Here is one of the few reasons I wish I were a lot younger: I would have no memory of the pre-digital, personal service era when we dealt with real people, not buttons on a touch-tone phone. How far can this depersonalization go? I think we are there. After endless punching of buttons to get to the desired department and finally holding on for the operator, a recorded voice told me that if I wanted to talk to the operator I should leave my name and number and he or she (more likely an "it") would call me back. We must now make an appointement to talk to an operator.
But wait! There's more. Do not try to pay your utility bill in person. Drop it in the box that's there for your great convenience or mail or pay online. It will cost you two bucks to hand it to a real live person. Mighty Comcast has joined this evil plot to do away with real people. It will cost me two bucks to pay my bill in person there, too. Yea, verily. We have reached the epitome of impersonalization.
testing to figger out why I can't get into my blog. Let us see if I can get into the comments
ReplyDeleteCliff, I have developed a way to deal with these dreadful telephone selection menu systems.
ReplyDeleteNow they have soft-spoken pre-recorded female voices to simulate a human being, that ask you to "Say yes" or "Say no" or even "Say main menu" to get where you need to go.
Faced with all that nonsense (and when pushing the '0' gets you the warning that the operator button is an "invalid selection"), I have just the response.
When that computer voice says, "Say yes or no", I say something like "Griffle morfitz." The recording then clicks over to, "I'm sorry, I didn't get that. Please repeat."
I then give her "Riffle snurgitz."
You can almost here the circuit board frying as its wires cross.
After about three or four rounds with my nonsense language, the system usually surrenders and says, "I'm sorry. I'll transfer you to an operator who can better assist you."
Works every time. Unless you have to then wait an hour for the operator to pick up.