Call Centres no longer in UK ?

[diane.s]

 It appears to me that when you call Sky with an issue calls are being answered abroad, and when recieving a call from Sky, as I just have, the caller is from abroad ? Now, I am not a racist, I don't care who answers my call, but, the language barrier can be a serious problem. Add to that the fact that many scam callers are also based in India/Pakistan so the assumption is that the caller is a scammer ( which is what I immediately thought) 

  I just received a call, the lady on the other end had a VERY strong Indian/Pakistani accent, she struggled to understand me  ( I'm Scottish but do my best to speak clearly and precisely with no slang words on calls to people who I don't know (office voice lol) ) She was offering me an extra Sky mini box, to begin with I didn't believe the number was a Sky caller, after double checking I agreed to continue the call. I asked the lady if there would be further costs incurred on my bill for the use of the mini box, she replied "No, it's completely free"  I then went on to continue to question the costs for the mini box and the use of it on another TV, 5 times I had to ask her what she meant, I could barely understand a word she was saying, bless her, I explained that there was a language barrier,not her fault at all, and that I was struggling to understand what she was saying to me, eventually I got her to understand what I was asking, turns out YES there would be an extra cost on my bill, even though the lady was persistent that there wouldn't be, until she told me how much my upcoming bill would be, BINGO ! there IS a further charge for me accessing Sky TV on another TV ! It took 15 minutes to get that information clarified *sigh* I said to her, is it free for me to watch, she said YES, I asked her if I would be charged, she said NO, this went on and on for 15mins  I then explained to her I was struggling to fully understand her, for which she apologised, I told her no need to apologise, not her fault her accent was difficult for me to understand, poor woman. 

  So, is it the case that we now have ALL our contact centres abroad ? If so, I don't think this is a good idea at all ! The language barrier could cause massive problems, with some liely losing their poop with the call handler due to not being able to understand. Ok, Sky will likely be saving money by using these people ( lower wages?) but, I worry about the grief some of them may take. Anyone else find it difficult chatting to the call handlers and trying to get them to understand why you're calling or for you to understand them ? Please remember though, when you talk to the call handlers, don't be abusive towards them,it's not their fault they've been given the jobs, be respectful, if you do struggle to understand, let them know you are finding it difficult due to the language barrier, be polite

[Mark39 · Accepted solution]

@diane.s Sky do still have call centres in the UK. All calls are answered by a central call handling system, and an incoming call is routed to the next available adviser, regardless of where they're located.

[PandJ2020]

Be careful of incoming calls.  There are plenty of scammers pretending to be Sky...

Anyway, I've negotiated via the chat system the last few times and never had any language issues.

[Daniel0210]

@diane.s 

The advice some of us regularly provide is that with any calls from 'Sky' (especially unexpected calls) if the caller asks for your previously agreed telephone password to confirm you're the account holder (which I would expect a genuine Sky agent to do) initially give an INCORRECT one on purpose. If the caller doesn't challenge it then you know it'l be a scam call.

[mr.tickle]

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@Daniel0210 wrote:

@diane.s 

The advice some of us regularly provide is that with any calls from 'Sky' (especially unexpected calls) if the caller asks for your previously agreed telephone password to confirm you're the account holder (which I would expect a genuine Sky agent to do) initially give an INCORRECT one on purpose. If the caller doesn't challenge it then you know it'l be a scam call.

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Well said. Same goes for any incoming call, including banks. If they called YOU, it is they who need to prove who they are, not you. My pet hate is the blatent abuse of the word "confirm", eg "can you confirm your password" when they really mean "can you give me your password"! Sure, I'll confirm it. You say it first, and I'll then afterwards confirm whether it's right or not. That is what the word confirm MEANS. But no, I won't ever say it on this call, because you called ME!

[TimmyBGood]

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@diane.s wrote:

 So, is it the case that we now have ALL our contact centres abroad ? 

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No: Sky is expanding its Livingston facility, although it's also closed several others in England.

Sky Group has been owned by the Comcast Corporation since 2018, and everywhere else is 'abroad' when viewed from the top of a skyscraper in Philadelphia.

[diane.s]

@Mark39   Last few times I've had to call Sky t's been answered by operatives in what I assume to be India/Pakistan and their accents can be pretty strong and their English not great making it difficult for the conversations to be understood properly, I worry that these poor people may end up taking abuse from some, racism seems to be on the rise ☹️  These people are only doing the job they are hired to do

[diane.s]

@PandJ2020   Yip, SO many scammers out there, have they no shame !! I did query the call, the lady said to Google the number, which I did and yeah, posts came up about it being a genuine Sky number, she said she could answer a question to further prove, eitehr how long I've been with Sky, when I joined Sky and 1 other question, she answered 1 but said she couldn't answer any more as answerring only 1 was protocol ?  I felt so bad for not being able to fully understand her, and for her clearly not ully understanding me, and when I apologised for not understanding she then asked what did I not understand and tried again to explain, though she was still trying to claim the extra mini box was free, when I asked if my bill would go up she said no, then in the next sentence she told me what my existing bill is and what it would be after taking the mini box, even though I explicitly said to her if it mean my bill increasing I wasn't interested. 

[diane.s]

@Daniel0210  That's actually really good advice ! The caller advised me to Google the number, wich I did and saw things come up about it being a genuine Sky call and the caller also said they could confirm  answer for me from 3, she confirmed how long I've been with Sky . I don't know about you,but, a lot of these scam calls appear to be coming from places like India, they always seem to have an Indian/Pakistani accent, I block the numbers as soon as I hear the first line from them,it's usually car accident insurance 😝 I don't have a car lol  not even a provisional licence hahaha I'll remember that advice though !

[diane.s]

@TimmyBGood   When I was in high school (many year ago) in Edinburgh, a lot of school leavers went on to work at Sky in Livingston, it's been there for decades ! Always handy when a call is answered and it's Livingston it goes to, can have a good blether with fellow Scots lol  Shame they're closing down English centres, the UK needs places like Sky for employment, far too much is shifting abroad these days 😞