When I was young and smug I could not understand why people complained about the IVR systems in place at most big companies. I mean what's the big deal? Just listen to the questions and enter your response - couldn't be simpler right? WRONG!
Now that I have a 2 year old and 6 month old taking every spare second I have, I cannot imagine how I ever tolerated listening to the electronic voice present me with a seemingly endless array of choices. The biggest offender lately has been the bank that holds my mortgage loan. I am not a banking customer at Chevy Chase Bank - nor will I ever be now. This limits the entries that I can make drastically as the only two options are to enter your checking account number or your ATM card number - of which I have neither. One time I navigated through to the loan department only to get a lady's voice mail! I kid you not! All I want is a human to answer my question - that's not so much to ask is it?
With kids, I have a limited amount of time available and that time that I do have the kids are generally demanding my attention in the background. This means that invariably I miss some of the choices I can make and have to listen to the whole thing over again. It's particularly annoying to miss options and then re-miss options again! Arggggh!
I try pressing "0" anytime I am confronted with one of these systems, but that does not always work. Good news though! I found a link in today's news articles on MSN to Paul English's cheat sheet. Check it out! It has the cheats for beating the systems at many of the most frequently called companies. Whoo hoo! Sadly, Chevy Chase Bank is missing from the cheat sheet. :( If I ever figure out how to beat it, I will be sure to add it to the list. So, I start 2006 penniless, not so smug, and complaining. What's new?
