Communication issues

Hetty58 thanks. I have yet another problem with them and had decided that I cannot cope with the stress of more phone calls so although it will take longer, I am going to write to them. I feel a bit defeatist but will give it a go.

Hattiehelga, I'm with VM and I've never had a problem - see above - just don't try to communicate by phone.

I wear hearing aids too and agree with most of this. I taught English to people from other countries so am used to accents but unless the speech is slow and clear I don't understand, and I say so . I usually ask for email anyway so I have a record of the conversation.

Bijou

I don’t understand why companies employ telephone operators with foreign accents. Either that or automated answers which dont answer your query. Then if you give up and try again later you are faced with listening to some horrid music interspersed with “thank you for waiting. You are number ten in queue”.

In answer to your first sentence: because they come cheap!

I don’t understand why companies employ telephone operators with foreign accents. Either that or automated answers which dont answer your query. Then if you give up and try again later you are faced with listening to some horrid music interspersed with “thank you for waiting. You are number ten in queue”.

Praise for BT. Yesterday I had a long phone conversation with them, which included three different people, from different departments; everyone spoke clearly and made sure I was ok with the various stages of information, without ever being patronising.

Horrendous problems with Virgin Media these past two weeks. I have spoken to South Africa twice and once each to Mumbai, Philippines, Mauritius and could not understand any of them. I asked them to slow down which they do - for about ten seconds - and then the gabble continues. At 84 it is stressful to say the least and I resort to letters which of course take much longer. They MUST be aware of this communication problem and being a Communications Company it is a disgrace that they do not recognise the problem, especially for the older customer.

Here's my take on broadband issues and how they are dealt with by so called customer service agents.
First question from them is, have you got it plugged in correctly? Of course I b....dy have it's worked fine for 3 weeks, next question can you go to the back of the hub, that's the square shape box with a light on it, at this point I want to say No sh.t Sherlock!
Now if you get a needle and out it in the little hole that says reset.
Pin and hole I sure know who's hole I'd like to stick the pin in. Now at the same time can you press the button marked reboot!
I'd like to.boot him up the backside. At this point I am picturing him with a group of colleagues gathered round him scribbling in paper what to tell the stupid old woman to do next,now I quickly knock that joke on the head and say Look dear if I stood in the middle of the road naked whistling dixy would that fix it!!!
Then there's a moment's silence whilst he's trying to figure out a) is she buys or b) OMG she knows what we're up to.
I tell him I have a heart condition which is true and would he care to come round whilst I verbally abuse him and tell him to put pins in his eyes whilst pressing the reset button!!!

I'm the same, having worn bilateral hearing aids for the last 4 years.
The few occasions I haven't had them in (not often) I tell the person I'm with in case they think I'm ignoring them. In every case where this has happened each person has thought themselves very funny by shouting loudly at me 'OH, OK THEN.....etc etc'.
I find this rude and disrespectful as it wouldn't be done for other disabilities.

I suffer similarly and find it very irritating. I think this situation is partly a product of political correctness (criticising accents could be racist) and the fact that 'posh' talk is now looked down on. I love listening to old radio plays when people spoke the Queen's English - but then I think Oh goodness, what an old fart I am!

My official 'communication problems' include being hard of hearing/deaf. I'm not, I just dislike using the phone, so for every place I have to deal with, I put myself on the 'extra help/adaptive/disabled services' list and they know I can be contacted by email or text, WhatsApp or post.

So, having refused to interact by phone, as far as 'they' know (including all utilities, doctor and dentist) I don't have a house phone and my mobile's on silent.

I'm never waiting for a call or stuck in a queue - just perfect.

Its encouraging to find others with the same problems. I have NHS hearing aids. Getting in touch with Talktalk puts you through to someone in South Africa. Nearly impossible to understand. I am made to think I am stupid by my sons, but I do speak clearly myself.( Educated Edinburgh). The problem with TV has also reared its head since I reached senior years. I can no longer follow American shows/ films without subtitles. Practically no material from the US has these. At least, in films, one can se the actors and have a stab at understanding them but not always. Subtitles make all the difference.

I, too, have a hearing impairment and two hearing aids. I generally put any phones on speaker but with a foreign accent I tell them I'm deaf (which doesn't make any difference) then hand the phone to my DH who hates answering the phone!

Mrs, Greenfingers, part of the skill of phone communications in English is use of what is known as received pronunciation, which is certainly not local accents.

There is a teachable skill in verbal communication on the phone, in which few are trained , even professional communicators who should know better.

I find their greatest fault is too many words presumably because they believe the use of extraneous words is polite.

