Indian 'call' centres and reputation

[ryeman]

Scam artists use them!
Reputable companies use them!
When I hear an Indian caller I what am I to believe? ( supposedly Microsoft wanting to give me a 'refund'?!
Then I get a call from one telling me that the Govt want to give me a power saving device, which I think is actually kosher.
If companies use them, do they realise the risk to their credibility?

[FGII-XR6]

I refuse to deal with anyone offshore as they are not bound by our laws. when dealing with Telstra for example I demand an operator in Australia. takes a bit longer but they still exist. this is not about race but about remaining protected by Australia's privacy laws, I don't care if the operator is Indian provided they are in an Australian call centre

[ryeman]

But do Oz companies understand the 'problem'?

[cs123]

Originally Posted by au3xr6

I refuse to deal with anyone offshore as they are not bound by our laws. when dealing with Telstra for example I demand an operator in Australia. takes a bit longer but they still exist. this is not about race but about remaining protected by Australia's privacy laws, I don't care if the operator is Indian provided they are in an Australian call centre

I had to deal recently with Telstra. I was speaking to someone from the Philippines. He was great, couldn't ask for a more helpful person.

[Jason[98.EL]]

Originally Posted by cs123

I had to deal recently with Telstra. I was speaking to someone from the Philippines. He was great, couldn't ask for a more helpful person.

I have also had great dealings with the philppino call centre

[ford71V8]

I rarely pick the landline phone up these days anyway, but when I do, and its an Indian accent on the other end, I hang up immediately.

[ryeman]

I got scammed by Cyprus based mob who employed the Indian call centre to (innocently?)do their dirty work.
That's the real problem from my point of view.

[Herrod Motorsport]

Keep the work in australia !

[XBROO]

Telstra now send there bill by e-mail, it was good of them to tell me as I never agreed to it. Anyway this indian chick called saying she was from Telstra and that we hadn't payed our bill. I kept on saying I don't know how as we put them on the fridge with the rest of the bills and pay them when I get payed. As there was no telstra bill up there and she was indian, I just said get an Australian to ring me back and I'll talk to them. As I thought it was just another scam. I treat any overseas call as tele marketing, if telstra going to use this crap then they always get hung up on.

What I like doing to them is just saying 'can you hold on a sec', and just put the phone down and walk off. Then I come back every now and then to check if they hung up or not. The longest one to hang on was over an hour, hey they want to waste my time, I'll waste theirs. Because if you say no once that should be the end of it, not some little worm trying to push a sale. 'But it free, don't you want a free phone', 'Yeah ok send it to my nearest post office and I'll go and pick it up'. 'Oh it dosen't work like that', 'then it's not free BYE BYE.'

[Peuty]

Just because the person you speak to is Indian, doesn't mean they are in India....

But I understand what you are saying!

[ryeman]

Originally Posted by Peuty

Just because the person you speak to is Indian, doesn't mean they are in India....

But I understand what you are saying!

In Vic the Govt are giving out power saving boards, I've just been rung up by an Indian in Vic and his 'supervisor'......having been bitten once I'm not sure who to trust now...

[XBROO]

Yeah I know that but because of the bullcrap tele marketing, I just put them all in the same boat. Hire an Aussie and I talk to them, because everytime I try and talk to these people over the phone, they don't understand NO.

[mik]

yes they bloody annoying, some days we will get 4 or 5 calls.

[FGII-XR6]

it isn't how good or bad at customer service that concerns me. it is the fact that they get my personal details and they are not bound by Australian privacy laws so there is a greater potential for my details to be used fraudulently

Originally Posted by cs123

I had to deal recently with Telstra. I was speaking to someone from the Philippines. He was great, couldn't ask for a more helpful person.

[xisled]

Originally Posted by ryeman

In Vic the Govt are giving out power saving boards, I've just been rung up by an Indian in Vic and his 'supervisor'......having been bitten once I'm not sure who to trust now...

It is not the Gov that is giving these out, it is private companies. These companies get paid from the Gov to give you these power boards and light bulbs. They are not Gov employees.

It is funny most people say privacy is one of the biggest issues, but the call centres overseas still have access to your details, If you have an account with Telstra overseas call centres have your details or can access it very easy.

Also here in Australia, not many places run their own call centre. Most contract out.

The place I work for, runs 4 Energy retailers, 1 comparison company, 1 switching company, they also own a whole heap of other companies.

I work for 2 power retailers at the same time. Most of the info is kept by third-party companies and not the company you are paying. I have access to all 4 retailers, and all the other companies that are contracted to my company.

Another thing most people think when an Indian calls they are calling from India, sometimes that not the case. We have heaps of Indian's working here.

