My rant for today

[rgrugg]

Nothing to do with trailers of any kind. We bought a new dishwasher last week at Sears, had it delivered and installed. Used it ONCE. Today it would not operate. I called the Sears service center. Why oh why can't companies hire people for their customer service who can speak English with a north American accent so we can understand them? ARRRGGGHHH!!! End of rant. Sorry. Had to get it off my chest.

[Marsha D]

You've found a sympathetic ear. My 18 month old Sears Elite refrigerator died and after phone tag with them I posted something on their facebook page and got a callback from a non-offshore-call-center person. Nothing resolved to my satisfaction since I hadn't purchased the extended warranty, but from reading the comments of others on their Facebook page, even those with the extended warranties had frustrating experiences with Sears.

[Mike Magee]

I think you can request a north american based cs person, and if you are adamant, usually they can transfer you to one. Depending on the company, of course.

[Ed Harris]

I was camping last weekend and got alerts in email that a card of mine was compromised and to call the Bank right away to make sure they were correct about the irregular charges.

I called and could not understand the first 2 people who I was directed to and barely the third one?
What are they thinking?
Is it really that tough to provide service with their customer service these days?

[honda03842]

We had two credit cards compromise during our travels this year. Bank of America called us within hours after a fradualent transaction, sent out new cards, and the person spoke excellent English. It's amazing to me that they can so quickly pick up on a $98 charge at Ambrocrombie (sp) and Fitch.

In the second credit card case they stopped our card, except they allowed repetive charges to continue like our Dish TV account. There were no fraudlant charges on this account, just that data had been compromised at some location on a batch of cards, just not taking chances.

To top this off we found our Debit Cards to be non-functional in Parker, AZ. It turns ou they had expired and we hadn't picked up our mail in a couple of months. We only use them to get road cash. We walked into the BoA and they simply gave us cash against our account.

We have BoA by chance, they bought our bank some years ago. We have had nothing but good experiences with them and best of all they are everywhere in the states.

Just have to remember those expariation dates....

[Doug Mager]

I think Mike is right! You CAN ask for a north american based CS person. Just keep asking for a 'supervisor' should also get you to the right person/people...

[Frederick L. Simson]

San Diego is a very International city, and there is a variety of accents and dialects spoken here on the streets. I can usually pick out what a person is saying even though they are accenting the "wrong" syllable. My Partner's sister-in-law is from India but was raised in London. Speaking with her has accustomed me to the Indian pronunciation of English. I prefer to deal with customer service via website instant messaging. Written English is usually much easier to understand than spoken English.

[fusedlight]

I've found that the most intelligible of the overseas based support folks are the ones in the Philippines. I rack that up to being exposed to too much US TV shows.

[mary and bob]

Originally Posted by honda03842

We have BoA by chance, they bought our bank some years ago. We have had nothing but good experiences with them and best of all they are everywhere in the states.

Same situation here why we have our accounts with BoA, and had a good experience with them catching a fraud attempt. Only bad thing is I have over 700 shares of BoA stock and it's worth way less than it used to be!

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by honda03842

It's amazing to me that they can so quickly pick up on a $98 charge at Ambrocrombie (sp) and Fitch.

The computer tracking systems the CC companies use are pretty good. They keep tabs on all purchases and stores and at what locations etc. Any sudden change in shopping patterns can trigger the computer to flag a purchase. Although CC's are used for most daily purchases in my home the bank called once to ask about a $120 charge at a 7/11. Was told the computer flagged it as that is not a store the CC had ever been used at before and in a part of town it had rarely if ever been used. The computer was right it was a fraudulent. Thought that one to be pretty amazing due to the number of transactions that take place on that card any given day and the fact it was in the same city I was in at the time.

I learned through biz travel that it was always best to either rent a car or book into a hotel before making any large cc purchases when first arriving in a city by air. If you didn't do that first it would result in a call from the cc company. They also clearly keep tabs on you when traveling by car via gas purchases etc. as I have only once had a call from the CC while traveling by car and it was in regards to a purchase made in Vancouver. Was told the computer flagged it as prior recorded charges on the CC where from gas stations and campgrounds in Arizona so the computer didn't think I was in Vancouver. It was right. Big Brother is indeed watching!

[steve dunham]

I have trouble understanding the speech of people from the New York City, New Jersey area . I have even more problems understanding people from the southern US . In many instances I can understand the overseas customer service people better than people from my own country . I'm not sure asking for a North American service rep is the answer . Remember Mexico is in North America

[Raz]

Originally Posted by steve dunham

I have trouble understanding the speech of people from the New York City, New Jersey area . I have even more problems understanding people from the southern US . In many instances I can understand the overseas customer service people better than people from my own country . I'm not sure asking for a North American service rep is the answer . Remember Mexico is in North America

bein' a Joysey bouy myself, I know wad ya mean Raz

[Carol H]

Yup asking for a NA service rep in Canada might end up a little sticky as well. Way to multicultural to be able to tell where the CS rep may be located. Very possible they are a 10th generation Canadian but have a heavy accent of various types due to province of birth or due to the ethical background of the community they live in.

[David Tilston]

Originally Posted by Carol H

Yup asking for a NA service rep in Canada might end up a little sticky as well. Way to multicultural to be able to tell where the CS rep may be located. Very possible they are a 10th generation Canadian but have a heavy accent of various types due to province of birth or due to the ethical background of the community they live in.

Other than Newfoundland, and Quebec, I don't notice much of an accent anywhere I go in Canada. I have lived in Ontario and Alberta. You would think there would be a difference.

When I was a kid of 11, I used to live on a sail boat that we bought near Boston. As we travelled south, to avoid the cold weather, I was amazed at all the different accents. It seemed that every where we went on the east coast, they had a different dialect. I wonder why there is so much more variety in the US?

[rabbit]

"There are even places where English completely disappears. In America, they haven't used it for years!" --Professor 'Enry 'Iggins (My Fair Lady)

jack

[Donna D.]

I would just like to remind everyone. We are on the WWW. We have members where English is a Second Language. So, be nice. We don't want anyone to misconstrue or misunderstand and think members of FiberglassRV are language hostile or unkind.... now do we?

Please be nice.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by David Tilston

Other than Newfoundland, and Quebec, I don't notice much of an accent anywhere I go in Canada. I have lived in Ontario and Alberta. You would think there would be a difference.

Thats true but in Vancouver depending on what neighbourhood you visit you will hear a great many more accents. In my own area, persian and asian accents are pretty main steam accents on the street, not to mention many of the stores have multi language signs and few of them include French ;-) At a Vancouver west side school I attended as a child were at the time there were few asians, the majority attending that school today are of asian descent. All a part of Vancouver having become a very multicultural city. As you say though basic provincial based accents from province to province is not as diverse as I have noticed in the US going state to state or when my southern relatives visit. ;-)

[rgrugg]

Credit cards... while on a trip to Alaska we checked our home answering machine from B.C. and had a message from our credit card company asking us to call because of unusual charges from unusual places. I did and asked them to read off the charges. That was done and all charges were ours. I explained that we were on our way to Alaska. The cust serv person said "oh. Can you drive there?" Gave us our laugh for the day.

[cpaharley2008]

where is that guy from Illanoy?

[honda03842]

The preception of not being able to drive there probably comes from the fact that relatively few do drive there. Though absolutly beautiful, it is a long, long ride. Around 8,000 miles round trip from Chicago, Illinois, without exploring on the way.....