

Get through to a human - DTrejo
http://gethuman.com/

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snprbob86
Here are some general good tips:

1) Repeatedly press 0

2) and #

3) and *

4) Repeatedly say "agent"

5) and "operator"

6) and your favorite mainstream swear word

7) Respond to a voice prompt with loud baby noises

Most systems are programmed to put you through to an operator if you demand
one, indicate your frustration by swearing, or when presented with an accent
that the software can't interpret (hence the baby noises).

~~~
viraptor
> 6) and your favorite mainstream swear word

That's one of my favourite "how to get to a human on the phone" myths. It's
the same as no.7 really, or just being silent: unrecognised answer == human
needed. Even a reliable recognition of digits/numbers is hard enough - noone
sane will waste time to put some swearword profiles on the system... If they
did, they'd probably make sure you get back to the menus instead - call center
people are either allowed to disconnect you if you're being agressive, or
they're so used to that, they don't care anymore ;)

Even though Mitel seems to have a patent for such system
<http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/6411687/description.html> I could never
find a product which implements that option. It wouldn't be cheap either. I
don't think it exists... if anyone can prove me wrong, please do :)

~~~
snprbob86
Even if it is the same as #7, it is just so much more satisfying :-)

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lucumo
Is a similar thing available for other countries?

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mitchellh
What I have found more useful is the gethuman.com iPhone app (free):
<http://www.gethuman.com/iphone/>

Since usually when I need a site like this I'm on the go!

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paulgb
I've found that saying nothing allowed me to not only get to a live agent
eventually, but skip the queue as well. I guess they assumed I didn't speak
english, because the agent initially spoke to me in Spanish. I've used
gethuman as well, but never managed to skip the queue with it. (I'm not sure
how I feel ethically about virtual line-cutting, but the hacker in me likes
finding ways to do so.)

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jimfl
I have found that repeatedly hitting # will cause most phone trees to direct
you to a human pretty quickly.

~~~
nfriedly
I might try that sometime. I've been on at least one phone system where
pressing 0 repeatedly will cause it to hang up on you.

~~~
jpwagner
Comcast

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symptic
Amazing. This is one of those 'where was this when I needed it!?' sites.

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DanielStraight
Really, this seems like something companies should take note of. Is it really
the best business decision to make it as hard as possible to get customer
service?

