Why I wouldnt use 11850 again.

Run_to_da_hills

Greyfox wrote: »

Ah so your ok with some people been a little racist, I'm Irish and have worked with Polish, Hungarian, Indian and French people who could do their job better than me and were much more helpful, but yet some members of the public believed they had the right to discriminate befor they even gave a foreign person the chance to deal with their query.

I have no problem with foreign call centers with my motor insurance, Dell computer and current ISP, However I am not paying premium rates for communicating with them and as you say these people are polite and try their best at the job.

Greyfox wrote: »

I accept your point about Irish dialect but at the end of the day when a company hires staff to answer phones they make a decision on whether or not the person they hire has good enough English to do the job and if a company has decided someone is good enough I don't think it's fair for the public to be questioning this befor they have even dealt with the person.

If it takes an average of 20 seconds less to hold a conversation on a home based directly inquiry service I would rightly use that service.

Its not a question of being racist but a matter regarding the back pocket.

I think I have got the message quite clear now.

Dinkie

I use 11890 now.

I went through similar things to you. Sometimes I'd get through and then would be cut off or else I would be given the wrong number and I'd have to ring them back again.

I don't mind the odd wrong number - but it happens a lot! I would ask for the a shop in Roscommon and get the phone number for a completely different place in Kerry! It used to drive me crazy.

Run_to_da_hills

Dinkie wrote: »

I use 11890 now.

I went through similar things to you. Sometimes I'd get through and then would be cut off or else I would be given the wrong number and I'd have to ring them back again.

I don't mind the odd wrong number - but it happens a lot! I would ask for the a shop in Roscommon and get the phone number for a completely different place in Kerry! It used to drive me crazy.

For all they know about the Irish Geography, Roscommon could be a small village in Co Kerry, just another reason for avoiding outsourced premium rate call centers.

Anthony Walsh

I don't think it racist to prefer having an irish person on the other end of the phone. I rang up one day and it took nearly a minute to explain i was in Ennis in Co.Clare, which to be honest is just not good enough. Any Irish person would have understood that after 10 seconds at most, because they have a knowledge of the geography and can understand the dialects (to be fair some are fairly hard to grasp). Secondly it took even longer to explain the place I wanted the number for. I was standing down the back of an old car park andof after a few minutes explaining a guy heard me say the name once and told me it where it was. As easy as that.

mowhawk

It is most certainly not racist to expect that the person at the other end of a premium telephone service, that is costing lots of money per second, has the ability to speak and understand the local dialect of English. After all the customer is paying through the nose for the service not for the privilege of teaching English (the local version or otherwise) to the person on the other end of the phone. Given the price of these rip-off services I feel that is the very least that one can expect. I am Irish and married to a Kenyan woman and when we visit Kenya it is very easy to reduce people to tears of laughter by simply telling them what passes for 'racism' in Ireland with some people.

It would seem that with a lot of ignorant people that any legitimate criticism of a non-Irish person is automatically racist.

As an example the other day I went into a local convenience shop and when I returned to my car I found it blocked in by another car which was double parked. After waiting about five minutes all the time debating whether I should call the Garda or not a West African woman arrives and without even a hint of an apology proceeds to open the door of the offending vehicle. Seeing her attitude of total unconcern for the inconvenience that she had caused me I called her an inconsiderate b***h. She immediately began to berate me very loudly as a 'racist' for daring to speak to her thus. I proceeded to explain to her that it was irrelevant what colour her skin was, where she was born, what religion she was or even what sex she was but she just got into her car and stormed off. The fact was and remained that she was a totally inconsiderate and selfish b***h. I was left defending my position to a squeal of tyres and the high speed departure of the 'discriminated against' party.

Oh, yeah! The Irish are institutionally racist alright.

I would honestly consider that woman to be the racist as she clearly used the fact that I was white to justify her transgression but no doubt the do-gooders would tell me to dry my eyes, remind me that I was a big boy now and get on with my life.

Imagine if the boot were on the other foot however.

k123456

It certainly isnt racist to expect someone at the end of the phone , providing a costly service geared to Irish customers , to have
an understanding of Irish place names
can understand an Irish accent
and can deliver answer in a clear and understandable (to an Irish customer) manner


I would suggest that some posters here on this thread should take a short, yet productive time out to understand what the word racist means or invest in a dictionary

watch12

i have to say i agree with the last two posters... people really need to think before they form ill judged opinions... also agree with the sentiment regarding the mentioned directory services..

LimeFruitGum

Many call centres in India and the likes have British/American culture and diction lessions. It would appear that they haven't done the same for Hiberno-English because the market is much smaller and not really worth the bother. It is poor client service, but money talks after all.

Mind you, having been a call-centre drone myself, they're probably just sitting there on the calls wishing they could feck off out and never come back!

dana leordean

2014 Happy New Year -Resolution :
NEVER CALL 11850 .....In your LIFE...they just charged me €15 for a CALL!!
Shame on THEM!!!

dudara

Zombie thread - closed

dudara