Voice activated telephone answering systems are the most annoying new technology I've yet to run across. Attempting to refill my prescriptions, I encountered the pharmacies answering system, and I'm ready to slowly torture the designer to death. The voice system seemed programmed to default to "I'm sorry; I didn't understand" to every thing I said, even "yes" or "no". Which is funny, because I have very good diction, thanks to years of theater. If it couldn't understand my voice, I can only imagine how a less clearly spoken person would fare. Of course, the last thing the system wants you to do is to speak to an actual human being, so it doesn't offer that as an option.
But I figured out a way to defeat the system, after multiple tries. If you repeat a ridiculous word enough times, it finally gives up and transfers you to a person. So I answered every question by saying "pomegranate" over and over again, and it gave up.
I'm convinced that these things were created by republicans. Or microsoft. They're the only ones with ideas that bad.
1 comment:
Another trick I've learned is to press the 0 button numberous times which tells the system to connect to a real person. There's a web site that has a list of how to get around voice mail hell. If I find it I'll throw up a post.
"We're sorry your call can not be completed as dialed, please hang up and try again."
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