NTL Use of "Overseas" Call Centres

[Sociable]

Originally posted by ashg on .com

http://www.nthellworld.com/forum/sh...15&pagenumber=2

Dear All

I've been asked to post the following statement by Mike Bandiera, ntl's Director of Off Net and the person responsble for the Freedom product.

quote:

SNIP < "NTL are indeed using international call centres to roll out their excellent 'Freedom' product. For just £15 a month subscription you get £15 of free voice calls and unlimited internet access - fantastic value for money. >SNIP


The seperate issue about fears that these calls from India were not from NTL has been dealt with in the other thread which is still running.

What I wish to ask here is for views on the general principle of NTL using "overseas" Call centres not least when UK staff face redundency.

Would anyone "In the Know" at NTL like to post a clarification on whether or not the use of such overseas call centres is likely to expand in the future?

Are UK staff worried about the implications of this?

Are others users like myself concerned about this?

All comments for or against are welcome.

NB this duplicates my thread at .com but I wanted to make you here aware of the isue too.

[peterska2]

Well after dealing with a call centre in Bombay trying to get a fraudulent transaction on my mums store card sorted out i would be very worried about this.

They were trying to say that the transaction was genuine despite the fact that my parents were in southport that day and made a purchase from a store there and the card was fraudulently used in hull.

Now anyone with an ounce of sense knows that you would not go from manchester to southport to buy an item then over to hull to buy something then back home to manchester again.

It is an hour from here to southport - on the west coast nr blackpool in case you dont know.

It is 3 hours from here to Hull - on the east coast somewhere at the other end of the M62.

There is no way that anyone in their right mind would make the journey.

From this experiance and the fact that they refused to accept that the transaction was not ours and I had to travel to hull on the insistence of the call centre agaent I must say that if I dont know where I am ringing then I dont ring anymore. I only ring ntl coz I worked there and I only ring places like the DVLA and that coz I know where their offices are because I deal with them through work as well.

So here endeth the lesson where I say that foriegn call centres are a bad thing as they have not got a clue about the simple things that we take for granted and they no naff all about anything that may be of importance - like english geagraphy in this case.

Would be interesting to see if they even know that franchise 430 is bordering on franchise 435 and that they are in the NW region where ICMS is used as the primary billing system unless the bill is for a SACM where they then use SABS.

Little bit of information there but it is common knowledge around these parts and so I wouldn't be surprised if they thought that franchise 435 is in London or somewhere.

Rant over going peacefully now

[cjll3]

Minor point, but credit card transactions may not show up on your credit card for several days after the purchase.

[peterska2]

Yes I know but they show the date of the purchase as well as the date on the statement.

Background in banking helps here because I can interpret a lot of the random code used by the financial systems to say when and where things were done and what card was used.

[Sociable]

Thanks peterska2 the points you make about "local knowledge" being important is extremely valid.

As well as avoiding errors like the one you quote that would be obvious to anyone based in the UK local knowledge also allows a degree of lateral thinking not possible without it.

[peterska2]

Originally posted by Sociable
Thanks peterska2 the points you make about "local knowledge" being important is extremely valid.

As well as avoiding errors like the one you quote that would be obvious to anyone based in the UK local knowledge also allows a degree of lateral thinking not possible without it.

Everybody Please note

I AM BEING THANKED HERE FOPR MY POST

Sorry back on topic.

There is no point in having a class for teaching the people what the weather is like over here as that is not useful and they have a set script and if you ask something that is not covered by a script that they have got prepared then they are not able to answer the question.

[Sociable]

Originally posted by peterska2
[b]Everybody Please note

I AM BEING THANKED HERE FOPR MY POST

Credit where credit is due.

(btw I had read your "Other" post so the thanks were somewhat deliberate LOL)

Having just received yet another "tele-marketing" call 10 mins ago, trying to sell me something I neither want nor need, I will wander slightly of-topic myself and just say that ANY tele-marketing is a nuisance regardless of where it is sourced.

It does, however, relate to the topic at hand as one posible reason for sourcing outside the UK could be to avoid UK legislation governing such activities.

[Theodoric]

Originally posted by peterska2
Everybody Please note

I AM BEING THANKED HERE FOPR MY POST

Sorry back on topic.

There is no point in having a class for teaching the people what the weather is like over here as that is not useful and they have a set script and if you ask something that is not covered by a script that they have got prepared then they are not able to answer the question.

The set script bit sounds true. I Had a problem with the floppy drive on my Dell PC and they went though the same routine again and again and again before I finally managed to get them to send an engineer out to change the drive.

[Dupre]

Well personally ive called tech support for alot of companies from EA to Linksys, and i can catagorically say, i cant understand a F'ing word they say to me. Its not like you can request someone that actually speaks english, because im sure they're trying, but for gods sake, when you have a problem with your computer and youve been stressing about it for a day or 2, last thing you want is a problem with the helper!

Id even rather speak to an american! thats how bad it is.

The company I work for has a few callcentre's but recently opened two in Bangalore. I know theirs been tone's of complaint's about them but well their cheap that's how the company thinks were I work. They do work from a script if they go off the script they get lost. I've had to speak to them allot on the phone's and their hard work. I work in IT and so had to ask the question's when they have problems and christ its hard work. All you get is yes, yes, yes. no whats your name yes. I've been pulling my hair out with them and I'm not even a customer Another time I asked for someone's name over their and I got the reply "hang on while I go and get it" I swear no bull. They must be given english name's or something. When I finish work sometime's after dealing with them I dont know what day it is

[ignite]

Well, I was having to deal with HP support in 1997 and 98 a lot, and I gave up calling the UK support number. The routed all of their calls to a European call centre where most of the people I tried to deal with, spoke fairly good English UNTIL you started to get anywhere technical. I ended up calling the US number and getting things sorted out very quickly. So, it is not just the Indian centres that cause the probs.

[th'engineer]

I think that call centres outside are in some way better never met an indian that was not able to sort out problems over the line at a call centre.

The whole culture is customer focused

We have to accept changes like call centres overseas to get profits up

[BubbleGum]

Slave labour and cheap labour gets the profits up;

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle...toryID=3080090

[btrundley]

Having call centres manned by eager 'well' paid people, sure may help NTL'S staff wages and British Employment rights problem, however,Local knowledge and a good grasp of miltidialect English is a must..and what will happen to all Ntl's current staff?

[th'engineer]

I think its good the indian call centres speak English everyone can understand . Sometimes its hard to understand local dialects within NTL.