Get a Human

Hi Eskimo! I couldn't get your link to work.... I hate those customer service recorded things. I always seem to have a problem they don't have a button for. I just hold the line and pretend to be a person with a rotary phone. There usually is somebody lurking in there to take care of the people who don't have a touch tone phone but you have to just hold on and wait.

I had to change your link slightly Eskimo. I found it www.gethuman.com/uk Brilliant link. I hope they have one for Ireland soon. Some of the companies over here would drive you to complete distraction with their answering services. I remember one day trying in vain to get through to a live person and in the end having to yell "Bleeeghghgh" down the phone. It worked. The "computerised voice" couldn't understand me and put me through to a customer services operator.

I really get bothered by the voice activated ones. They tell you to say the word that you want but if you have any background noise at all, you never get what you're trying to get. I have 2 kids and can never properly use those voice activated ones. It's really a pain in the butt.

Possibly I too much not think about service phone the customer or that will make me have a headache. I often did the phone in my office, because there his facilities have been that arranged. I was as true as him wanted to make the customer phone in my house personally, but unfortunately him my money did not yet suffice. Thank You Before Him.

I wish there was a site like that for the US. I hate to go through 20 different menus to only be put on hold for the next available operator and waiting for an hour or more for that person to get to me!

I hate phone menus!! Usually, if I CALL someone it's because I need to talk to a person. if I don't, I can look up info on the internet. So I usually try #, * or 0 to try and get an operator so I can talk to a person!

That sounds like a brilliant idea , I listen for a wee while then I get angry put the phone down and go email them lol xx

I live in the USA and I am fed up with press #1 for English. If we visit a foreign country, we are expected to know a small bit of the language to be able to communicate. Why is it that English is our native tongue and we are being forced to press #1 for English?

That really does get on my last nerve. If my phone rings and I pick it up and theres a recorded message that someone will be right with me I hang right up. I mean come on you called me. How lazy is that.

haha im really pissed off with repeating instruction, and its always looped. so the first thing i do if i call a center, i listen carefully, i jot down what i have to press so the next time i will call.... i will just press all the numbers i have already known so i will immediately queued to a human. :)

This remembers me the times I was with AOL internet service, I simply hate the robot secretary, talking with a machine! and I have to call several times it was very difficult to get a human and get out of AOL. Thanks God I am free from AOL!

Thank you, thank you - and a MILLION thank yous!! I absolutely hate those automated phone things - especially when they say "Your call is important to us - please hold the line". I am from the UK and the link is great - thanks again!

What a great post. How many times have you gone through the directory pushing the buttons as prompted and ended up right back at the start again. Another problem here in the states, especially with banks, is that their call centres are actually in a different country (cheaper labor) and it is virtually impossible to understand a single word of the person you are talking to.

Hi Eskimo--- How annoying, right? When I get into that situation - I just keep hitting '0'. Sometimes I get 'that is not an option'...so I do it again. Sometimes I press the # key. After 2-3 times of random pressing I am told 'now connecting you to a customer service representative'. My impatience sometimes gets the best of me sadly. It's great there is a website devoted to it.

It isn't funny when you can't get a real person and you are annoyed with a product. I noticed your link is for the UK. Here in the US you can usually press "0" to get a person.

Most of the time, I'd rather not speak to a person anyway. Recordings are much more polite, LOL. However, here in the US, most business phone services have the option of pressing "0" for an operator during regular business hours, even when they don't tell you this.

I am annoyed when I call a customer representative and a computer will answer my call instructing me which button I must press. After a long time of pressing you will still not have the answer for your question then the computer will tell you that if you want to speak with an operator just press this number. What a waste of time and money they charge so much with those customer services around.

please don't get this wrong. =) Now i am sick when you call a customer service and you either speak to someone who doesn't speak "english" which means it useless to the both of us or it's an annoying machine. *press 1 to wait or 2 to wait even longer :P I think things should be as perfect as the babar cartoon series/story. oh well... i actaully don't call 'em now because of this! lol last time i did. this guy told me to pull the plug out of my computer to get to work!!! erm no.. Kudos! ~Joey

This is one thing that I can really relate to with Centrelink aka Social Security. When we phone the office, the message on the phone asks what you want and you have to talk. It can take ages to get through to the section you want especially if you have any noise in the background because it says 'i didnt understand that'. That is one place that I only try and ring when the kids arent here because they just cant be quiet when im on the phone. Telstra are just as bad for the same reason.

Thanks for the link Eskimo. However, we cannot avoid those recorded customer service thingy coz I used to work in a call center and as an experience, customer service reps cannot handle all the incoming calls. We are more or less a thousand in the center working & resolving the customer's concern. A customer service rep is allowed to take & resolve a call within 5 minutes but still maintain its quality and satisfy each customer. However, most of the customers have a new concern after another and we have to resolve it again. Customer Service work is not easy.We've been working 8 hours each day talking to different kinds of customers - irate , nice, hot-tempered and those customers who dont listen to the Customer Service Reps. and the only rest we get is during our break. During work, calls are continously coming one after another and we can only stop talking while listening to the customers concern.