People who say: 'You've got an accent"

I've got a particularly thick accent, which hails from an area in the Mother Country which is not London.

Being resident in a location completely on the opposite side of the world, this is often troublesome for me, because those who are not accustomed to my accent often have great difficulty understanding me, that's fine by me, I just  t a l k   a   b i t   s l o w e r. Those that have known me for some time, soon get used to it, and have no trouble understanding me, or they are ignoring what I say, thanks either way.

People often say to me, "you've got a thick accent", and that's fine by me, I'm proud of my thick accent, its my roots. 

What I dislike is folk telling me "You've got an accent". OK. I know that I've got an accent, because people keep telling me. 

And, you've got an accent also (yes all of you), because, everyone has an accent, the accent might be the same as the other 21 million people on the island, but you still have an accent, do these people honestly think that they don't have an accent? Do they live in a house, surrounded by reflections of their own accent, assuming that this is totally 'accent neutral'. 

I'm amazed to learn that there are businesses selling Accent Neutralization Services, maybe there is an ISO standard they need to achieve to pass.