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Hate is not a strong enough word

For how I feel about these %^&*&$$#$ automated customer service phone systems (automated assistant)! Grrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!! 🤬🤬🤬
You are preaching to the Choir Brother Basil.
 
As a worker in a (very small) company with an automated phone menu...

At least in our case, it is thoroughly pointless. You're basically connected to the same person regardless of what option you choose, since in a company our size, we all wear multiple hats. Press 1 to place a new order, you're going to get the same CSR as if you press 3 for Customer Service.

The only exception is if you want to wade through the directory, patiently listening to each name (while noting which number you were supposed to press) -- which nobody ever does.

And from a customer's perspective... why does the menu NEVER cover the reason I'm calling?? I want to find out if my credit card charges a fee for foreign transactions, but my only choices are Apply for a Card, Make a Payment, Report Fraud, and something ridiculously unrelated like Submit an Idea for a Superbowl Commercial.

So no, I don't like it from either side.
 
For how I feel about these %^&*&$$#$ automated customer service phone systems (automated assistant)! Grrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!! 🤬🤬🤬
Welcome to the club. I just keep saying “representative” over and over until I get at human (well at least I think they are).
 
Can't remember what company it was (and it may be no more), if you cursed, your call got pushed to the front of the queue.

As in, "This stupid phone menu makes no ****ing sense!!" *click* "Hello, this is Delia, how can I help you today?"

I'm here to say, I was the potty mouth that day.
 
I do think the goal is to have yu become frustrated enough that you give up. I also love the ones that continually refer you to their online help portal, which is useless if you are not somewhere that can access their online help portal.
 
her in the Uk, any government (mainly) numbers plus some now in the privaate sector you ring and eventually get through to a human,
any profanity of any kind and you are automaticaly cut off,
 
Had to try to get some incorrect information resolved with personnel, went through the AI chat and couldn't get it to understand what I needed. Finally it gave me a number to call to talk to a person. Called the number, got a message that all requests first needed to be handled through the chat, and it hung up on me. I did finally find someone's email, but it shouldn't be that difficult.
 
Mike -difficult for the customer, but *much* more efficient and cost-saving for the company.

When I try that and finally get transferred to a human, the human's phone system says "Sorry, that message box is full".
 
About two weeks ago I held on for over twenty minutes to change a hotel booking I made through a major airline. After finally getting a person to speak to, I was told “I’m not trained in changing hotel reservations” and to call another phone number.
I called the number I was given and was put back in “your call is important to us yadda, yadda”
 
InkedHoldMusic.jpg
 
Booking.com either.

They mistakenly charged my wife's card for a reservation. She had no record of a reservation with them, so she tried several different ways to contact them to get details about it. But with no reservation number, she was locked out of all of the "contact" forms.

Their website eventually forced her to create a Booking.com account before she could "chat" with a bot -- which ended up being unable to help her.

So she had to initiate a chargeback (which is a black mark against Booking.com). That caused her bank to cancel (and reissue) the card used because they were sure it was a fraudulent charge.
 
My neighbor is a programmer for the phone systems. He does car dealers, press 1 for, press 2 for.
 
You would think that Apple, who is a major player in high definition music, would have fantastic “hold” music. But no, their phone music is horrible, and very poor quality. They give you a choice of modern popular, classical, or jazz. All of it is low quality and horrible. Fortunately, there is also an option to wait in silence (the choice I usually make).
 
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