This has been a bugbear of mine for sometime. Virgin have advised that I need to get in touch and get an upgraded hub so that my landline stays compatible. Getting in contact with them has been a nightmare. Understanding people when I finally do get through is almost impossible. I have explained that I'm hard of hearing and they need to speak slower. The accent is difficult to understand at the best of times. I have finally succeeded in getting someone to flag my record up that I am hard of hearing but whether this will make any difference remains to be seen.

I am very conscious of this problem. Recently I have needed to ring various companies and, when you eventually manage to speak to a human being, then there is the accent to contend with, be it Scottish, Asian or wherever. I set them an example by speaking very slowly and clearly myself. It usually works!

I am currently losing sleep worrying over potential unpaid bills, because I am unaware of them! This is because my late husband had so many subscriptions. Once I know about them I contact the company and close them down, or freeze the account so no more interest is added. But when I stop accessing his emails I may never find out until the debt collectors track down the address!

When I was a young mum I attended the hospital with heavy periods. The doctor struggled with speaking clear English. I thought he was asking when my last baby was so I said eleven years ago. However he was asking when my last period was. You can imagine the confusion when I was there for heavy periods but hadnt had one for eleven years!

Well glad not just me over this issue.

And the accent is so hard to understand, I had to ask an operative 3 times the other day on the 'phone (when I finally got through) to repeat themselves.

I was really polite and just said sorry can't tune into your accent.

I have no hesitation on the phone to say I can’t understand what someone is saying. I don’t think I would face-to-face, either. It’s the least we’re entitled to!

i have had this problem in hospitals over the last 6 years and i just say i am sorry but i am having problems understanding your accent (same as others do when i travel to england...lol), most of them would sit down and speak slower to answer my questions, one particular indian junior doctor, took the huff when i said this and told me he did not have the time for this. i have called numerous call centres and when i don't understand i say i am sorry and ask for an email address. i am from glasgow and as one comedian said, we don't talk to fast ....you just listen too slow. i always look for the contact us on there website and check for an email address before i call them, with my broadband i say to them that i am not very technical so please talk to me as if i am stupid, that usually breaks the ice and gets things done.

When I simply couldn't, after a couple of attempts, understand what the caller was saying, I told her, in French, that I couldn't understand her. She gave up.

If I can’t understand someone because they are either gabbling or have a heavy accent, I will say politely but firmly ‘I’m afraid that I can’t understand a word that you are saying. Can you please repeat it slowly and clearly’. If that doesn’t work, I will cut them short and say that I will call back later. Which I do, hoping to speak to someone I can understand! I will not waste my time trying if the company concerned aren’t aware of their deficiencies. Email is a godsend as are the automated chat lines on occasion. Don’t generally have too much trouble eventually!

In Denmark we do not use foreign call centres, as no-one in them speaks Danish, but we do have the problems you describe.

Phone communication is becoming difficult, because of the mumblers and the age gap between us and the youngsters answering the phone.

I simply, the first time I fail to hear clearly what was said, say politely, excuse me, could you speak a little slower and more distinctly ?I am having trouble hearing you clearly.

Usually, the person on the line obliges.

If I fail to understand the technical jargon, I likewise say so, apologising (it is a marvellous way to get a youngster to help, I find) for my lack of technilogical expertise.

Written communication has completely different problems these days.

Irrespective of whether you write a letter or an e-mail, people now tend to answer the first question you ask, and not bother about any subsequent queries.

Or they answer the question they thought you meant, not actually what you did ask them.

Not that this is a new thing.

In the dim and distant past when we were still all using electric typewriters (remember them?) I took mine to the repair shop four seperate times because in the middle of writing on it, the entire carriage would suddenly start juddering and shaking, so it was quite impossible to type.

Nothing I did, stopped this - you just had to wait for the typewriter to stop of its own accord.

I described the problem carefully, because naturally the typewriter wrote perfectly in the repair place. When I collected it, they insisted they had rectified the fault, but no. On the last occasion, I insisted on turning it on in the shop, and lo and behold! the carriage shook and juddered to beat the band.

"Oh, " said the repairman, "that is something completely different to what I thought the problem was." My reply was that I had minutely described this phenomenon to him no less than three times. Finally, he fixed the typewriter and it never repeated the fault.

Medical professionals, even those on geriatric wards, seem to be largely unaware that most of us experience some loss of hearing as we age. Why this fact is no longer rammed down their throats I do not know, but I attribute it to there no longer being the kind of ward sisters who scared housemen and student nurses silly!

Geminigran, another with two hearing aids. I could not agree more with you, particularly with regards to people shouting at us, thinking they only need to speak louder for us to hear. What is needed is more clarity in speech and for people to speak more slowly. I find l have to resort to lip reading on too many occasions.