I’ve been hassling with cell phone issues with my current carrier for a couple of weeks now.
I’ve mostly been able to understand the accented English that most of the techs and customer service people, but I just got off the phone with somebody who’s accent was SO heavy, I couldn’t follow her at all.
I could pick out my name (barely) when she used it. We were able to understand each other long enough to arrange her to call me back when I was home, but it was very difficult.
I understand I’m dealing with a global company, and the likelihood of me getting somebody in the US who speaks “unaccented” English is almost nil. (Even if they’re in the US!)
How do you other Dopers handle this? I’m sorry I’m not as multilingual as I probably should be. I’m probably not as mono-lingual as I should be.
I don’t want to be aggressive and demand another person, I don’t want to put this person on the defensive, I certainly don’t want to be offensive.
I used to run a tech support org, so I am somewhat familiar with this issue. I have never been in a telephone support situation where I couldn’t understand the agent, as you describe. If that were ever to happen, I would simply ask to speak to their supervisor and explain the situation to them, assuming we could communicate well enough to get to that resolution. If I couldn’t understand their supervisor, my relationship with that company would now be over, but like I said, this has never happened to me.
All I’ve ever been able to come up with is to keep repeating “I’m sorry, I can’t understand you.”
So far, at least if it’s been any call I actually do need to stay on, we’ve managed to get through re-phrasings and occasionally even spellings (“I’m sorry, I didn’t get that, could you spell it please?”) well enough for me to make some sense out of the call.
My mother used to have a harder time, because her hearing was very bad in a particular fashion that meant when talking to her it was necessary to carefully enunciate all the consonants and, ideally, vowels (except of course the genuinely silent ones). There are a lot of accents, including some English-as-a-native-language accents and even some American-English-as-a-native-language accents, that just don’t do that; and people asked to repeat would just get louder while continuing to slur the sounds she couldn’t distinguish.
Depending on company/carrier - you can get some tech support over social media (ugh) or an online chat. You may have to wade through some AI based filters, but in many cases, while the accent is too hard for you to parse, the written English on the screen is intelligible.
I’m retired, so any call like this is purely customer service for me and not work-related. But when I encounter someone whose accent is so strong that I can’t understand and if this is compounded by the fact that they are talking waaaaay fast, then I put on my super-polite Southern Lady persona (if you knew me, you’d know that this is. not. me. IRL) and first of all, I ask their name and ask them to spell it. Then I say something like,
“Neemparazantilak, that is such a beautiful name, but I’m embarrassed to say that even though your accent is charming, I really can’t understand one word you’re saying. To add to the problem, I wear hearing aids. I know our conversation is important, and I might be asked to take a survey at the end, so could you please speak really slowly so I don’t miss anything. I want to take notes, too. Would that be okay?”
So IOW I grovel a bit. I don’t want to piss them off. I’ve had jobs where I had to talk to disgruntled people, and you definitely remember the decent callers. I also want to let them know SUBTLY that if they piss ME off, I have their name, its correct spelling, and I intend to take the post-call survey.
I’ve been doing the online chat, and they’re generally more helpful and understandable. But they’ve now just reached a point of stonewalling me, insisting that it’s not their problem. I’ve filed a complaint with the FCC, which has lead to them (finally!) calling me back. Now, if I can just understand them!
Oh I hate that. I had a call last week with a guy who had a heavy accent, plus a bad phone connection, plus background noise. I was calling him to pay an invoice, and we got through the call because I was able to guess what he must have been saying at any given point.
I had to break off with a doctor due to communication issues. He had diagnosed me with something I had never heard before he pronounced as neuro-botty. It took another couple visits to realize this is how he said neuropathy.
The communication barrier was just too difficult and important to deal with that I had to find a different practitioner.
Ah, thanks for the additional info. Yeah, if you’ve escalated a situation past the online services, then you may well be out of luck. I was just looking at the accent issue, not the overall situation.
I’m about like the rest of you. It happens sometimes. Bad connections, the sound of 100 other agents talking in the background, chickens(!), or kids and dogs.
As my hearing has gotten worse the problem is getting worse too. If you’re not yet wearing hearing aids, you’re in for a treat when you start. Bottom line with hearing loss is that in general your hearing isn’t getting low volume. Instead it’s getting “unfocused” metaphorically speaking. Like blurry vision.
So, like with blurry vision, you can guess that a red sorta spherical object in a grocery store is an apple, but you sure can’t read the fine print on a package of [whatever] with no context. Hearing a familiar voice in a familiar accent has a lot of landmarks to help you guess what they’re saying. To the point that you don’t even notice your brain is doing it. Then you get unfamiliar vocabulary or accent or sentence structure from an ESL speaker and your predictor / guesser is lost. And suddenly you’re functionally deaf. You’re hearing gibberish sound, not speech.
To minimize the problem, I try to always call from home with no background noises, not even a washing machine. Wearing an earpiece connected to the phone works better than holding it up to my head. etc.
I tell them right up front that I have bad hearing. And if becomes obvious this isn’t working I say so. Politely, but firmly. “I’m sorry; my ears are too bad to understand you. Can you send me to somebody else or should I just call back?” Regardless of answer I’m polite and thank them for trying. It’s not their fault that whatever corporate HQ has chosen to force an inadequate service provider on me in the name of HQ saving a nickel.
And yeah, their website’s online chat function, after you get past the bot to a human, can be invaluable. Maybe not for the OP’s specific case with that specific company, but in general.
I’m not that old. I really fear that in another 10 years I’ll be functionally deaf around familiar local accents. That will suck greatly.
Anymore, I just use the chat function on their website. Donald ought to offer an incentive to companies who bring their customer service back stateside. Think of all the jobs it would create here!
This exactly. I do wear hearing aids, have for about 6 years now. I’m able to connect them to my phone, so that’s a big plus. But, that “cluttered” sounds are so difficult.
I used to struggle and strain on the odd occasion I got someone with a thick accent. Nowadays I just say “I’m sorry, but I’m having trouble understanding you. May I please speak to someone else?”
When I have had a problem, this has usually been the first cause of difficulty, followed by the accent. So I say something like the following, slowly: “I’m sorry, I’m having trouble understanding you. Could you speak more slowly please?” That may work, in that they start speaking more slowly, at least for a while. Usually I can manage after that. But this is why I hate talking on the telephone, and if I could I would do all these transactions in person (as long as I didn’t have to wait in line! – I know fat chance of either happening).
Subtle, in that you aren’t actually directly threatening them with any of those things, I guess. I’d call it pretty straightforward, but that’s the way I like it anyway.
I’ve the same problem. I also have hearing loss. Tinnitus, which completely covers up some frequencies. I do have hearing aids. If I’m in a noisy restaurant though it just makes it unbearable.
I’ve actually had to ask them to literally spell it out. But then it’s was that an ‘A’ or a ‘K’.
Headphones help a lot, as does chat.
Often, you can tell they are on really shitty headphones. Lot’s of crackle.
I have the same problem with work meetings. I can’t do face to face meetings anymore. Too many mumblers that won’t enunciate. Won’t project. They look at the piece of paper in there had and read it and it sounds like they are talking to themselves. I strickly work from home now.
My ultimate answer will be to retire in 4 months (these are mostly work calls)
In general, I try to be patient. But if the accent is simply too garbled, or the issue is too important to be left to a muddled-voice person to address, I politely explain “Sorry, but I can’t understand your accent. I’ll hang up and try with another representative” and then do so and call again, usually getting a new rep.