Do you, or would you, consider this rude ?

[2106greencat]

I have read a few comments lately across the AC and the buying / selling boards where people are complaining they have difficulty when trying to resolve a problem over the phone when they have trouble understanding some represenattives (shall we say) accents.

My advice was to phone again and not be afraid to advise the person they are talking to that they are having difficulty understanding and could they please transfer them to another operator.

This has happenned to me, often, and while most times I can muddle through, if I am calling for tech support for example, then speaking with someone who has a strong accent makes it difficult for me to follow instructions that may be given.

Do you consder this a rude request, and if you were an operator, would you be offended?

[creative*crisis · Accepted solution]

Providing the difficulty was genuine, I see no rudeness in the request.

It's not unreasonable to want to be able to understand information you are being given..

It doesn't just happen with accents, some people are just not adept at giving explanations.

[lurker172602]

No, I don't think it's rude as long as it's asked politely.   I ask people I can't understand to slow down or whatever if I can't understand them.  It's not only accents, I have a lot of trouble understanding some young women who I find speak very quickly and runalltheirwordstogether.

[horizon1907]

Absoluely not at all Rude. Many times, I have asked to speak to someone else, because of the accent. I have always been honest, upfront & polite to them as they are only doing their job and have said, " I'm not quite understanding you "  but I do agree that they are sometimes hard to understand. 9 times out of 10, they are more than happy to put on someone else on to explain. I do find they speak very quickly  & quietly though, but that may be my fault.

[lionrose.7]

I usually say, you may not understand my accent and I am having trouble understanding yours, so could you slow down a bit.

I had a women screaming at me once because I could not understand a pass word she was giving me, it was awful.

One tech guy was talking so fast I said to him stop and say it like you are teaching your 5 year old sister, good after that

[lloydslights]

I have trouble with foreign accents at the best of times.  And normal everyday talking, if you pick up every 2nd or 3rd word, my "ear" starts to attune.  That's with no stress or important technology to deal with at the same time.

I would ask them to slow down,  then if  you are still not comfortable with the situation I would ask that they arrange another "Help Desk" operator.

You are the buyer of the product, the product doesn't perform to the description.

DEB

[happyroo_bunji]

No I don't think its rude, if you ask politely.

It would be rude if you said something like this "Oi, I can't understand a f----n thing you say, I want to speak to someone who speaks proper English"

[*raqshaki*]

I had a similar issue with Telstra. I have a mild hearing problem and have major difficulties with accents over the phone. It took seven requests to be transferred to someone I could understand. The final person was a New Zealander who proceeds to tell me off because I made her staff feel bad!
Then I saw red and asked her which way she wanted me to go - to the privacy commission for having to tel 7 different people about my personal health issues or to the disabilities board to make a complaint about how I had been treated??
She minded her manners after that and dealt with the reason I had rung.

[boris1gary]

Yes I know what you mean, I can't understand a word of drunken Aussie, sounds like blertyhanshhjssaussieoioioblerkasgyhtbloioi.

[icyfroth]

Nah. You just have to be polite. They understand.

I don't have the problem so much with call centres, they are usually polite, well trained in their jobs and are happy to repeat themselves if you don't understand.

Sometimes I have trouble understanding some of our callers though, who are obviously fairly new to Australia. Sometimes I have to ask them a cpl of times to clarify, and ask them to spell their names  as in A for alpha B for Bravo etc. They're ok with it.