Automated Answering Machines

[Blade]

Boil my pi$$

Why can't you ring up and speak to someone who can help you anymore.

You speak yo a robot who screens your info then sit in a que to finally speak to someone who can't actually help you.

Its really frustrating and seems normal practice these days. Customer service and human input are becoming increasingly rare.

[Kwacky]

It's supposed to speed up the process.

I've yet to be dealt with in a timely fashioned by an automated telephone service.

[Blade]

Tbh it just gets my back up the minute the process starts. Why do you give them your details only for when a human finally answers they ask you for the same data so you end up repeating it anyway.

[Monty]

Yeah I'm with you on that Blade does my head in.

I'm also getting several automated calls a day to my mobile, which is doing my head in even more. The phone signal is crap in my house so I normally leave my phone on the top floor so I don't know who is calling and can't just ignore it in case it's work.

I used to be able to block them, but now they've started using and unknown number so now I can't.

[duke63]

Blade

There is a website somewhere that lists the numbers to ring to actually speak to someone direct for most major companies.

Monty I get those calls all the time too. Some legislation needs to be put in place to prevent this because the number of working hours wasted answering pointless sales call must be horrendous over each year.

[Kwacky]

We no longer answer our landline. We're on the TPS which did cut out a lot of calls but we still get some.

[D6Nutz]

There is a website somewhere that lists the numbers to ring to actually speak to someone direct for most major companies. .

I've got an app on the phone (called something like 0800buster) that hooks into the dialer, when you dial an 08 number it does an automatic lookup to see if it knows a normal number. If it does then it calls that one for you instead What really gets my goat is all the inclusive minutes you get, and they don't include 0800, 0845, etc numbers.

The most recent set of automated inbound calls are now coming from regional landline numbers, so impossible to ignore. There is usually a way of identifying them though. When you answer the call, if you don't say anything immediately the line remains silent. This is a sure sign of a call centre / automated call.

[Blade]

We have our landline registered with the tps but started getting cold calls to my mobile quite a lot recently. When you answer nobody speaks and they hang up, what's that all about ?

I even rang them back and asked them why they hang up and guess what they hung up again, to$$ers

I'm genuinely getting to the state that I just never answer the phone and only use it for me ringing out or answering calls from people in my contact list.

[D6]

When I get an auto message I just keep pressing star button. Puts you straight through to someone.

[Frankie]

That's handy knowing.

What gets me is when you give someone in one department all the info, then they say they will pass you on, and you have to repeat it all over again

[Spudda]

When I get an auto message I just keep pressing star button. Puts you straight through to someone.

I do that ... when it says "Press 1 for Blah Blah" "Press 2 for Nah Nah" etc I just press about five 8's and it transfers you to a human being

[Kwacky]

I had to deal with one of these last night. I had a statement for a credit card I didn't even know I had.

Turns out that I've not used it since 2006.

Anyway, the automated system first wants you to put in your credit card number. Not got one. Password? Not got one? If you've not neither then go online. I'm not registered.

It took 20 minutes to speak with someone and cancel my card.

[Godzilla]

We have our landline registered with the tps but started getting cold calls to my mobile quite a lot recently. When you answer nobody speaks and they hang up, what's that all about ?

I even rang them back and asked them why they hang up and guess what they hung up again, to$$ers

I'm genuinely getting to the state that I just never answer the phone and only use it for me ringing out or answering calls from people in my contact list.

They have auto dialers that dial a few numbers at once, the talk to the first that answers.

If they are not number with held just block the number on you phone.

[Blade]

Cheers Jon Will try that. TBH If I don't recogonise the number I rarely answer now.