Irate Americans

[Penn]

Anybody notice a segment late last night on CNN, purporting the fact that tens of thousands of Americans are getting irate about making calls to their bank, internet service, telephone companies, credit card services, etc., only to have to navigate through a myriad of taped responses/questions?

Voice-activated links are becoming more and more popular, where they ask you to - say the person/office you wish to contact - only it's misconstrued by the service as something totally different!

Frustration Central!

"Can I PLEASE talk to somebody LIVE?", was one of the milder demands!

 

[vraiblonde]

That is frustrating. Whenever I get one that starts taking me through the labyrinth, I just press '0' and it usually takes me to a human.

 

[Penn]

That is frustrating. Whenever I get one that starts taking me through the labyrinth, I just press '0' and it usually takes me to a human.

You're right; I've used that too. Just press '0', and normally you get an operator, or someone who can transfer you.

HOWEVER, the report said that will be changing; you see, it's cheaper to use recorded messages than it is to use "live people" to serve you.

There will still be codes like #32* for example, that can get you to someone who's actually breathing, but '0'# won't work in the near future.

 

[Bruzilla]

Here's what you do... just start pressing buttons that aren't options. If it gives you option 1, 2, 3, or 4, you hit 7 repeatedly. The system thinks you're an idiot or retarted after a couple of "the selection you just made is not valid. Please try again" cues, and will redirect you to a human.

 

[Candle Lover]

Channel 5 did a segment on this last night, too. They gave a website that you can go to that will help get you through to a human when "0" doesn't work. You may want to check out https://www.quickbase.com/db/bam6rdiey?a=q&qid=5

 

[Penn]

Channel 5 did a segment on this last night, too. They gave a website that you can go to that will help get you through to a human when "0" doesn't work. You may want to check out https://www.quickbase.com/db/bam6rdiey?a=q&qid=5

Thank You!!

The newscast did say there was a list of get-arounds from a website, but I didn't see them post the URL.

Maybe you just saved some folks on this site some serious grief and frustration

 

[thakidistight]

Here's what you do... just start pressing buttons that aren't options. If it gives you option 1, 2, 3, or 4, you hit 7 repeatedly. The system thinks you're an idiot or retarted after a couple of "the selection you just made is not valid. Please try again" cues, and will redirect you to a human.

Thats what I do all the time

 

[teverheart2002]

"For faster service, press the option that you are looking to close your account" - Cingular

 

[vraiblonde]

"For faster service, press the option that you are looking to close your account" - Cingular

That's the truth, though. I'd called AO-Hell any number of times trying to get my account straightened out, only to get the automated runaround. The last time I called it was to cancel my account and I got a representative within seconds.

Too late!

 

[jazz lady]

That's the truth, though. I'd called AO-Hell any number of times trying to get my account straightened out, only to get the automated runaround. The last time I called it was to cancel my account and I got a representative within seconds.

Too late!

I find the same thing happens with credit card companies, especially after they raise your interest rates. My LEAST favorite is Discover. After sitting through their spiel and them offering me the lowest rate available on ANY credit card and still refusing them, the credit manager call me everything but insane. I told him I probably would have to go through this whole painful process again in 6 months when they suddenly raised my rates again, so no thanks.

They still bombard me with credit applications several times a month.

 

[Penn]

HOLY MOLY!!

Do you two ladies realize that , between yourselves you have over 50,000 posts!

And, ya'll don't even have one of those answering services!

 

[jazz lady]

HOLY MOLY!!

Do you two ladies realize that , between yourselves you have over 50,000 posts!

And, ya'll don't even have one of those answering services!

I don't need no stinking answering service.

Back to the topic at hand. The bottom line for the automated systems is REDUCING COSTS. I did a lot of e-commerce classes at FIT and this was a BIG topic of discussion. It's a lot cheaper to have a machine directing/answering calls than employing someone to do the same job. It's frustrating for the consumer, but big $$$ savings for companies.

The biggest costs in corporate America come from PEOPLE, so company's reduce this by whatever means possible. It's also why outsourcing is so popular. You can get somebody in India or some other country to do the same job for a lot less, therefore maximizing your profits while minimizing your costs. It also scares the heck out of me as an IT person, as I know MY job can be outsourced at any time.

