I used to think I spent a healthy dose of time on the phone with How To Speak To A Live Person. Just like the time I was renewing my two-year plan with Verizon Wireless and received a 119-minute voice overage charge the next month (hint: I didn’t actually go over my minutes, but that took about 3 phone calls to resolve Or several months ago when we lost our health insurance after Paul was laid off and I was on the phone with USAA learning about our new insurance options.
It appears as though almost once weekly I actually have to call customer care to resolve some type of technical issue or ask a question to obtain information and facts. I’ve logged several hours on the phone over the last few years disputing bills, adding money back into our monthly cash flow, starting and shutting down service, working with our charge card numbers being stolen, establishing a message system…the list could go so on.
The positive aspect of this is that I’ve become somewhat of an expert concerning how to make it through to a live person. Because let’s face the facts, you generally can’t get anything outside-of-the-box done with no live rep (and aren’t most factors behind calling customer care because it’s an out-of-the-box issue?).
Calling customer care reps to take care of issues is commonplace for many people so we all experience one of the biggest frustrations along with it: the absence of human interaction on the other end. If you could just speak to a live person and explain a difficulty that options A, B, and C from your first menu, and options 1-9 on the second menu cannot answer, then you would waste significantly less some time and might get on with every day. In fact, many people are so frustrated with automated systems which they do not call whatsoever, and just fork over the extra money on their bill though they know these are being overcharged.
Businesses do not possess the motivation to offer a lot of Contact Phone Number; if they can take care of the majority of the problems through an automated system, then they’ve lessen their operating expense. And furthermore, as the automated system frustrates so many of us, they further cut down on operating expenses by discouraging telephone calls. Even more appalling would be the fact some companies are actually charging their potential customers money to talk to a live person! According to Money Magazine’s July 2010 issue, If you wish to order a pay-per-view movie using a live agent over the phone at DirecTV (and that i purposefully have italicized the ‘direct’ element of their name), you will need to pay a $5 fee above the price of the show. Making a charge card payment with HSBC having a live person will run you $15.
Fortunately, talking to a live agent generally does not cost money, only a lot of time to obtain through each of the muck. I’d prefer to use my expertise to help you get to a live agent as fast as possible, according to many years of testing and being spit back out to the key menu. While these pointers will never work with every system, I have found these to work with most, which should reduce your wasted time, energy, and money. Bear in mind that many of these tips are sneaky…but so are each of the ways companies have conjured up to separate from a person.
By Keypad: Press “0” in a menu. This can be typically a default for connecting you thru to Corporate Office Contacts. If it fails to operate in the key menu, give it a try inside the second menu, as well as the third. In many systems, you do not need to hear all the options of each and every menu so that you can press a number.
By Placing a purchase: You may not actually need to make an order, sbdkee most systems will punch you through to a live rep when they know you will buy something from them. After that it is possible to ask to become directly attached to whichever department you require. ***Word to the wise, once you see that most rare of species (a live agent), ask for their direct line number should you be cut-off through the transfer.
By Selecting Tech Support: Yet again, I understand that you simply do not require tech support, but select this alternative simply because you will in all probability be put right through to a live rep. Then, they are able to directly transfer you to any department you require (and will most likely be very happy to pass you off).
Using these techniques has helped me to crack including the most seemingly non-human of systems to obtain my issue resolved. I’d like to hear of your suggestions to cope with to have service reps inside the comments below.
