i've just spent half an hour on the phone trying to get an account changed from my old flatmates' name over to mine, which i eventually managed to do, but only after experiencing the stupidest call answering system i've ever heard.
when you ring up, the automated voice thing that answers the phone is recorded so that it 'sounds like a real person'. this voice asks for your account details in the oh-so-slightly-patronising tone that the president of the world might take if they were talking to a down syndrome turtle, and it only gets worse after that. the recorded voice sounds like some slick car salesman, or actually, more like some dublin 4 p.d. councillor called tarquin. it says things like "i'll just get some details from you", and "i'll need to get your phone number. can you say it?" (you then have to say your phone number out loud and it goes "i'll just confirm that. is it 1234567?", and you have to say "yes" to the fucking machine like a fool).
worst of all is when the automated system finally runs out of options, tarquin says "i don't actually deal with that kind of query myself, but i can put you through to a representative who does" - like anyone fucking believes that they're talking to a real fucking person!
then, after this roundabout way of getting your details (why not just punch them in on the keypad? like every other automated answering system in the known world? what is wrong with that? at least you don't sit there feeling like an idiot for talking to a machine), you're put through to a holding queue. of course, tarquin pops in and out of the vivaldi every couple of minutes to say things like "your query is important to us; please hold and one of our representatives blah blah blah blah".
then, when you finally get through to one of the the minimum wage slave 'representatives' sitting in a badly-lit mega-office in lucan, they completely ignore the whole charade (and who could blame them) and ask you for your details again, like any other call-answering system. aaaaarrrrggghhhhhh!!!!!!!
the worst thing about all of this is that the whole stupid eircom system has obviously been sold to the managers there as a way to reduce caller confusion, but it's actually only likely to increase the confusion. some older callers might still be confused by a disembodied voice telling them to punch their number in, but a whole new generation is going to be baffled by tarquin and his ilk. i also had to ring esb for the same thing. they weren't much better, but at least they had the cop-on to keep their recordings sounding like machines (and have you put your account number in via the keys on your phone), not trying to disguise it as a superconfident alpha male who just loves telling you about how much he wants to deal with your query. why? why? why? ? ?
when you ring up, the automated voice thing that answers the phone is recorded so that it 'sounds like a real person'. this voice asks for your account details in the oh-so-slightly-patronising tone that the president of the world might take if they were talking to a down syndrome turtle, and it only gets worse after that. the recorded voice sounds like some slick car salesman, or actually, more like some dublin 4 p.d. councillor called tarquin. it says things like "i'll just get some details from you", and "i'll need to get your phone number. can you say it?" (you then have to say your phone number out loud and it goes "i'll just confirm that. is it 1234567?", and you have to say "yes" to the fucking machine like a fool).
worst of all is when the automated system finally runs out of options, tarquin says "i don't actually deal with that kind of query myself, but i can put you through to a representative who does" - like anyone fucking believes that they're talking to a real fucking person!
then, after this roundabout way of getting your details (why not just punch them in on the keypad? like every other automated answering system in the known world? what is wrong with that? at least you don't sit there feeling like an idiot for talking to a machine), you're put through to a holding queue. of course, tarquin pops in and out of the vivaldi every couple of minutes to say things like "your query is important to us; please hold and one of our representatives blah blah blah blah".
then, when you finally get through to one of the the minimum wage slave 'representatives' sitting in a badly-lit mega-office in lucan, they completely ignore the whole charade (and who could blame them) and ask you for your details again, like any other call-answering system. aaaaarrrrggghhhhhh!!!!!!!
the worst thing about all of this is that the whole stupid eircom system has obviously been sold to the managers there as a way to reduce caller confusion, but it's actually only likely to increase the confusion. some older callers might still be confused by a disembodied voice telling them to punch their number in, but a whole new generation is going to be baffled by tarquin and his ilk. i also had to ring esb for the same thing. they weren't much better, but at least they had the cop-on to keep their recordings sounding like machines (and have you put your account number in via the keys on your phone), not trying to disguise it as a superconfident alpha male who just loves telling you about how much he wants to deal with your query. why? why? why? ? ?
