English for Daily Life: Talking to Customer Service

In this lesson, I'm going to be looking at how to speak with customer services if you

have a problem with internet, television and a mobile phone.

Now, of course, I'm not going to be able to cover every single problem that you might

possibly have when it comes to these services, but I hope that I'll show you this kind of

style of English that might be expected in this situation.

It can be very challenging because - well, certainly when I was living in Spain, I found

that customer service people spoke very, very, very, very fast.

It's not quite that bad in the UK, but you may find yourself listening to someone with

quite a strong regional accent, which is fine.

It's good, it's good to be exposed to that, but it just means that your command of English

needs to be really good.

So, I've just listed three problems you might be having with the internet, one of them to

do with speed, downloading, uploading.

Maybe you want to move house, or maybe you want to cancel the contract.

Okay, so if there's a problem with the internet speed being provided, maybe you thought it

looked like it was going to be much faster than you're experiencing now, you could say

something like, "Hi."

Once you finally speak to someone after listening to music for ten minutes.

Our internet speeds are well below the advertised speeds.

And then maybe you could give them some data.

We were promised this, we are getting this.

Now, they, the customer service, will probably have to follow some guidelines that they have,

and they'll probably suggest to you that you reset the router, turn it off, turn it on.

Maybe they'll suggest there's something wrong with your computer.

They might say that the speed will be down at peak times, and they'll probably tell you

that they never promised anything anyway, but you may get a helpful suggestion from them.

Moving house, this won't be a problem to them because they're not losing any money, so they'll

be like, "Fine."

They may try to charge you a small amount for moving the service, but hopefully not.

So, you will want to say something like, "We're moving house.

We're moving the house in a month's time, and I'd like to continue with our current

contract."

Our current, current adjective meaning what we have now.

I'd like to continue with our current contract.

And they'll say, "No problem", and then they'll probably ask you for - well, before this,

they'll probably say - ask you for your customer reference number, so it's good to have all

of your kind of passwords and numbers to hand so that you can give them when they ask.

Now, I've also made a lesson on the international spelling alphabet, which could be useful when

you are trying to give an address and they don't understand exactly how the word is spelt.

So, do check out that video as well.

Right.

If you want to cancel a contract, it can be a little bit more difficult.

Now, often with these deals, they'll say, "It's this amount for the first 12 months,

the first year, and after that it goes up."

So, you need to know exactly when your contract ends so that you don't end up paying more.

If you try and get out of a contract before the contract's length, they will charge you

an early termination fee.

Termination means stop, an early stopping fee.

So, be aware of when the dates are that you can cancel.

So, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, we're talking, and we're on hold, we're

listening to music, do, do, do, do, do, ah, finally.

Hello.

Yes, we'd like to terminate our contract, please.

And they'll say, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, we can offer you, do, do,

do, do, do.

You can leave us, but I have decided already.

So I say, sorry, I'm not interested.

And they might say, oh, why?

Because they want you to stay.

And then you say, well, I found a better deal elsewhere with another company.

And this is probably quite a good conversation to have, because then they may offer you another

deal which, and you have to compare which is better.

Okay, so that's internet.

Let's have a look now at a couple of questions you could ask customer service relating to

TV services and mobile phones.

Okay, let's have a look at things that might go wrong with the TV.

Now, it very much depends on what your setup is with the television, whether you're using

satellite, whether you're using iPlayer, Freebox, Freesat, whatever it is.

But you may have to speak to different people according to where and what the problem is.

I can't get the da-da-da-da-da working.

I can't use this, it's not working.

Can you suggest something, can you suggest something I can do to make this work?

Can you suggest something I can do to make this work?

I had this about a year ago when we'd had some quite stormy weather, the satellite dish

had been sort of ripped off the wall.

The satellite dish has come off the wall.

So with a problem like this, they need to send an engineer to sort the problem.

Probably I could have done it myself with a drill, just like "dz, dz", put the dish

back on the wall, but I'm not quite sure why I didn't.

Anyway, with something like this, they will then start having a conversation with you

about when the work can be done.

And they will probably try and book you either into a morning or to an afternoon slot, but

the problem is you're not going to know what time exactly they will be coming.

It will be sometime between 9 and 1, 8 and 1, 9 and - I don't know.

So if you're at work, then probably this is difficult, and if it's before 4, it might

be difficult too.

So you might say, "Well, I work five days a week."

And then they were like, "Oh, well, we do weekends too."

Right?

Oh, great.

I have to wait at home for this person.

So you agree a date, and you could ask them, "Can you give me a call an hour before you

come?"

And they may say no, or they may say yes.

Okay, so someone is coming to sort the satellite dish.

Maybe you want to upgrade.

I'd like to order more channels.

Or the opposite, I'd like to cancel my contract.

I believe I'm in the 14-day period - I'm in the 14-day cooling off period.

So a cooling off period is a chance for you to change your mind.

If you buy something and there's a cooling off period, it means you take it back and

you get your money back.

Okay?

A cooling off period - quite a useful phrase to know, that one.

Mobile telephone.

Perhaps your bill is too high, like, "What?

How can it be that much?"

So you call them up.

"Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo.

I listened to music for an hour.

Ah, lovely.

Ah, a human.

Hello.

Yeah, I'm calling because my bill's too high.

How can I lower it?"

And they may say to you, "Have you downloaded the app?

Have I downloaded the app?

Which app?"

The mobile phone contract provider's app.

And I say, "No.

Should I?"

And they're like, "Yes, because then you can see how you've used your data allowance or

your minutes."

I'm like, "Ah, right.

Okay.

I'll download the app, but can you tell me now how we can lower this bill?"

And they may have a look and say, "Ah, yes, well, you're using lots of minutes in the

evening, and you do not have inclusive minutes in the evening, or you're sending messages

to premium numbers, or you are calling international numbers."

I'm like, "Ah, that's the problem.

Okay.

I must stop calling international numbers.

Okay.

Good to know.

Thank you."

And maybe you've been calling, like, 0845 numbers, so if you have a number that starts

like that, or 0844, it's going to be quite expensive.

You can look up this information online, the numbers that are premium numbers where you

have to pay extra, but they can be very expensive.

So, you could say to the person, "Is it possible to block premium numbers?"

So, they'll put a bar on your account to stop calling any really expensive numbers so your

bill comes down.

And hopefully they do that.

Another problem.

"I'm not getting internet when I'm away from Wi-Fi.

I'm not getting internet."

And they'll be like, "Hmm.

Have you tried this?"

And then they may tell you to take it into a shop so they can have a look in store.

Yep, "in store" means in person, physically look in a shop.

And then these are other things that you would show a person rather than calling about.

"My screen's cracked."

Bad news.

Can they replace the screen?

Maybe, hopefully.

Or, "My phone won't charge.

I put the charger in, but the battery does not fill up.

So, my phone is not charging."

Or, even worse, "My phone won't turn on."

Now, this is where if you got your contract in a shop and it was a new phone and you have

insurance that covers it, then they may give you a replacement, otherwise you may be looking

at getting a new phone.

That may be reason for you to grumble and moan, and you're right, I've got a lesson

on that too.

Anyway, I hope you have learned something from today's lesson.

A good way of revising the content is by having a go at the quiz on www.engvid.com.

Have a go at that, and then I will see you in the next video.

So, thank you very much, and good luck sorting out all your problems on customer service.

Yep.

Remember, speak clearly.

If you don't understand, ask them to slow down, to repeat.

Okay?

It's always good to try and do more and more things in English, though.

Yep.

Push yourself.

Push yourself to speak more, listen more, read more, write more.

Okay.

Good luck, guys.

Have a good day.