Am I the only person who cannot understand a word being said on most customer telephone help lines?

IIs it me or what. I cannot understand the Indian accent (BT & Some banks) South African accent (Asda) Southern Irish accent (electrical store) etc which big business thinks is clever and "customer friendly" I end up giving up and going back to quill pen but nobody answers letters these days either and they definitely do not reply to e-mails.

No your not on your own try ringing British gas what a joke the best thing I found for anything is ring sales you get through straight away and just say you want to speak to someone who knows what your on about or you will go elsewhere good luck

i endorse everything you say Paul my words exactly

God yeah,my husband and i are not racist but we have had this problem as well.we have been trying to get our broadband sorted through B.T but they cant understand us and we cant understand them,whats the point of this!!!!

Its just so annoying! Customer service does not exist in some large companies today.

Twenty five minutes I was on the the phone trying to pay a bill!!! I had to literally spell my name and address!! Constantly repeating myself I get so piss*e off its unbelievable I feel sorry for those people who have learning difficulties or hearing problems!!

I have a soft southern accent and they have no idea what I am talking about! I also don't understand a word they speak I feel sorry for them cause they seem to try so hard. BTW when did all people from India name their daughters Linda and Debby, and their som Bill, Bob and Ted?

thank god!!!! someone that has the same difficulty as me....... but i have an even worse time than u.....i live in Essex n have a Scottish accent.... if i hear pardon madame once bloody more!!!!!!
oh n why has bt got mostly Asian customer help people???don't even try 3 (mobile network) that's a language all to its own!!!

I can understand what they say, (its a bank I deal with) their english is very clear and fluent and no mistaking the words. However, yesterday it took me 20 minutes and three attempts to get them to perform a simple arithmetic sum taking one number from another. The lights were on, but there was nobody home.

You're one of the many around this country I call America. I applaud you for asking the question we all face at one point or another. Bring our jobs back to America! We want American accents on the other side of those lines!

I don't think you're alone in that, but I think it cuts both ways. When I worked in customer services I couldn't always understand what people were on about because they either mumbled or meandered or were drunk.
And the other thing I learned working in Customer Services (Cough - Readers Digest - Cough) is that letters don't work because they don't have a written complaints address, so no-one reads them.
I also had a job listening to answering machine messages and audio typing addresses. About 70% of those I had to guess at, again because people mumbled so if you phone up and leave answering machine messages, speak clearly and use the International Phonetic Alphabet if you give your postcode if you want what you're asking for to be sent to the right address.
In case you're wondering, I'm English.

Oh I totally agree with you on that, banks, telephone companies, electrical stores and insurance companies call centres are all situated somewhere abroad, no good for us who live here are they, they put you on hold for ages and still come back with your question unanswered, what is the point.