When you HAVE to call the bank, a store, or (eek!) the phone company, and you get that automated voice, does it make you nuts? Sometimes your question just isn't on the list that it rattles off, or, heaven help you, you push the wrong number. It takes forever to go through the choices, and then you sit on hold listening to "The Girl from Ipanema" for what seems like an eternity. What a hassle, right?
Well, some guy (who is now a hero of mine) compiled a list of shortcuts to bypass all that mess and speak with a HUMAN. That's right, a human. I've tried a couple of these, and they work.

THE LIST.

__________________
Trina

Vice-President of the Intergalactic Order of Brussels Sprouts Haters

[font='Times New Roman', Times, Serif, serif][/font]

Thanks!!! A pox on those automated menus!! I spend precious hours of my life waiting to get to a human...especially physician offices!!..."if this is an emergency, please hang up and dial 911"..."please listen carefully as our options have changed"...AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!

Thanks, I hate them. One of the most irksome things is having to punch in your account number before you get to a human. Then when you finally get there, what's the first thing they ask for? Your account number.

__________________

Thanks for the info, Trina!

There is an automated selling thing calling our office now. It sound so natural, it fooled me the couple of times. When you answer, she says "Hello, this is Mary.....do you remember talking to me last week about your cable service?" Whether you say yes or no, she goes on to a selling spiel.....

I can't tell you how many times I've gone tearing across the warehouse to get the phone, put someone on hold, or jumped off the forklift to answer....only to have "Mary" on the line, pretending to be human! AAAARGH!

__________________

We hate those automated systems, too. We refuse to go that route at our office. It would confuse the dickens out of our elderly residents, and most of our families, too. When a new resident is having trouble getting telephone service, (usually because the previous tenant failed to disconnect HIS service,) as a courtesy we try to help them out. ARRRGGGGHHHHH! When you call the phone company, you get endless, neverending, on-and-on advertisements for their services.

We've had HUD people call for my boss, and when I tell them she's out, they ask if they can leave a message on her voice mail. NO! We don't have it, I'll scratch a message on a post-it note, put it on her desk, and that's as high tech as we get.

And never, ever try to call your local Social Security office. You might get through after 3 or 4 weeks. Maybe. Perhaps. If the moon phase is just right. And then, it's iffy.

__________________
Nita