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Figures for those with property in the UK

Figures for those with property in the UK

Old Dec 9th 2003, 2:04 pm
  #16  
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I called One tel and I get fed up when they patronise you by saying - "go to Start on your PC" as soon as I said "let's cut to the chase" - we'll go straight there, his English 'script' fell apart and we ended up going around in circles.

I never knew he was from India. Explains an awful lot. I said to Mr B 'that was the worst English I have ever heard from a customer call centre'.

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Old Dec 9th 2003, 2:11 pm
  #17  
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Default Re: Figures for those with property in the UK

Originally posted by badgersmount
I called One tel and I get fed up when they patronise you by saying - "go to Start on your PC" as soon as I said "let's cut to the chase" - we'll go straight there, his English 'script' fell apart and we ended up going around in circles.

I never knew he was from India. Explains an awful lot. I said to Mr B 'that was the worst English I have ever heard from a customer call centre'.

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Brilliant rates though Badge. We get our 4p p.m calls to Oz, a voicemail service for £1.50 per month and have just been put on 1p p.m national calls at nights and weekend, 2.5p during the day. We've used it for about 5 years (even have a card to put calls when overseas on to our bill here) and it has been absolutely magic. I reckon we save at least £300 a year on going through BT.

A couple of nights ago we had a call from a nice lady in India about routing all our calls through One Tel without the need for a prefix or a box attached to the phone. You must have got Amit from Bangalore (see another thread for my experience with ebookers). Stick with them they are worth it.

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Old Dec 9th 2003, 7:02 pm
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our mortgage takes around 20% of our income and we hope to be mortgage free in oz.

 
Old Dec 9th 2003, 7:07 pm
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Default Re: Figures for those with property in the UK

[QUOTE]Originally posted by OzTennis
Originally posted by dugongs



We've used 3 agents primarily - we've used Quest a lot, last 4 or 5 times (fantastic service from a girl called Jo Twyman who is now in the Kingston office but was in York and thoroughly recommended to everyone); Travelbag (although they were taken over by ebookers recently - enough said); and Airline Network. We also used an outfit called Reho Travel a couple of times which went into liquidation (and Qantas took over the booking on the last occasion).

I will give the Flight Centre a try as you suggest - they won't be 'clubby' or 'arrogant' though will they?

OzTennis

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I have had mixed dealings with the flight centre. Some have been positive but other have quoted me outlandish fares that I have reduced by speaking to someone else.

Do your research on the net first.
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Old Dec 9th 2003, 9:23 pm
  #20  
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Default Re: Figures for those with property in the UK

Originally posted by OzTennis
In the news over the last few days has been the findings of a report commissioned by the government into mortgages and interest rates. The main finding of the Professor chappy who did the report is that loyal mortgage holders are being ripped off by the banks and building societies who are offering lower interest rates to new customers or those who switch their mortgage.

One recommendation is that Britain in the long term should move towards the US system of fixed I/R long term mortgages. The banks and building societies are bracing themselves for the likely changes that will arise as a result of the report (2nd instalment due out soon). The same thing happens with credit cards as well and the banks are expecting some legislation to curb the lower I/R's for those who switch cards, for the first 12 months etc.

Imagine being a loyal customer in a shop and a new customer comes in and buys the same thing you have been buying regularly for a lower price. :scared:

Obviously businesses do it to attract new customers but it isn't fair or morally right and hopefully soon will be illegal.

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The answer is simple, swap your mortgage to one with a lower rate to take advantage of this. there's no such thing as loyalty to a bank, you've got to look out for yourself.
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Old Dec 9th 2003, 9:47 pm
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Default Re: Figures for those with property in the UK

Originally posted by dugongs
yeah me to.

agreed competition is'nt the be all and end all and i would never want uk or oz to become like the us. still believe the motivation to change the uk mortgage market is more political than in the consumers interests but there you go.

how about using flight centre - they are after all a true aussie success story - used them in oz and they were excellent although not the cheapest but not by much. i am also pretty sure they only use local staff as they use a branch distribution model.





