Nedbank, please employ people who can speak English!

[Keeper]

+1 We gonna get 'lamb'ed soon.

u mean lamb basted....right ?

 

[oober]

u mean lamb basted....right ?

Haha

 

[Ou grote]

So was it a French accent? Indian? Japanese?

 

[blunomore]

So was it a French accent? Indian? Japanese?

Central African.

 

[Ou grote]

Central African.

Bloemfontein branch?

 

[metalcore]

So you think people who pay service fees to a bank is not entitled to good service?
So you think people who pay service fees to a bank is not entitled to the bank not transgressing the law?


Stop being an idiot.

Oh the ironies in this thread. Not to be pokey but I just have to point out that your grammar is incorrect.

To err is human so give the call centre lady a break

 

[Messugga]

Bloemfontein branch?

Central African, not South African. That's quite offensive. Go walk into the path of an oncoming bus.

 

[Messugga]

Oh the ironies in this thread. Not to be pokey but I just have to point out that your grammar is incorrect.

To err is human so give the call centre lady a break

I believe the word is picky?

 

[metalcore]

I believe the word is picky?

I chose the word pokey cos I was pokin fun at her.

Getting all fanny wobbly over someone not being able to pronounce your name is silly. I once knew this chick whose name was claudia, now most people would pronounce that as "clawdia" but she would get upset because she demanded we all pronounce her name "cloudier". Presumably so she can identfy with German heritage going back a generation or two.

People mispronounce my name and Im like poetaytoe poetarto who gives a f.uck.

No offence blu but its a wee bit too fussy don't you think. I fully agree on the unsolicted credit thing though. Too many banks are still getting away with breaking the NCA not to mention ripping us with fees.

 

[blunomore]

Oh the ironies in this thread. Not to be pokey but I just have to point out that your grammar is incorrect.

To err is human so give the call centre lady a break

The difference between me and the call centre agent is that I pay a part of her salary via my banking fees. I therefore have the right to expect a certain level of service.

Or does it not matter to you what people do with your hard-earned money?

It is a pity that South Africans care nothing about customer service.

I fully agree on the unsolicted credit thing though. Too many banks are still getting away with breaking the NCA not to mention ripping us with fees.

After much fretting, people eventually agree with me.

 

[metalcore]

The difference between me and the call centre agent is that I pay a part of her salary via my banking fees. I therefore have the right to expect a certain level of service.

Or does it not matter to you what people do with your hard-earned money?

It is a pity that South Africans care nothing about customer service.




After much fretting, people eventually agree with me.

Of course it matters, however we live in the country where getting ripped off is the norm. I mean we pay high prices for cars that get exported to other countries from our factories and sold for less. We have Telkom ripping us off perpetually. Don't let me start about Eskom, they are too busy taking on female students to get quotas up, without interest in the skill level of those people and if you add all of their junior staffs IQ's together you still won't get 50, yet we are forced to use them to supply us with power.

Getting screwed over is pretty much a way of life in SA.

I also want to add that in all fairness English is not the primary language of most people in Africa and imagine if you went to Kenya or some place and worked in a call centre and nobody understood you. I think that one should put oneself in the other persons shoes before complaining. The banks giving good or bad service actually has nothing to do with the ladies accent, because she is not the bank, she only works there.

 

[Messugga]

I also want to add that in all fairness English is not the primary language of most people in Africa and imagine if you went to Kenya or some place and worked in a call centre and nobody understood you.

That's a bit like saying that you should have sympathy for someone who dropped out of school in grade 10 and then got a job at NASA where everyone has crazy engineering and mathematics degrees and this person doesn't know what the rest are talking about. If you don't have the skills for the job, find something else which you do have the skills for.

 

[The_Pumpkin_King]

I mean, how difficult can it be to pronounce Blunomore? Blue No More.

wtf i thought it was blun-o-more

 

[metalcore]

That's a bit like saying that you should have sympathy for someone who dropped out of school in grade 10 and then got a job at NASA where everyone has crazy engineering and mathematics degrees and this person doesn't know what the rest are talking about. If you don't have the skills for the job, find something else which you do have the skills for.

You can't compare working at a bank in a call centre with Nasa. Each situation has its own different circumstances.

Let me put it like this, if I was living in the USA and I had central african people in the call centres over there trying to talk to me then I would be getting all fluffed up as well. But TIA - This Is Africa.

 

[blunomore]

You can't compare working at a bank in a call centre with Nasa. Each situation has its own different circumstances.

Let me put it like this, if I was living in the USA and I had central african people in the call centres over there trying to talk to me then I would be getting all fluffed up as well. But TIA - This Is Africa.

With all due respect, your TIA approach will mean the end of what little is left of customer service.

You're saying that because it is Africa, we should not expect a lot. Wrong. We should persist in expecting more of people who perform sub-standard. If you do not make someone aware that their service is not up to scratch, they will think they are doing fine.

I don't mind if someone speaks English with an accent - ANY accent. What I care for, is if someone who is paid to call me, cannot speak proper English.

Here is but one of many examples: the chick at the call centre wanted to know if I am so-and-so. She totally mispronounced. I then asked her if she was looking for (and I gave the correct version of my name). She then says to me: "Oh, I wrong, I apology". WTF?????????

 

[metalcore]

With all due respect, your TIA approach will mean the end of what little is left of customer service.

