Today's Peeve

debodun

debodun

SF VIP
Location
way upstate in New York, USA
When you call anywhere for service (especially with electronics), even locally, you are connected to a national service center then "routed" by phone messages and hardly ever get to speak with a "real" person. If you happen to get to talk to a "service representative" they have such a heavy accent, it is difficult to understand them.
 

debodun said:
When you call anywhere for service (especially with electronics), even locally, you are connected to a national service center then "routed" by phone messages and hardly ever get to speak with a "real" person. If you happen to get to talk to a "service representative" they have such a heavy accent, it is difficult to understand them.
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I know what you mean about thick accents. I try to comprehend what they are saying but have to keep saying "what?" to them. Sometimes they will talk really fast too and that makes matters worse. I think if they slow down I'd be able to comprehend what they are saying better.
 
Yes, that works, and when you get the representative, you get someone whose English is so accented you cannot understand them. That's the problem -- you finally get a real person, but can barely understand them.
 
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My cousin had a problem understanding someone because of the accent, I don't remember the company he contacted. He asked nicely to speak to someone who didn't have such a heavy accent so he could understand them. He was told that it was possible but there would be a service charge to do so. He hung up.
 
When I was in business I always bought Dell.
They had the product I needed and always provided in house next day service and you always spoke to someone in the USA.

Well I retired.
My almost 10 year old Dell tower was circling the drain so I bought a Lenovo desktop.
I immediately had an issue, Windows upgrade didn't work on my new Windows 7 computer.

For a week I tried everything I could think of and couldn't figure it out.
The computer was useless to me if I couldn't do OS upgrades.

I called the Lenovo number that was provided, ready to return the unit.

To my surprise I spoke to someone in the USA after pushing only a few buttons.
It seems Lenovo is or was an IBM product which is still supported by IBM.

They directed me to a service center a few minutes from my house and they fixed my computer.
Also Lenovo has a 3 year warranty .

OK, sorry about going on about a real issue I've had to deal with too.
It's a sad situation when you buy a product, it craps out, and you're only option is to throw it away.

With that said I "did" want to share my positive experience with Dell and Lenovo products.
 
Well, Dell is one of the ones I have trouble communicating with, because of the accents. Their tech service is in India. I usually get great service from them, it is just sometimes a long slog because of the accented English. For some reason I do not understand, I have a harder time understanding a woman with a thick accent than I do with a male with a similar accept. Don't know if it is the pitch of the voice, or what.
 
I have had to do the representative/agent/supervisor even with the local telco because of a heavy accented person and not getting understood...
 
You mentioned Dell. I bought a super cool Dell tower with the brand new Windows 7. I didn't know anything about the new version. I think it was #7, but it was the version where you "swooshed" the sides for things to come up. My speakers weren't working. Well, this poor guy is telling me to "swoosh" and I'm telling him what he can do with his "swoosh". It was not my finest hour. I often would like to apologize to that poor guy for being such a jerk. I hope this, in some way, aids my guilt.
 
Well, I can recall when we went to an "automated attendant" for our office switchboard. Like most of us, I did not like the idea but had to admit to its practicality. We had about 250 people in our office, and although you could dial anyone direct if you knew the number, the lady at the switchboard was still swamped. So it was hire another person for the switchboard or automate the process. This was over 10 years ago.

One big difference: If you "followed the bouncing ball" you could finally talk to Marge, a real person, with no accent.

p.s. - Here in Hawaii, most of the people have what sounds like an "accent" to me - but they think I'm the one who talks funny.....
 
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