I am just lucky I work in the operation side of things and do not work in the call centre.

[AU Mont]

i love indian call centres

i get massive discounts on my phone & internet because none of them give a stuff, as long as i promise to stay on the phone afterwards and complete the survey on their performance, everyone is happy !!

[BPXR6T]

Those power saving devices in Vic are legit. I live rural and a car rocked up at the gate last week. I went down and met them at the gate and they gave me four free power saving power boards on behalf of the government.

[ryeman]

The trouble is that they keep ringing me, asking me to go to the computer .......
Yeah, right....not again you don't!
And that's the point.

[Bossxr8]

I put my 3 year old son on the phone to them, he loves it, talks about how he just had a bath and was going to bed and other random drivel while you can hear the guy on the other end just about pulling his hair out because he won't give the phone back to dad. Very entertaining.

[cs123]

Originally Posted by au3xr6

it isn't how good or bad at customer service that concerns me. it is the fact that they get my personal details and they are not bound by Australian privacy laws so there is a greater potential for my details to be used fraudulently

Just about every major organisation in Australia has some outsourcing agreement in place. 99% of these companies use offshore labour.

In the case of Telstra the person you are talking to about a fault with your phone or internet connection has very limited access to information. They don't have unfettered access to your private data.

[JC]

Originally Posted by ford71V8

I rarely pick the landline phone up these days anyway, but when I do, and its an Indian accent on the other end, I hang up immediately.

If I did that, my in laws would be a tad annoyed!

[FGII-XR6]

if more people did what I did they would stop exporting jobs . if we all demand an operator in Australia they would have no choice

Originally Posted by cs123

Just about every major organisation in Australia has some outsourcing agreement in place. 99% of these companies use offshore labour.

In the case of Telstra the person you are talking to about a fault with your phone or internet connection has very limited access to information. They don't have unfettered access to your private data.

[naddis01]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

I put my 3 year old son on the phone to them, he loves it, talks about how he just had a bath and was going to bed and other random drivel while you can hear the guy on the other end just about pulling his hair out because he won't give the phone back to dad. Very entertaining.

I do the same Boss. My 3yo daughter loves singing them Baa Baa Black Sheep.

[2011G6E]

Sadly it's got to the stage where I am immediately sceptical of anyone with an Indian accent when I answer the phone, even if I am in fact waiting for a call back from tech support for something or other.

The only time I actually take notice of what's being said is if I have rung tech support myself deliberately.

[gtxb67]

dumb, lazy australians have forced many of the companies to outsource call centres
one of my cousins was always late with her phone bills etc
each month to avoid getting it cut off, she would then ring up the provider and spend 20+ minutes on the phone pleading for more time
so instead of the average person making a call once every 2 years or so, they are calling monthly
the companies cannot afford to pay someone in australian dollars when 90% of their calls are just time wasting



either way, i don't wish to speak to them whether they are 2 minutes down the road or on mars, so the call being from india or melbourne is irrelevant to me

[naddis01]

Having been one of those dumb, lazy Australians in a past life you would be surprised at the garbage you have to put up with for a pittance you get paid.

[gtxb67]

Originally Posted by naddis01

Having been one of those dumb, lazy Australians in a past life you would be surprised at the garbage you have to put up with for a pittance you get paid.

i was not referring to the call centre workers - i was referring to the people who did not pay their bills and then to save getting their utilities cut off had to waste many of your hours by abusing you, all because they could not pay their bills

[mik]

it`s all cost cutting and reducing service anyway they can by the bean counters, it`s happening in everything.

[naddis01]

The best ones of all (back in dial up internet days when I was there) were the calls you would get abusing you for bills of $2k or something when they are usually $200. They would ring up going off their heads at you so you would look at their account and see charges to some overseas island (I can't remember where it was now). So you would ask who has access to their internet. Generally it would turn out to be their little Johnny checking out some sites of questionable nature and unknowingly downloading an automatic dialler. That meant that everytime they connected to the internet it would dial through an international number and be charged at international rates.

[MercurySilver]

you need to be put on the 'do not call register'
i thought there was a thread on this months ago?

they CANNOT call you when you are on the reg
we dont have a phone hooked up in the new joint yet but in the old house we NEVER got calls...ever

if i need to speak to vodaphone or telstra and im having trouble understand ing because of the accent, and it has happened once or twice i just say, i cannot understand you can i please speak to someone else
if you dont let me speak to someone i can understand then i will not pay the bill

it works
and no im certainly not racist
if i cant understand i cant understand and i get sick of saying 'can u repeat that please i didnt quite understand'

**** em
if they want to use 10 buck an hr labor thats what happens