Call centre refused to speak high german?!

dannyt986 · #1 31.03.2009, 15:58

An acquaintance called Coop to get a new Supercard and spoke to them in her decent high german, and was obviously clearly understood. The lady she got connected to at the call centre answered with some questions in Swiss german, and when asked to repeat in high german just said "No" and continued in Swiss german. The acquintance muddled through..

.. anyone experienced this before?

Daniel

Sandgrounder · #2 31.03.2009, 16:01

	Quote:	dannyt986
	An acquaintance called Coop to get a new Supercard and spoke to them in her decent high german, and was obviously clearly understood. The lady she got connected to at the call centre answered with some questions in Swiss german, and when asked to repeat in high german just said "No" and continued in Swiss german. The acquintance muddled through.. .. anyone experienced this before? Daniel

I've not experienced this with a call centre before. Maybe get your friend to call Coop's head office and report it. It's not really great for their customer service if members of their call centre only speak dialect.

Sada · #3 31.03.2009, 16:03

well you know you can get someone on the phone who isn't Swiss, who picked up Swiss german rather well but never learnt high german. anything is possible nowadays.

dannyt986 · #4 31.03.2009, 16:05

Fully agree. She was too surprised to complain on the spot, and now its just one of those "life's too short" things.

Clearly it's not good service, but I wondered if it was isolated or some growing nationalistic thing that employees have the right to do.

D

dannyt986 · #5 31.03.2009, 16:07

	Quote:	Sada
	well you know you can get someone on the phone who isn't Swiss, who picked up Swiss german rather well but never learnt high german. anything is possible nowadays.

Yes, Ive experienced plenty of tradespeople from the east in that situation.. but to get a job in a call centre without high german??

D

#6 31.03.2009, 16:08

There was a lot of discussion about this here:
Discrimination of non Swiss German speakers

I would definitely lodge a complaint with coop HQ and shop elsewhere for a while.

Sada · #7 31.03.2009, 16:10

Exactly, I totally agree with you !!!!

	Quote:	dannyt986
	Yes, Ive experienced plenty of tradespeople from the east in that situation.. but to get a job in a call centre without high german?? D

baris · #8 31.03.2009, 16:22

A swiss german speaker is very unlikely to switch to High German when they think that you understand Swiss German, they won't bother.

An outright refusal however is quite disturbing.

NotAllThere · #9 31.03.2009, 16:24

Is the call centre Switzerland-wide, or just for the German-speaking area? If the former, what would have happened if you'd wanted to speak French!

I'd make a complaint. German is one of the official languages of this country, not dialect.

dannyt986 · #10 31.03.2009, 16:29

	Quote:	NotAllThere
	Is the call centre Switzerland-wide, or just for the German-speaking area? If the former, what would have happened if you'd wanted to speak French! I'd make a complaint. German is one of the official languages of this country, not dialect.

I guess the call software asked her what language she wanted, and she chose "Für deutsch wälen Sie eins".

On occassions, due to overflow I've found myself speaking to clearly french or italians struggling away in very average german, at which point I switch to help them out!

D

dannyt986 · #11 31.03.2009, 16:38

	Quote:	baris
	A swiss german speaker is very unlikely to switch to High German when they think that you understand Swiss German, they won't bother. An outright refusal however is quite disturbing.

Yes indeed. And quite often they forget they're meant to be speaking high german and slip back into Swiss german... which I go along with being polite, and then lose the thread completly about 3 minutes later...

D

#12 31.03.2009, 16:43

	Quote:	NotAllThere
	I'd make a complaint. German is one of the official languages of this country, not dialect.

Paging Mr. Breakfast!