Pardon?????

While speaking to someone on the telephone (not family or friend), have you ever experienced the embarrassment of not understanding something they are saying?


At first you say; "Pardon"?


Then you say; "Sorry, must be the phone, didn't quite catch that"!


Then you panic and say; "Obviously must be me, do apologise, could you repeat that"!!!!


Then ...... you wish the phone had not been invented!



Rainbow

Re: Pardon?????

My Sons Father-in-law is Italian and every Christmas morning he rings us from Rome to wish us a happy Christmas which is great, but the missus makes me answer it and switch the speaker on. At first it's not so bad, but when we try to converse it's a pantomime between his broken english and my dublin accent. The missus just sits there rolling with laughter. God I hate Christmas mornings.

Re: Pardon?????

Quite often at work! You can't keep on asking for them to repeat it!

Re: Pardon?????

I am terrible at understanding anyone with an accent, even the English. Somebody at work was talking to me the other day and he is from the North East (sorry to all Northerners)and I didn't understand a word I asked him to repeat himself and he then spoke very slowly and in a posh southern accent (taking the mick).

Re: Pardon?????

I don't have a problem telling people I don't understand what they are saying.

Re: Pardon?????

When phoning some companies who have call centres in foreign countries. I don't hesitate to tell them that I can't understand a word they say! Mind you, they have a hard time when trying to understand my Scottish accent!

Re: Pardon?????

Ah yes! Foreign Call Centres, now that is mission impossible,speech wise.

Re: Pardon?????

I was going to say the call centers too .... sometimes I've had to ask right out if they would put someone on the line with less of an accent as I simply could not understand what the person was saying.

Re: Pardon?????

I've only just seen this thread so I thought I'd add my bit.
I'm partially-deaf and have a very difficult time with telephones anyway so call centres and telephone helplines are usually impossible for me because I don't hear very well.
What really annoys me is that email methods are not always available for people like me and, where there is an email address to contact, quite often you never get a reply.
I had a problem with one of my aids a while back and had to keep asking the hospital receptionist to repeat what she said when I was trying to arrange an appointment.
At the hospital I asked why they had no email contact address seeing as Audiology actually deals with people who could have hearing loss and they said "Oh, we do!" and gave it to me. I told them I'd try it later to make sure and - guess what? Still waiting for a reply SEVEN MONTHS later!! stevmk2

Re: Pardon?????

Good morning/afternoon this is Mark speaking(actually it`s Ravinder Singh?) how may I be of assistance?

blah blah


the number you need to phone is one tree sewen tree nine.

Now I love India but sometimes it`s ruddy hard work with the call centres.

And as for UK centres??? For advice about this press 1

For advice about that press 2

For other matters please press 3

Thank you for calling-we will now put you on hold and play musak for an eternity.

Thank you for calling for a repeat menu please press the # key.


Thank you for calling,if you are now close to insanity due to being on hold listening to musak please press 4

This will send a sudden bolt through your phone putting you out of your misery