I’ve not met a single person who enjoys automated phone systems, but they are becoming part of our culture. If I owned “Leland Franklin Enterprises” my first priority would be to install a REAL person to answer the phones and leave REAL messages for people. No voice mail or automated phone systems.
We recently moved into the ‘burbs. There are trees in our neighborhood and people spend the evenings walking dogs, talking to friends, and working in the yard. There are, however, a few things about country life the real estate agent never mentioned. One of them is internet access.
Apparently, we are “right on the cusp” of service. There is service 1000 feet from our home, but not quite close enough for the magic of internet to actually reach our door.
The previous paragraph of information was typed in just 20 seconds, but took days on hold to discover. It’s not that the information was complicated, but there was no person to talk to…just menu choices on the phone. The menu choice for “1000 feet from the home” is way down the list.
Dialing #1 for english, then #3 for new service, then another series of number for Internet, then service areas…and so on. I’d retire a rich man selling the ’secret’ number which actually connects folks with a real person.
Don’t get me wrong, the folks at AT&T were nice, after a vast array of selections and waiting on hold for 45-minutes. But, I would pay a little more on a phone bill just to have a real person answer the call. Is it THAT expensive to have real people?
A friend once owned a car with a completely digital dash. This was 20 years ago and it was really cool. They just never caught on. People just like the look of the “analog” dials for speed, gasoline, and tach. So, although the technology exists to make push-button transmissions and a digital dash…people don’t want them.
After several calls to AT&T and other folks, looks like we’ll have dial-up internet for a while. There just isn’t service in the area.
I’m not really mad at AT&T, though. After all, every 1 1/2 minutes on hold for many hours I was reminded that MY call is “very important to them.” How often do we say that to each other? Think I’ll mention that to the next friend that calls….after leaving them on hold all afternoon.
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