What miserable codeflinging son of a betatester’s unspecified error is responsible for all those programmed telephone systems where you hear “Please enter the area code and telephone number from which you are calling in order that we might help you better”, so you comply, and get connected to a person who says “Hello, this is Bob Blowhard, may I have the Area Code and telephone number from which you are calling”???
I get this shit when I call up Verizon for either DSL or regular phone service probs or questions. I get this shit when I call up tech support for various nationwide tech companies, including Apple, Epson, and UMAX.
Oh please–if your system doesn’t trap the digits and pass them onto the pro’s call log screen, don’t ask me for them, dammit! OK, maybe you have different call queues for different Area Codes, that I’ll believe, but it is seriously frustrating to be told to provide the whole damn string twice (first via touch-tone, again by voice), and it doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in your ability to engineer and maintain technically sophisticated systems!
555-EAT-SHIT now connect me to a person you redundant box of diodes!
No, the aggravating thing is when you get a live human operator, give them the information, they connect you to another department where another live human asks you for the same information, informs you you’ve been connected to the wrong department, connects you to live human #3, who asks you for the same information…
And so on through seven different departments, until you are finally connected to the person who originally answered the phone.
This actually happened to me once, when I was trying to sign up for correspondence courses with Indiana University.
Sounds like my recent experiences with MCI. “You’ve called the residential department, let me put through to small business - no wait, you’ll have to deal with the high toll department - I’m sorry, we’ll have to get someone from financial services on the line - I can’t see that information here, let me transfer you to residential…” Grrrr.
Don’t forget the 15-minute wait to speak with someone every time you’re transferred.
What I find equally troubling is when you’re connected with a series of costumer service reps who have no idea what you’re talking about.
We have a shipping software at work and one day needed to use it for international shipping. The program is set assuming that the main reasons to ship internationally are to send documents or as a seller. Apparently, they don’t figure a company would want to ship an expensive server from one office to another.
So no matter what we tried, the program would tell us we either needed to fill in the sales information or give some weird number. Call tech support and the first person has never heard of the number the program needed. She transferred me and the second guy didn’t know either, so I was transferred third time.
This person thought she knew what she was talking about. I was told we needed to get the number from our local Chamber of Commerce. ??? Ok, I call and they have no clue what I’m talking about.
Call tech support again and this time am told that I need to get it from the local tax office. I call and they don’t know either.
Call tech support again and finally get someone who gives me a government web address that gives me the damned number I needed. Only took one hour out of my life, thankyouverymuch.
Based on my experiences with first-level tech support (a/k/a the “helpless desk”) at work, your phone number is available to them through the miracle of modern technology. However, they usually find it easier to ask you for it than to read it off of their screens (or are illiterate, a possibility that, in some cases, may well be correct).
Occasionally, I’ll get, “Your phone number is ###-####, correct?”; the polite way of asking, “You didn’t screw up and mistype your phone number again, did you?” That is a reasonable precaution, and I can deal with those.
I hate to say this, but I might have a little explanation:
They are hoping that the majority of calls can be answered by an automatic system. For example, you are calling in for an account balance, or a current charges update. So they ask you for your phone number first.
Of course, this is the stupid part. They should ask you what you want to do first, ie use the system or talk to a person, and then they can ask for your imput accordingly.
But yes, it Totally Pisses Me Off. Wasting my time like that… <pfeh>