I realise 192 latterly had a charge, previously it was free and as I said it gave BT more trade anyway when it was supposedly 'free'.

I use One-Tel myself and have done so since they started in the UK (went 'bust' in Oz of course thanks to the likes of Jodie Rich and the UK operation was bought by a large company) - you'll find if you look at the fine print that their 118 is free to customers until a certain date next year. I realise that I enjoy my 4p per minute calls to Australia because the market was opened up to competition.

I would just make the point that competition isn't the be all and end all panacae to the provision of all things. We all know how certain essential services either will not provided; not provided in sufficient quantities; provided at too high a price if left to private enterprise etc. We have a mixed economy not laissez-faire after all, if competition was so powerful a force we would have the latter.

My experience with the Indian call centre was unintential and arose out of an ad for cheap fares in The Times newspaper. I rang the London number and got put through to Amit in Bangalore (I deliberately asked him where he was based when I realised I was talking via satellite).

The conversation went something like this - 'I'm phoning about the £549 Malaysian Airlines fare advertised in The Times. I wish to travel from Manchester on a certain date, to Melbourne, returning on a certain date and it is for 2 passengers'. Which airline sir? Malaysian! Which paper sir? The Times! How much did we quote? £549! When do you want to go? Where from? Where to? When do you want to come back? How many tickets sir?....... on and on it went.

I said it was advertised as a 5 day sale so I needed to complete this by Tuesday if I am going to book it. 'You want to go for 5 days not 38 days sir'? 'No Amit, the fare is offered for 5 days, not for 5 days travel'. 'But you said you want to go for 38 days sir which is it'?... and on and on it went. The sealer was that they were offering 2 free nights in a hotel in Penang or Langkawi. 'I wouldn't stay there sir it is only a bad 1 star hotel and you will have to pay for your transfer.... oh and it is just coming up now you have to pay another £60 to fly from Manchester or Glasgow'. 'I will give you my London phone number if you want to get back to me'. 'Thank you and good evening Amit (I guess it's morning for you eh?)!!!

Moral of the story - deal with Quest or Austravel or someone who doesn't outsource and you'll get someone who knows what they are talking about. Anyway I diverge.

I don't think I'm burying my head in the sand BTW just because I don't share your (what appear to be) free market views and those you hold on Australia. It's a very interesting debate and exchange of views though and one that I am enjoying.

OzTennis
[/QUOTE]

There was an interesting piece on Channel 4 news on Sunday about call centres in Bangalore. Western companies are under the illusion that there is an endless supply of english speaking graduates who want to do this work, well there isn't, they don't want to do it. There are plenty of other opportunities for them. So the call centres are now taking on people with no education or training. I can see it all ending in tears.
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Old Dec 9th 2003, 10:49 pm
  #22  
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Default Re: Figures for those with property in the UK

Originally posted by badgersmount
I called One tel and I get fed up when they patronise you by saying - "go to Start on your PC" as soon as I said "let's cut to the chase" - we'll go straight there, his English 'script' fell apart and we ended up going around in circles.

I never knew he was from India. Explains an awful lot. I said to Mr B 'that was the worst English I have ever heard from a customer call centre'.

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With Dell laptops the screens start going funny when the cable gets twisted in the hinge. The helpdesk script starts with have you tried a different driver. I say why does that matter when it does it in the bios. They then ask if I have updated the bios. Just to expedite the call I say yes and quickly look up the lastest bios version on their site.

Any variation from the script stuffs them right up. The most irritating thing about call centres in non english speaking countries is the length of time it takes to log a call. I would say it takes twice as long if I am lucky to log a call. This has an impact on my productivity as I can log less calls in a day.

Anyway once the call is logged the job seems to then get dispatched to unisys and the service is good.
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Old Dec 10th 2003, 7:07 am
  #23  
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http://money.guardian.co.uk/homebuyi...103520,00.html

Loyal customers subsidising new customers.
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