On Wednesday I had one of those days where you spend nearly the whole day on hold. When I first made my phone call, I was directed to an automated speaker where they asked "What is your access number" So then I tried to tell the automated service my access number, however I kept getting this message "Sorry I didn't understand that, please tell me your access number." So I proceeded to try several more times and was unsuccesful. So then I ended up saying "I don't know'. Then I was directed to another automated service that said "In a few words tell me what your reason for calling is." So then I struggle with a few attempts to clearly tell the automated speaker what I was calling for for. Finallly I was transferred to a menu that had all these options, push 1 for blah, push 2 for blah blah. Then I was put on hold for 40 minutes. After I got off the phone I made a short call to the accountant at my work. The conversation with the account resulted in me having to call back and be on hold for another 40 mintues. Meanwhile I had both the toddler and 9 month old baby screaming their heads off nearly the whole time. The baby has an ear infection and just didn't want to be put down, so she screamed to be picked up everytime I put her down and the toddler was just screaming to get my attention. I had the phone on loud speaker, so I could atleast get myself dressed. Took the phone everywhere, to the toilet (just hoped some one didn't answer while I was in the toilet), to clean my teeth, to give the baby her solids, her bottle, put a load of washing on and the list goes on and on.
Finally I hear "Hello, sorry to keep you waiting"! And this happens right when I have the baby ready to give her panadol. So then, I'm struggling to talk to the woman whilst the baby is resisting her panadol. To add to this I couldn't even hear a word she was saying because the toddler was screaming so loud. I then had to say to the lady "Can you just wait for a minute, I have to go and lock myself in the bedroom, because I can't hear a word you are saying. So I pick the baby up and take her to the bedroom and shut the door. I couldn't stay in there very long as my toddler has a tendency to climb up on the desk to go through the papers and push buttons on the computer when I'm not looking. She also always finds a pen or pencil somewhere and then uses them to draw on the wall or the cream tiles. I do try to hide them and put them up out of reach but she still manages to find one somewhere.
This whole scenario happened again for a third time. I spoke to the accountant again and had to call back again. This time the wait was going to be 80 minutes, but after 25 minutes I was trasnferred to a man who then transferred me to the incorrect place, an automatic message that said "You have reached the non English speaking line, please call back on 13_ _ _ _." Then I had to call back again and be hold for another 55 minutes.
Today we have all these great technologies, but sometimes they just can not replace dealing with a genuine person. Mind you, when I finally did speak to a real person, they gave me the incorrect information, which is part of the reason why I had to call back again!
What would be nice is a feature that allowed you to set a recall that redialed you when someone was available to talk to you. Although you'd probably be on another call at the time 8=)
ReplyDeleteCustomer support is always a troublesome issue for bigger corporations -- they "need" to keep costs down and I imagine it's hard to find quality people to man the phones. So it gets outsourced. So even when you do get to talk to a live person they don't always know how to deal with your issues.