Reply #23: I worked with a Scotsman once..

[Fumesucker]

It took me weeks of regular contact to get to the point I could understand what he was saying when we were face to face more than about a third of the time.

He would have sucked as a CSR in the USA.

Even strong regional American accents make people hard to understand if it's a regional accent you're unfamiliar with, throw in a low quality voice line and stress on at least one end of the communications channel (your widget is not working and leaking a foul smelling fluorescent purple fluid all over your floor, you've been on hold since last Tuesday waiting for a CSR, etc..).