Some time ago I found a link to a site where you could download and print a cheat sheet giving info on how to bypass all the annoying automated phone systems for US companies, government agencies, etc.
It has been updated constantly and now has grown so much it really is too large just to print out, but it is something you may want to Bookmark. It really is handy, and has an excellent Search feature to help find what you need.
I’ve used these numbers and the system for some time, and it really does work, saving aggravation and time.
Don’t count on your list working all the time. PBXes and all automated systems are different and customizable, and if the users don’t want to use an particular code or feature, they don’t have to install or enable it.
I am not sure if there are Canadian numbers on there, but for BC Hydro, I press 0 repeatedly and to every, single prompt, and sure enough–a real person appears!
I’ll try to swerve to avoid starting my very first Pit thread… But what really grinds my gears aren’t the automated phone response systems per se, it’s the ones that ONLY have voice recognition and don’t allow you to push buttons menu-style.
For one thing, it’s much slower. I have to listen to a cheerful recorded voice, usually a woman’s, drone on about each menu option… Instead of a terse “Press 1 for A, 2 for B, 3 for C” I have to hear, “If you want A, say YES or say A now (pause for listening). If you would like B, say YES or say B now (pause for listening)…”.
For another, I feel like an idiot sitting in my office trying to mutter “ONE” and “YES” and “PLACE A RESERVATION” quietly into the phone, only to have the same cheerful recorded voice say, “I’m sorry, I didn’t hear that. Could you please say that a little louder again?” (Do they think most people who call these numbers are in the privacy of their own home?)
Either give me a person to talk to, or give me something automatic where I can listen to a summary series of options and run through the menus as quickly as I can press a phone button. Don’t give me some half-assed mixture! Or at least retain the option to press a button!
I found a surefire way to get a live human: assume that there’s practically no way to get a human, so call the number and let your phone-loving toddler talk on the phone. I swear, after weeks of navigating the Byzantine Sears warranty phone system, and having no luck getting a person, when I did this a person came on the line within 30 seconds. And was very confused, needless to say.
I ran into a real evil phone system a couple weeks ago. When I pressed 0 in the middle of the spiel, I heard, “Disconnecting . . . goodbye.” Bastards.
Or the company’s competitors will gain more of an advantage.
I absolutely hate call handling systems, but I run a company that has them and I am in no position to remove them. The main reason they exist is to smooth the workload. If all of our calls came in at exactly the same intervals, and lasted the same amount of time, we could go to a completely human system without phone queues being needed at all.
This being real life, however, the alternative to having phone queue systems is to staff for the peaks and pay people to sit around doing nothing during lulls in the action. Even that would be fine with me, if (a) my clients were all willing to absorb the extra cost this would require and (b) all my competitors did it too. But neither of these are true, which means if we went to a “humans only” model the competitors could significantly underprice us.
Also, isn’t halfthe point of the phone trees to direct you to the right person? If you just mash 0 until you get a person, you may end up getting someone in the wrong department, in which case you’ll still have to bounce around on hold for a bit.