Posted on 06/18/2024 9:19:36 AM PDT by bluescape
Another post about Hertz customer service being difficult to reach made me ask Freepers about this.
When I was widowed two years ago I had to get the hang of handling affairs that she had always taken care of. I'm decent at it now, but even as we text there are companies that deliberately make it hard to 1.Find a phone number for help. and 2. Speak to a human because my issue was complicated and not included anywhere on their 'menu.'
I learned plenty of methods to get by, but a couple of companies had me tapping out.
What are some of your examples of these ridiculous hidden phone support numbers and/or robot menus that are programed to never let you speak to a person. And add solutions to them..if they exist.
They absolutely cause people to be furious with them. Calling them causes the blood pressure to rise.
They also have constant security breaches and you find that out after it affects you.
The problem with companies anymore is that they do not value at all the people who pay the bills. It is like this about everywhere. It is a reflection of our throwaway disrespectful culture.
The only place I get nice and good customer service is Amazon. (hate to say it but it is true)
People tell me the other internet/cable providers aren’t much better. I don’t have cable and I am glad I don’t.
Hah, I do that too with xtra smart azz remarks. I figure they play them for jollies at meetings.
“Calling them causes the blood pressure to rise.”
LOL...I take my BP a couple times in the morning about 10 minutes apart. Wouldn’t you know it? I started reading this post just after taking my first reading. I figured my numbers would soar on reading #2. Surprisingly, the number went down a bit on reading #2. Maybe I’m sympathizing with others and that calmed me.
“...our cards were suspended because I placed the call instead of Hubby, and my placing a call constitutes fraud!”
LOL, now that’s a first! It always cracks me up when they say “Can you get your wife on the line (as she is the primary)?” So I add my wife to the call and we proceed with business. The silly thing is I could have added anybody with a female voice!
Right. If Hubby had been home I could’ve done that, but he was at the doctor’s.
I always managed to keep her in the budget because I had done CS work and I knew exactly what was going to happen if they took her happy, helpful voice out of the mix.
When I moved to another facility they finally managed to get rid of her. And a few years later I was talking to my replacement and he was telling me how MEAN everyone was who called him. They were just so angry and frustrated.
I asked him if he had considered replacing the phone tree with a receptionist.
I just had a reservation with them I needed to confirm after hours would be on site for rental and never could find anyone. Finally had to cancel the reservation.
What is really fun when they tell you, “Are you have trouble with your internet? Contact us at our website.....”
Ive bern caught in similar dilemmas such as yours.
” update the profile”
this the most important question you should ask yourself—do i need to do that to keep myself on board that company??
Its very possible some dont submit their personal information for security reasons or not to give personal information out to any company because you know its sold/ farmed out if there is no disclosure statement
if these companies show there is ,say, a “incomplete” profile you would by this pressure tactic to hand it over
BEFORE you can proceed with any other action.
So the question you need to ask yourself is:
Do I want more of me & so & so’s info given to data brokers?
“The only place I get nice and good customer service is Amazon. (hate to say it but it is true)”
It is true. We’ve never been disappointed in a communication with Amazon.
Makes sense. We use the cards. We get our bills. We pay our bills. So what’s the big deal?
Just keep repeating representative. That’s what I do.
___________________________________________________________
Do the same also.
THE OPPOSITE OF THIS :
1. THE “CALLS TO GRANDMA” seeking bail $$$$$$$.
SCAM from the jump. Young sounding with Hispanic tone.
2. THE CALLS ASKING IF YOU WISH TO SELL YOUR HOUSE: “NONE OF THOSE CALLERS HAVE ENGLISH AS THEIR FIRST LANGUAGE”.
I AM NO LONGER ANYWHERE NEAR POLITE.
I SWEAR PROFUSELY IN HIGH DECIBELS.
The Third candidate is the guy-—again English NOT his FIRST language-— WHO KEEPS CALLING me about my “MEDICARE SUPPLEMENTS”. I have lost my patience there, also.
THAT would be a RED FLAG for me, also.
IF I have had the account for some time & my payments have always been timely—
I would question them HARD about “ANY UPDATES” they think they need.
I use the card-—I pay the bill. NOT looking for a date.
NEVER ENTER ANY MENU CHOICE WITH A KEYPAD, PRETEND YOUR Phone is a rotor type.
And just keep repeating that You want a Representative/Live Person until You get one.
If You’re lucky enough they might even speak English !!!
🙂👍
Asiana Airlines! Based in Korea, always closed when we’re awake, and you get an ARU. (Audio Response Unit). I’m usually VERY good at getting past these things (I wrote code for one in the 90’s). And There was nothing I could do here. “0” over and over would just get it to repeat the prompt a few times then it would just hang up on you. Yelling did nothing, etc. I resorted to going to LinkedIn and finding the names of employees so that I could look them up in the “Employee directory” so that I could be transferred to them. (They never answered, and never returned an e-mail, or a phone call, or a LinkedIn message asking for help).
I imagine anything that haven’t been programmed to recognize will work. 🙂👍
With an East Indian accent. That you can barely understand.
I used to manage those systems for a large bank and hospital network. In the hospital, we would default out to the switchboard FAST because of emergencies. But at the bank the system would offer a rep close to the front. That said, if you want to get to an agent I found that if you keep pressing the most obscure options you will narrow down the choices to obscure things…and they will have to send you to an agent. These are usually the last options they give you in a menu.
Sometimes if you do nothing…the system will offload you because it used to think you did not have a touchstone phone. Those are rare these days, but the last time I programmed a system it was still a default we had to consider—and that was 5 years ago.
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