What we talk about when we talk about bills
While tossing ATM receipts, table napkins and other junk from my workbag last night, I realized that I had not received a monthly statement for one of the services I subscribe to. So I called the service’s 24-hour helpline, where an automated voice enunciated the amount of the payment due. The amount struck me as excessive, so I decided to talk to an operator.
After a short wait—it was close to midnight—an agent took my call.
“Hi,†I said. “I didn’t receive my statement this month. How much is my bill?†Just to be sure.
The perky male voice said something that was rendered incomprehensible by a fake American accent. I am told that many call centers have their agents put on American accents because if the caller is American, she will prefer to communicate with someone who sounds American. It is not enough to be fluent in the English language, one must speak it the way they do in Idaho.
This is why the rest of the world has a problem with the USA, and why the international community is grateful to have the cosmopolite Barack Obama to deal with. . .
Bills, automata, phonetics, geopolitics, class, Scandinavians, Klingons, and other matters that arise when you dial a call center, in Emotional Weather Report today in the Star.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
October 23rd, 2009 at 01:10
Hilarious!
What service was that for anyway? Some companies permit their agents to speak in Tagalog if the customer requests it.
October 23rd, 2009 at 07:42
Americans prefer to hear American accent not because we want everyone else to speak like we do. It’s because of two main reasons: 1. We prefer our private information be kept within fellow Americans. This is naive, but it’s very uncomfortable for most Americans to think that his personal financial information is in the hands of a foreigner. Identity theft is so rampant and talking to someone in India or elsewhere reinforces the paranoia. Protecting one’s financial data in the US is hard enough as it is. 2. A lot of people are out of work here and the GOP and big corporations are still pushing work overseas. There’s a lot of resentment for that.
Right or wrong, it’s not as simple as you colored it to be.
October 23rd, 2009 at 09:09
When that happened to me I politely said that she didn’t have to use her American accent with me. She didn’t drop the fake accent, but I insisted that she stop eating her words and enunciate & articulate better. It got better from there probably because the only thing she had to say to me was “Yes, ma’am.” and other short sentences. If it hadn’t, I would have insisted she speak to me in Filipino instead.
October 23rd, 2009 at 09:23
Tsk tsk. You are too hard on those poor souls.
Being a call center agent beats flipping burgers, you know.
Pays better too.
October 23rd, 2009 at 12:45
Thats what happens when these call center people tell you” We’re sorry to say that you’re English communication skills are just “average” But dont worry all you need to do is sign up for our Better English Training Program”/ ROFLOL/
I had an epiphany and I broke wind.
Hey, jediknight, I used to flip burgers and I got paid waaaaaaaaaaay better.
I’d rather flip burgers all my life than be a pale, Vit. D-deficient gibberish.
October 23rd, 2009 at 13:55
can’t really blame the agents for pushing too hard on those fake American accent. Part of their job I guess. What needs to be pushed, I think, is how to use that accent, at the same time, intelligible.
October 23rd, 2009 at 14:28
I have worked as a call center agent for an American bank and what junkmail said are precisely the reasons why we were required to speak like Americans do. And also, they can’t understand you if your accent is not neutral or American, which won’t help you help them solve their concerns. Not to mention the fact that some of them also discriminate.
Me: Thank you for calling blah blah blah.. How may I help you?
American: Are an Indian? Are you a Filipino? Where are you from?
Me: I’m a Filipino..Yes SIRRR.. I’m sorry but we are not allowed to disclose our location. (by saying that I’m a Filipino they’d already know my location duh.. but those are the clients instructions)
American: No thanks I won’t understand you. I’d like to talk to an American. Can you connect me to an American agent?
Me: *through gritted teeth* Yes, please stay on the line while I transfer you back on the main menu…
But here in the Philippines they really shouldn’t have to talk in that accent.
We can understand each other better in our native tongue IMO.
October 23rd, 2009 at 22:15
This post made my day. We have both the Philippine Daily Inquirer and the Philippine Star at home. I think I’d be starting to clip your column.
Have you ever shared space with a bunch of them? My friend and I had dinner once at Pepper Lunch at Shangri-La Plaza Mall where a whole bunch of them came in after us. And then they spoke. Hilarious!
October 23rd, 2009 at 22:32
junkmail have a major point but most filipinos aint flawless with using the american accent , given that we grew up talking in filipino which makes everything uneasy but only thing i know is most call center agents are def doing philippines a great deal. haha
October 24th, 2009 at 13:02
Article: tongue-in-cheek.
Jediknight: tongue-in-check!
October 25th, 2009 at 10:06
thing is, these agents had soft skills training for a week only, two weeks the most. imagine having to speak Filipino all your life and then be forced to sound entirely different when talking to those *******. And if you don’t you’d get a memo. Who’d want to lose their jobs when it’s recession all over the world.