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It’s a grumpy old woman rant! The fury an overseas call centre can cause

Aug 19, 2018

Louise has been frustrated by call centres based overseas who don't know how to help and don't understand the problems. Source: Pexels

As I write, I’m trying hard not to be angry. There are two issues that are really grinding my gears — the first is to do with my car insurance with and the other involves my pay TV provider. Both companies have call centres based in the Phillipines and India. I know this because I called these call centres recently.

What drives me crazy is when I am ranting about my dissatisfaction to one of these call centre people and as I’m telling my story they say, “yep, no worries” in a voice that is lacking of understanding and nothing short of annoying. I hate it! I don’t want this person to try and bond with me. The ‘no worries’ comes off sounding so insincere because I know these people are not Australian, and when I hear them say ‘no worries’ it does not endear me to them or make me feel like there is a sense of mateship. (I’ve been told they have been trained to say this to Australian customers.)

To make matters worse, on calling the centre for my car insurance recently, the person on the other end of the phone could not help me with my claim. When I questioned her further, she simply said, “I don’t know that”. When I demanded to speak with someone who could help me with my claim, I was transferred three times and then I was hung up on. I called them back and spoke with a man who advised me that my car was a complete write-off. I’m hardly surprised. I had been parked on Military Road in Sydney’s North Bondi at 1pm when a 19-year-old who was texting while driving ran into my car and completely destroyed its back end – bumper, axel, three tyres and the boot.

I’ll be reimbursed by my car insurer, but the experience of having to deal with their call centre overseas is a straight out nightmare. I hate it!

Several weeks ago the box that connects to my television to pay TV stopped working. It had smoke coming from the back of it. I contacted my provider who got me to carry out a range of silly actions to determine if the box was actually broken, or if I was just too stupid to operate it. I did as asked, also mentioning that the box was smoking. The person at the other end of the line didn’t seem to understand what I was saying. I eventually said the box was on fire… She didn’t know how to respond so instead hung up.

Seven days later I received a new box only to discover that it doesn’t work at all. There is a SIM card in the side that must be activated by my provider. Back on the phone I go. After going through all of the silly steps again, we confirm that the box is not working. I ask them to send me another box. “Oh no, we can’t do that in case the second box is not working,” was the response.

I learned that the box servicing my pay TV is reconditioned. What I mean is that because it is broken, the service provider wants me to send it back for it to be repaired. I think this stinks.

I haven’t been able to watch television in three weeks and the pay TV provider insists a technician will be out ‘tomorrow’ to check the box. They first tell me the technician will arrive between 7am and 10am, so I switched my shift at work to accommodate, then I received a call to say that the technician will be out between 3pm and 6pm the following day. Does the right hand know what the left hand is doing? I think not! I’ve threatened to report this treatment, especially when they had the cheek to send me a bill for $138 for the month when I can prove I’ve had no service.

I’m so fed up with being treated like crap because companies are too cheap to employ someone in Australia to fix this problem. I shouldn’t have to wait a month, sending emails back and forth and spending who knows how long speaking to someone at a call centre overseas.