Addendum: years ago, quite by accident, I discovered a way to get directly to the place you want to be when calling a big company. Usually you're put on hold and they play ugly music at you, for an interminable length of time. You press 1 for billing, 2 for customer service, 3 to speak to a rep (never do this one), 4 because your house is on fire, on and on and on...
One day I got annoyed by the wait for "customer service", so I hit 'billing'. Immediately the phone was picked up by a real person! I mean, that makes sense. who calls billing? "can I help you?" she asked. "Oh, Im so sorry I must have hit the wrong key, I was looking for customer service..." "no problem, let me patch you through..."
and there I was.
I suggested this to a friend who was fussing about the same thing, she finally tried it, and said, this works like a charm...
It may not work these days, since so many things are now voice automated, but it's surely worth a try...
Love it!!
ReplyDeleteDesperation is the mother of inspiration, sometimes. Other times you just get lucky. =)
Deleteah yes, indeed that works, choose the equivalent of the 'urgent' number and feign ignorance, the trick is getting a human to answer, once you've done that it's down to a bit of chicanery.
ReplyDeleteHey, when everyone else is away from their desks on a permanent basis, and you need to talk to someone, (I believe abuse of the system should be inserted here) you take your best shot.
DeleteI also (and resonably assume) that "billing" is staffed by a Human and not A Recording, because this is where money is discussed.
The abuse of the system is, "all our operators are busy now, please hold and we will get back to you as soon as possible." and a deeper voice then says, "your queue number is 785. Please hold."
=)
Chicanery? You betcha.
Excellent piece of advice. I owned a real estate firm some time back and most of my personal work involved obtaining bonds (mortgages) for people buying repossessed houses. Usually formally racially disadvantaged people.There were a lot of these properties during the early days of democracy - many were simply abandoned - when ''everyone'' knew the country was going to go up in flames. Anyway, I was able to wheedle the direct telephone number of several of the bank agents who were responsible for approving such bonds, thus avoiding all the nonsense of the switchboard. Made my job so much easier and I never revealed my sources so as not to get the reps into trouble!
ReplyDeleteIt's insane when large companies put everything on a call-waiting list, and then no one ever bothers to pick up.
DeleteFinding that bit about the billing was gold. =)
Even getting through to our own telephone service, ironically enough, is the same way.
Holy Crap, JT! I TOTLLY lost track of you there for a while. (I lost a buncha bookmarks & didn't realize I hadn't gotten them all back). I wasn't ignoring ya, I swear. Glad you're still around and finding time to post, etc. I was worried.
ReplyDeleteI should make you squirm, darlin', but I won't. To be fair, I've not been posting much lately, I just sorta ran down. Believe it or not.
DeleteAnd you do have my email, I believe? Hm?
But it's nice to be fretted over, anyway =)