Am I a racist?

It really gets me mad to call a help center of some sort be it for my cell phone, computer companies, paypal, ebay ect to get somebody who speaks broken english. What the hell is this shit! Then when you spend half an hour going excuse me, repeat that please, I cant understand you you finally ask for a person who is able to speak better english becuase you are having to much trouble trying to understand them, they get all "your racist remarks wont be tolerated. Hell all I said was I am having trouble understanding you, I dont know if its my hearing, the phone lines or your english but I really want somebody more fluent in the dialect I am used to please. How is the racist?

Why are we having english speaking help areas filled with people who barley can order a burger at Wendy's.

 

You expect that someone who depends on language skills for their income to have a command of the language... that's not racist.

 

because its cheaper

i'm gonna get a job where i have to speak a foreign language just for spite

 

I wouldnt of thought so... i guess it depends how you phrased it or how they took it.

 

Well I thought that too but I guess the new idea is to try to understand everyone. I have dealt with asian, middle east, spanish and even some sort of like european like Polish, Russian or something with a real "k" sounder to it when spoken. I mean i really try but when it begins to get in the way of what I am trying to get done I loose patience. Normally I just hang up and call back but it took forever to get a person so I thought I would take my chances and then its all my fault I cant understand her.

 

Well alot of "can you rpeat that" "can you rephrase that" "I dont understand" "could you please transfer me to another tech" "may I speak with your supervisor" "Im sorry but your really hard for me to understand" "I cant understand what your saying" and so on

Get the idea I was trying to be nice as could be and when I finally said "I can not understand you, Im not sure if its the phone, my hearing or hat but your broken english is to hard for me to understand is there anyone there who speaks better english" her reply (I fixed this) "My english is fine I will not tolerate your racisim" then she hung up.

 

Welcome to globalization. You are speaking with people in other countries because its more profitable for corporations to outsource.

I don't think its racist, but I also think its kind of ridiculous to expect everyone to speak english with the current global setup. Of course im from dc and was raised thinking its completely normal to not understand half of the people you deal with. There are universal methods of communication too, like laughing. They're people too. You can both make a joke out of trying to understand each other if you decide to not let it bother you.

 

then shes a bitch with an attitude problem... complain to the company and you know if worst comes to worst you could always switch companies although wont work for cell phones etc. idk where you are but o'er here (uk) we have a tv programme to complain to etc and they do stuff... etc right im not explaining very well... sorry.

That happened to me as well but luckily i could understand the guy enough to talk properly.

 

are you white? If you are white, that was a rascist comment.

 

What is RACIST is a preferential POLICY that does not require a person to fully master skills necessary to do a fucking job.... on the presumption I suppose that they would otherwise not be able to perform the duties. Because the onus is not on the person to work on their language, they don't and everyone who is unlucky enough to call the individual has to scrape up enough PATIENCE to cope with a deficient level of customer service. Perhaps the company is trying to cultivate a preference for automated answering systems that among other insults to our intelligence, tell us that our call is important but the very presence of an unreasoning MACHINE whose main purpose is to DELAY the actual rendering of SERVICE on the hopes that the caller will give up and accept a depreciated value of something already paid for speaks very differently of the importance.

Your observation is just one facet of the trend of letting customer service go to SHIT in this country. The contempt necessary for corporations to do what they do to paying customers is profane but that people aren't openly revolting against it is worse. For a customer service person to deflect her obvious lack of qualifications and talent as your racism is merely a volley in this war.

 

Shit, everything is "racist" nowadays.

 

I think it's good customer service to direct calls made from within the United States to reps who speak the language fluently as it would be to direct the calls from Spain to reps who speak fluent Spanish and so on... the technology is there and it doesn't have to cost much but the concerns of the lowly customer do not register with those who profit most from corporations... they couldn't possibly care less, once you've paid them they are done with you.

 

I agree, its just my understanding that corporations are machines that operate almost exclusively on revenue and bottom line figures, not practicality, or ease of customer service. Things like that used to piss me off which is like poisoning yourself. So I shifted my perception to realize they are just people too, taking advantage of the best opportunity they can. And most are so poor without even education in their native language, or the time and education to learn english properly. And most of them do learn broken english, but if the job doesn't require a mastery of the language, most people would not have the self motivation to give a shit.

So I dunno, it really stopped bothering me. Of course I don't really live my life in those kind of environments anymore and don't spend time calling support centers. I pretty much just chill near the beach now around people who speak either english, surfer, or redneck.

And I redirected all my anger toward the corporations themselves. Which is probably even more frustrating.

 

I was calling to cancel my cellphone service last weekend.

They kept me on hold for over an hour, transfered me to a dozen operators, and gave a whole shitload of attitude until I finally managed to get it disconnected. I hate cellphone companies.

Point being... all of their operators were ghetto and shit and ridiculously rude (considering I was being extremely nice... even saying "sir" and "ma'am".

I guess they get paid a commission when someone hangs up on them and doesn't cancel the service.... hmm.

 

the way to get things done is to just start swearing at them threatening a lawsuit...they'll listen then

 

Assuming that this was serious (not 100% convinced)
I disagree.

The ONLY way to effect change is to present a real and imminent threat to their CASH FLOW. Money is the only language that corporate America understands... or cares to listen to.

 

yea, wasn't serious

 

It's not racist what you said because the situation had nothing to do with race.


The person speaking bad English could be black white Chinese or whatever, they just dont speak good English, not racial at all.

 

I think you and I have a lot in common. I too have learned to re-direct a lot of my anger and frustration at certain things in life and now give as little as possible of my income to anybody but local businesses.

Yank ' n' Burn,
I sympathize with you in this situation. Unfortunately, almost all of the call-centre operations in the UK(not sure about US) are contracted out to Asian companies. Those that aren't, pay minimum wage and rely on newly arrived immigrants, travellers and the un-educated natives to fill their available positions.
The solution: I don't have a clue. But without a huge public backlash and withdrawal of spending from these companies, I think broken English is a language you may have to study, in order to be understood when you call a call-centre for the foreseeable future...

 

No, that is not racist.
It's just that people emigrate a lot these days and go to find work abroad. And they can't even speak English properly.
They just said that to you so that they won't need to find an excuse for bad services.