This morning while waiting for the streetcar, a man beside me was yelling irately at his cell phone. I say he was yelling at his cell phone because I’m making the fairly basic assumption that what he was talking to on the other end was not an actual person.
“GIVE ME AN OPERATOR TO TALK TO, A HUMAN OPERATOR.”
People were snickering all around him - myself included - and it wasn’t until I got to work this morning that I realized just how alike he and I are.
I’d like to find the person who invented computer automated phone systems, and beat him (or her, I suppose) to a pulp. What could easily be rectified with a simple phone conversation between two human beings turns into a “press 1 for ______, press 2 for ____” type situation, which, if you’re calling Canadian Tire or Staples Business Depot, doesn’t ever really end until the computer “operator” literally hangs up on you. And you have to call back and listen to it all over again.
Over the course of my day today, I’ve spent approximately 3 hours on hold, “listening carefully to the following, as the options have changed,” and trying to navigate corporate websites so that I don’t have to yell at yet another Future Shop phone operator for being so snide and unhelpful.
And leave it to me to have hostility with one of the largest telecommunications companies in Canada, too. Rogers Communications Inc. reaches #2 on my hate list, second only to Future Shop, of course, and its affiliates. Somehow, Rogers has come to the conclusion that speaking to their customers is only important if that customer’s account happens to be in arrears. Otherwise, it seems they are experiencing a “higher than normal call volume and your call will be placed in priority sequence”.
*cue elevator music...
Their phone operators might be trained with snappy comebacks and excuses for everything, but their in-store employees will do just about anything to avoid someone causing a scene in front of other potential customers. The problem with this is that people these days are too quick to board the convenience train. So when their computer malfunctions or their phone bill seems too high, they call these so-called customer service centres, and end up more stressed out than before they made the poor decision to try and deal with their issue over the phone.
I can barely remember a time when you could call a business organically; pick up the phone, dial, person on the other end says “Hello, ______ (insert business name here),” you ask them your question/voice your concern or ask them to transfer you to someone who might be able to help you, you have your problem answered/concern addressed, you say goodbye, hang up the phone and life goes on.
Oh, the good ol’ days.
Remember Future Shop’s old ad campaign, “Future Shop. We get it”?
Well, I’ll let you in on a little secret.. no, they definitely don’t.
Comments
I like that you used the word "irate." Such a corporate term for P.O'd customer! haha
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