Phone Annoyances
When I was going through files yesterday, I found one that was of a confidential nature. I wondered what to do about it. Should I just destroy it or should I find out if the organization would want to have the file returned to them. Easy to find, I thought. I'll just call and ask.
I made the call, the auto answer kicked in telling me that I could punch in the extension that I wanted if I knew what it was, (I have no idea what it is), or I could stay on the line. I stayed on the line. I got the same message all over again, except instead of telling me to stay on the line, the voice told me that they don't open till 8:30. It was 8:15. I hung up.
At 8:30, I figured I had five minutes before leaving the house, so I called again. This shouldn't take long. The short answer should be either destroy the file or please send it to us. I had to wait for the auto message and then stay on the line and hear the message again and then a live person asked me who I wanted to talk to. I briefly told her my problem. She said she'd connect me with Kathy, but didn't tell me the extension number. Kathy's auto answer kicked in, "I am on the phone right now, or maybe I'm away from my desk. Please leave your name and number and I'll get back to you." Sigh. I was almost out the door at that moment and there was no point in asking for a call back when I didn't plan to be home for a few hours. So I just hung up again. So close to getting that problem solved, but I have to start from square one all over again. Or I could just burn the file.
Submitted by
nj
at 2/22/2006 6:19:24 AM- Sally, it's a big temptation to just hang up when it takes so long. I do know what you mean.
Submitted by
John
at 2/22/2006 10:20:32 AM- getting to a human:
Once you have a phone number, here are some tips to try to get through the computer to get to a live human:
Interrupt. Press 0 (or 0# or #0 or 0* or *0) repeatedly, sometimes quickly. Unfortunately the same keystroke does not always work for each company. Many IVRs will connect to a human after a few "invalid entries", although some IVRs will hangup. :-(
Talk. Say "get human" (or "agent" or "representative") or raise your voice. The IVR might connect you to a human after one of these key or unknown phrases.
Just hold, pretending you have only an old rotary phone.
Connect to account collections or sales or account cancellation; they always seem to answer quickly. First ask them for their name and rep number (so they know you are writing it down, and thus so they are more likely to help you.) Then ask them to transfer you to the department you need. Sometimes they will put you ahead of the queue, although sometimes they will send you to the end (and thus in those cases this tip is useless).
Selecting the option for Spanish will sometimes get you a bilingual human more quickly than if you just waited for an English-only operator.
When you do finally find a human, ask them how to connect directly the next time (in case your call gets disconnnected etc), and be sure to tell us so we can then list their number here. :-).
If one of the above does not work, see the gethuman database.
Submitted by
nj
at 2/22/2006 4:25:55 PM- Wow, John! What a lot of good telephone advice! I wish you could make my troublesome phone calls for me.
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There is absoluting nothing more aggravating than trying to reach a real person nowadays. It's kind of funny, though, now they're even making commercials about it. I'm sure you've seen them. The one man's kitchen catches on fire, and another one the man finally gets a live person, and the train he's on goes through a tunnel. And, when I got one of those "automated" calls that tells me to "wait", I hang the phone up. I ain't waiting on nobody I don't have to!! :)