Comments on: Caught Between a Rock and a Hard Place

By: Johanothan

Johanothan — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:49:29 +0000

Mr Pohl you can also jump up most phone hold queues by randomly and many times pressing the three buttons * 0 # on your phone and saying the two words - human - and - operator.

By: Neil in Chicago

Neil in Chicago — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 15:16:38 +0000

If the bot on the phone does “voice recognition”, try repeating the word “operator” instead of a number, and after three or four repetitions, it often switches you to a human. (It may be a minimum-wage human on another continent, but that’s the next gripe, not this one.)

By: supergee

supergee — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 10:37:03 +0000

If I have to ask questions, I want to talk to an actual person. Otherwise, I want an asynchronous, impersonal process that gets it done. Voice mail offers neither.

By: Chookie

Chookie — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:11:52 +0000

In Sydney, the railway people call the automatic station \’voice\’ Sonia, because she getSonianerves…

I must say I like online grocery shopping, because I hate supermarkets, and I tend to spend too much when I go shopping. But what I like is the online communities I\’ve found, especially when they turn into real-life friendships among people who share an interest.

And speaking as a librarian, digitisation work (as done by your Library of Congress) is just fantastic, opening up so much good-quality material to researchers everywhere.

By: Teri

Teri — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 17:49:56 +0000

The worst are the ones that want you to speak a response. I generally speak clearly, but never seem to be able to get the machine to understand. Customer Service! I say. “I’m sorry, we did not understand, please speak your request again.” I could scream (unfortunately, I sometimes do).

I dread all calls to mega-entities now, because I know a nice chunk of my day will be wasted, and my problem will most likely not be resolved. Sigh. I’m with you, I prefer the days of “Hello, may I help you?”

What I do like most about the internet is information gathering and keeping in touch with faraway friends!

By: Lee Gold

Lee Gold — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:43:41 +0000

I webshop for stuff I used to be able to buy at the grocery store or supermarket but can’t get there any more. My local Indian grocery stores used to carry Rajah tandoori masala spice cans, but don’t any more, but Amazon does. My local supermarkets used to carry Chutnut brand chutney but don’t any more, but I found a place in NYC that did and ordered a dozen. And then there’s a brand of curry powder, and there’s jars of orange and lemon zest, and packets of beef tea (though I’d prefer jars of it) and other canned or jarred food stuff.

I found a bra I liked at a department store, but I bought more of them from Amazon.

I bought a DVR and then a DVR/VCR and then a printer from Amazon, and I also bought printer toner there too.

I got an Amazon Visa card, which lets me accumulate points towards buying stuff there, including books.

I buy loose-fitting clothes from Blair.

But I’d never buy a purse or shoes (even if I found a webstore that believed I have extra-wide 5.5 shoe size) on the Web, let alone fruits and vegetables.

By: Michael Walsh

Michael Walsh — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:04:56 +0000

For the “small press” book publisher the ‘net has been salvation. The chain bookstores carry pretty much only the major players and there are just a handful of SF specialty shops left in the US.

There is one thing I do dislike about voice mail: people who when leaving a message rush through their phone number making me replay far too many times their message, which grows more & more boring.

By: John H

John H — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:14:28 +0000

The most ridiculous moment of voicemail jail — when they interrupt their mind-numbing muzak to thank you for holding. Yes, because that’s how I wanted to spend my morning, sitting on terminal hold in your phone system.

One time I was waiting on hold for literally an hour (I think it was with Gateway Computers) when a recording came on and said I had been on hold too long, and that I should call back later. It then hung up on me without any warning.

I can’t imagine why they lost so much business…