Just yesterday
I called the Telstra (Australia) service faults line to report a phone line that was sagging on a tree. The tree was to be trimmed and I didn't want the line falling or breaking.

First call, gave name, phone number and address to female with an Australian accent. After a few seconds conversation -

She "Mpphglwrph"

Me "Excuse me?"

She "Mpphglwrph hwfglmfpst"

Me "I'm sorry, I can't understand you at all."

Phone - Beep Beep Beep.

Cut off.

Second try - This time got a young woman with an East Asian accent.

Gave full details of name and address, telephone numbers etc, spelling out the street and suburb name, with postal code as well. at dictation speed. Told her the line was falling on the tree. She repeats that the tree is falling on the line. No, it isn't, the line is falling on the tree. She then asks the name of the suburb again. I give it again, spelt out at dictation speed. Again.

I ask for a reference number, being somewhat inured to Telstra administration incompetence. She then repeats that a tree has fallen on the line. No, I said that the line is falling on the tree. She puts me on hold, for two minutes.

Comes back on and asks the name of the suburb again. I spell it out again.

Puts me on hold again.

Phone - Beep Beep Beep - Cut off.

Third try.

Got another woman with an East Asian accent. Gave her the details at dictation speed, phone numbers and all. She gives me a reference number without being asked. All hunky dory - I hope. Says the linesman will be here between 9am and 1pm today.

Yeah, maybe.


Length = ten minutes rock-hard frustration.

PS. The line contractor just called. He has been told the job is scheduled for between 9pm and 1am.
(Redemption blamed it on the Bossa Nova since, Thu 3 Sep 2009, 23:54, 8 replies)

So...
I've just finished working in an Australian call centre, and experienced callers like yourself on numerous occasions.

Why, pray tell, is it important that you highlight the ethnicity of the operator for this story?
( The Lurker Plenty One, Fri 4 Sep 2009, 2:39, closed)

To add a bit of verisimilitude, perhaps?
His point was that he got through to somebody with English as a second language who was hard to understand - he wasn't singling East Asians out as inherently bad. A lot of anecdotes in this QOTW will be about people's experiences with Indian call centres, as that's where a lot of UK companies contract out to - should they all be changed to read "overseas call centres with differently-accented staff"?
(Vice Admiral Sir Charles Cockbrush KCB MBE DSO, who is finding it increasingly difficult to log into b3ta.com wants to duck your aunt and kick your puppy, Fri 4 Sep 2009, 9:24, closed)

..
Tell you what, on re-reading the original post I'd agree that it's not explicitly racist. My reaction was based on 6 months of working in various call centres covering the whole of Australia and the casual-rising-to-blatant racism I overheard, was witness to and experienced personally.

No matter how many protests of innocence there will be this week, there are certainly a few too many stories posted on B3ta that either thinly veil a "stupid foreigners can't understand my thick Glaswegian/Brummie/Belfast/Cornish/Valley accent" or ridicule the highly educated multi-lingual operators who genuinely want to help you within the constraints of their job.

I'm not a member of the PC brigade, but stereotyping CSR's is no different to the treatment of minority based shop owners 10-15 years ago.
( The Lurker Plenty One, Fri 4 Sep 2009, 15:12, closed)

Hm
It always interests me to see people cry racism whenever ethnicity is mentioned in any capacity by some anonymous face on the internet. Funny enough, the person doing the calling-out is assuming that the other party must assuredly be white and, therefore, a racist.

I have a friend you'd no doubt accuse of being a racist as she often mentions in passing that a person was Filipino when recounting a story. This just might be because she is also Filipino, and so tends to notice.
(louveciennes , Volvospotter, Fri 4 Sep 2009, 16:31, closed)

Ethnicity
First operator - Australian accent - was unintelligible and maybe it was she that managed to cut me off. Unintelligibility in a call centre worker isn't tolerable, whatever the ethnicity.

Second operator, East Asian(not South Asian)accent. Apparently a blithering incompetent.

Third operator, again East Asian (not South Asian) accent, apparently effective and efficient, as the whole call was over in a minute or so, and the technician actually turned up.

Race does not enter into it. However Telstra (Australia) is known in Australia for the blithering incompetence of the entire administration. That is in marked contrast to their techical staff. My experience with them goes back to 1980 - 81 and it has been negative in all cases but one or two.

Anyone who calls Telstra for any purpose whatsoever is facing the possibility of being stuffed around for anything up to months.

Why, pray tell is it important to assume that I have "highlighted" the ethnicity of the operators when I merely mentioned it?

And what are callers like me, exactly? Eh? Eh?
(Redemption blamed it on the Bossa Nova since, Sat 5 Sep 2009, 13:58, closed)

well
You did call Telstra, you were kinda asking for some frustration there....
(misskitty reeks of sex and turpentine; laudanum afternoons, Fri 4 Sep 2009, 4:29, closed)

whats does dictation speed mean?
?
(kebabking - salad and garlic mayo pls, Fri 4 Sep 2009, 10:03, closed)

Dictation speed
"Suburb S - u - b - u - r - b"

In other words you speak slowly to allow the person at the other end to enter the letters into a computer or on paper without getting confused.
(Redemption blamed it on the Bossa Nova since, Sat 5 Sep 2009, 13:38, closed)