You're saying that because it is Africa, we should not expect a lot. Wrong. We should persist in expecting more of people who perform sub-standard. If you do not make someone aware that their service is not up to scratch, they will think they are doing fine.

I don't mind if someone speaks English with an accent - ANY accent. What I care for, is if someone who is paid to call me, cannot speak proper English.

Here is but one of many examples: the chick at the call centre wanted to know if I am so-and-so. She totally mispronounced. I then asked her if she was looking for (and I gave the correct version of my name). She then says to me: "Oh, I wrong, I apology". WTF?????????

Fair enough but my thing is what if you were one of the non english speaking customers who could relate and communicate with this woman, then you would be one of the happy customers. There are people who speak english very well at call centres and they also confuse the non english speaking people and this results in people getting upset.

We have 11 languages official languages, and add in swahili and french and whatever else gets spoken, how do you cater for everyone?

Perhaps what could be done is that the call centres "profile" you according to language of choice and get outbound agents who speak the right language fluently to contact you. That would mean the whole call centre industry would need to change the way they work, not just the banks.

Its tough but here in SA we have too many different cultures and languages to cater for just one. And yes TIA so we are here for the milking. Its greed all round, the food companies, car companies, you name it everyones giving a bad deal.

Everyone doesnt want to boycott the industries that are giving them bad service and bad deals, people still want the fancy cars and luxuries like take outs. People want desparately to support the places that give bad service to keep up with the joneses and people are lazy to look for alternatives.... except moan and complain on sites like hellopeter. Car companies for example know how important status is and how people will still buy k.ak like the Citi Golf just to have a new car.... The demand is there so why must they bother upping customer service.

 

[Sackboy]

With all due respect, your TIA approach will mean the end of what little is left of customer service.

You're saying that because it is Africa, we should not expect a lot. Wrong. We should persist in expecting more of people who perform sub-standard. If you do not make someone aware that their service is not up to scratch, they will think they are doing fine.

I don't mind if someone speaks English with an accent - ANY accent. What I care for, is if someone who is paid to call me, cannot speak proper English.

Here is but one of many examples: the chick at the call centre wanted to know if I am so-and-so. She totally mispronounced. I then asked her if she was looking for (and I gave the correct version of my name). She then says to me: "Oh, I wrong, I apology". WTF?????????

You go girl

 

[Messugga]

She then says to me: "Oh, I wrong, I apology". WTF?????????

Holy crap, the internet is rubbing off on you when it comes to your vocabulary!

As for Mr Metal, why can't I compare working at a bank with working at NASA? Yes, it's a far more technical and difficult job, but they're trained and have the skills to perform said job at an acceptable level. This is a simple job, which has relatively low requirements, but those are requirements that still need to be met.
Something they like saying in physics/engineering: If you want to test a theory, push it to the extremes. If it still holds true, then it's a good theory. Same goes here. I went with NASA because I wanted an extreme, but I could have gone with a myriad of other options. Would I make it as a professional sprinter? No. Because I lack the skills. Would I make it as a plumber? I could probably do some of the really basic things, but no, I wouldn't really cut it. Would I make it as an electrician? I can change a two-point to a three-point plug, and change a lightbulb, but that's pretty much where my knowledge ends. I do not have the skills for these jobs, which doesn't mean I can't learn them, but I'm not fit to be paid wages for pretending to be something I'm not. This lady obviously isn't a linguist but from what Blu said, she's not even up to scratch when it comes to average communication through the medium that is English. She can do the basics, but that just isn't enough in this role.
If you let standards slide at the bottom, where do you end it? Everyone has a use, so guide them towards that, but don't force them to be something they're not.

 

[blunomore]

Fair enough but my thing is what if you were one of the non english speaking customers who could relate and communicate with this woman, then you would be one of the happy customers. There are people who speak english very well at call centres and they also confuse the non english speaking people and this results in people getting upset.

We have 11 languages official languages, and add in swahili and french and whatever else gets spoken, how do you cater for everyone?

Perhaps what could be done is that the call centres "profile" you according to language of choice and get outbound agents who speak the right language fluently to contact you. That would mean the whole call centre industry would need to change the way they work, not just the banks.

Its tough but here in SA we have too many different cultures and languages to cater for just one. And yes TIA so we are here for the milking. Its greed all round, the food companies, car companies, you name it everyones giving a bad deal.

Everyone doesnt want to boycott the industries that are giving them bad service and bad deals, people still want the fancy cars and luxuries like take outs. People want desparately to support the places that give bad service to keep up with the joneses and people are lazy to look for alternatives.... except moan and complain on sites like hellopeter. Car companies for example know how important status is and how people will still buy k.ak like the Citi Golf just to have a new car.... The demand is there so why must they bother upping customer service.

Call centres do cater for different languages. When you call them, you often get an option like "press 1 for English, 2 for Afrikaans, 3 for isiZulu" etc.

Since they called me, they obviously have my client profile and ought to know my home language and therefore give the call to someone who speaks my language.

I hope I don't sound rude, but if other people do not want to complain about bad service or do not want to boycott the supplier, that is their loss. I definitely want to ensure I get good service.

 

[blunomore]

Holy crap, the internet is rubbing off on you when it comes to your vocabulary!

I trust you're joking.

Those were her exact words to me.

Not "I am wrong, I apologise" but "I wrong, I apology"