Canada, I doubt that this will be your experience going forward. Many companies are moving overseas, getting the Canadian or American on the line may not be possible going forward, and often already is not possible.

The other side of this is assuming that the accent means they are in a different country. I have had just as much difficulty with an agent in Calgary(Asian accent) and Montreal(French) as I have with one in India. I've found the Montreal center I have to call on a regular basis is very scripted and cannot handle anything outside of their scripting, I've found the accent can be over powering causing some miscommunications(and my family is French, this persons accent was just overwhelming),so I do believe it happens not matter where you call.

I would just like to say that the English language is not easy. There are many variations of the English language. You can teach a person the English words without that person gaining a true understanding of the language, the conversational English language. If call centers are not properly screening agents to confirm they have full comprehension of conversational English, that is where the problem starts and snowballs from there.

[jayne_a]

I find it hard to understand someone with an accent over the phone personally. I have friends from Jamaica, Africa, India, Philippines etc. When i talk to them on the phone I have trouble understanding each and every one of them, but when i talk to them face to face i have no problems. Especially my friends from India, their accent is so thick, that they make fun of me for not understanding what they are saying. I also don't think that just asking to talk to a rep in Canada would help much, b/c there are a lot of Canadians with accent's who were born here. My mom's family has been in Canada since the 1700's and I have an accent. Dh makes fun of me all the time b/c i was born here. The only accent i have no trouble with is a dutch accent, but then again my dad is an immigrant from the Netherlands.

That's just my 5 cents. (like the pun) lol

[anastasia1009]

I was born and raised in Canada. All my family are from Nova Scotia and I am too but live in Ontario now. And if you have ever been to Cape Breton Island and hear us talk " how's she doing by?" I have an accent and the faster I talk the more in comes out. Just like the french they have an accent and when some speak English its broken English and I lived in Quebec & spoke french and English. And I speak broken French How about the people from Newfoundland? now they have an accent sometime I can't understand