It's only funny because it's true.

[Trieste]

This is how I feel every time I get on the phone with an automated menu.

[Aiden]

Any time I get an automated menu I try to hit 9 or 0, hoping it would get me to an actual person. Sometimes it repeats the damn menu and I only want to smash the phone into the nearest wall.


I truly hate calling my ISP on a technical call since I am forced to go though the menu before I can talk to anyone.

Press one when your computer is on...
Please disconnect the power source from your modem and router for 30 seconds.
Please plug in and watch the status of the lights...

I'm not stupid Cox, I know to do all that crap before calling in! /rage

[Beguile's Mistress]

That is hilarious and true!


*hugs Aiden*  And if you're a woman, when you do get someone, the man treats you at least as badly as the navigator!

[Oniya]

http://gethuman.com/

Seems to be still getting updated. (i.e., it hasn't stagnated).

[Lilias]

As a non-native English speaker, I seem to have the opposite problem. I'm just fine with automated instructions, because I can understand them. Most call centres seem to have outsourced to India, and, erm, it's not exactly standard English that you get there. Except for the child benefit helpline. That's in Scotland. Not to say that the accent is much more comprehensible... >.<

[DarklingAlice]

While Lillas does have a point, I would (generally) rather stumble through an indecipherable accent than deal with the menu. Also a number of businesses right here in the USA have them, even retail outlets. It drives me mad.

[Inkidu]

Well, I can do a myriad of accents and the like. One almost-lucky tech support lady thought she was talking to Sean Connery (it's not perfect but on the phone who can tell) because I was bored at that point with the auto-menu and had started using Sean for fun. Normally I do it in what's called broadcast English (think ten o'clock news and how all the reporters sound the same) and I get through them fine. I do loath them though.

[Beguile's Mistress]

The worst I ever encountered was a young lady from the southern part of the US with an impenetrable accent who spoke like a chipmunk on speed.  She got mad at me when I told her I couldn't understand her and then hung up on me when I asked for her supervisor.

[Callie Del Noire]

I DESPISE phone automation that is STRICTLY voice controlled. I want the 'If you speak with even a SLIGHT accent please press 1' since for some reason my slight southern drawl is beyond the control of most voice recognition software. I boggle at what some of my poor shipmates who had strong accents (two guys from 'Nawlins' come to mind, as well as about a dozen Philippine residents)