 

[teverheart2002]

I find the same thing happens with credit card companies, especially after they raise your interest rates. My LEAST favorite is Discover. After sitting through their spiel and them offering me the lowest rate available on ANY credit card and still refusing them, the credit manager call me everything but insane. I told him I probably would have to go through this whole painful process again in 6 months when they suddenly raised my rates again, so no thanks.

They still bombard me with credit applications several times a month.

I finally had to cancel our SW Bell b/c they keep adding charges to my account, so I would cancel the charges that I never ok'd and they would charge me a cancellation fee.

Just goes to show you thought that paying attention to your bill does pay off, just think of how many people get their bill and pay it without going through all of the charges completely.

 

[teverheart2002]

I don't need no stinking answering service.

Back to the topic at hand. The bottom line for the automated systems is REDUCING COSTS. I did a lot of e-commerce classes at FIT and this was a BIG topic of discussion. It's a lot cheaper to have a machine directing/answering calls than employing someone to do the same job. It's frustrating for the consumer, but big $$$ savings for companies.

The biggest costs in corporate America come from PEOPLE, so company's reduce this by whatever means possible. It's also why outsourcing is so popular. You can get somebody in India or some other country to do the same job for a lot less, therefore maximizing your profits while minimizing your costs. It also scares the heck out of me as an IT person, as I know MY job can be outsourced at any time.

Yeah, as much as I hate to say it though, they are harder than heck to understand. I got someone with a thick accent and had to ask for someone else because I was asking him to repeat his questions a couple of times. Which means that my phone call took longer.

 

[Penn]

Yeah, as much as I hate to say it though, they are harder than heck to understand. I got someone with a thick accent and had to ask for someone else because I was asking him to repeat his questions a couple of times. Which means that my phone call took longer.

In my experiences with Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard, I've had the same experiences: they've outsourced a lot of their services to India and Canada; I know that because I asked where they were located.

The fellow in India, I had to tell him to stop! - after a few minutes, because I was only able to understand four out of every ten words he said to me. I told him his english was passable, and if we were at The Pub, or Damon's, it might be humerous as hell, BUT NOT when were were trying to find a solution to a hard drive problem!

I told him I needed to be able to understand the techical aspects of what he was trying to explain much better, so please find me another person to talk with me.

The next person, was a Canadian fellow, excellent english, and we got to the root of my hard drive problem in a few minutes. (MS Windows XP Home would not recognize all of my new 160 gig drive after formatting, but upgrading to MS Win. XP Professional would solve that problem. He was correct.)

So, they save money doing that??

 

[jazz lady]

I finally had to cancel our SW Bell b/c they keep adding charges to my account, so I would cancel the charges that I never ok'd and they would charge me a cancellation fee.

Just goes to show you thought that paying attention to your bill does pay off, just think of how many people get their bill and pay it without going through all of the charges completely.

I had an extremely bad incident with Discover. I had closed my account and thought nothing of chucking any correspondence that came from them. Lo and behold, some charge which wasn't even MINE was applied to my CLOSED account and started racking up late fees and interest charges. I called them up, explained the situation, and got into the fight of my life. I finally threatened legal action and they finally voided the charges and closed my account. I got a final statement saying there was a $0 balance and the account was closed.

What they DIDN'T tell me is that they marked it as an uncollectable bad debt, which showed up as a big bad mark on my credit report. I only found THAT out when I applied for another credit card and had to explain what this bad debt was all about. This, mind you, for a charge of about $50 and maybe $100 in fees and interest.

It took me almost a year to get this straightened out and exonerated from my credit report. Now, I very carefully check EVERY statement I get each month and check my credit report every six months. I also had a fraudulent charge show up on my credit card last year and spent about four months getting THAT off.

 

[teverheart2002]

Wow!! At least you got it off your credit report. I commend you for you patience.

 

[jazz lady]

Wow!! At least you got it off your credit report. I commend you for you patience.

Not patience - just sheer determination THEY were NOT going to win.