mariesnowgoose
Full Member
- Messages
- 939
Yeah, OK, whatever ... tell that to the big guys who seem to be pretty good at wasting everyone's time ... 
Any number not in my contacts list I never answer. Repeat never.
But then again I am retired, so I don't need to answer any calls from unknown Toms, Dicks and Harrys.
However, my work was traditional 9-5 and my mobile number was never given out to customers either. Business calls came via a dedicated landline - and it was desk-based work, which of course is very different to trades where you are out and about, so fair enough on that score, you have to take calls on the move so it's a different ball game
But it doesn't work the other way round, does it, i.e. you trying to get some kind of "spoken" customer service with the big guys?!
There are a multitude of other ways of establishing legitimate contact these days, voice phone calls are just one of many. But try telling that to all the businesses & public services who never answer their phone calls - that's if they even supply one as a means of contact in the first place!!
If they have a contact phone number it's typically only found if you're prepared to dive down through several online links. And I now refuse to use their AI chat as it can often take 10 times longer than a simple voice call between humans would.
One example: you can't contact the Passport Offices via telephone number, or at least you couldn't when I renewed ours not so long back. Cost us several weeks of waiting for stuff to be corrected (no fault of mine) that would have taken 5 minutes to sort on the phone, and I'm 100% sure there are thousands of other tear-your-hair-out examples out there.
Businesses now often seem to operate online systems with no sensible safety nets in place - i.e. actual humans to talk to who know what to do when either the AI, or you - the fallible user - cocks up and things go wrong. Online cock-ups rarely happen in our house, but when they do - speaking from experience - it can be a labyrinthian nightmare to get sorted. And it's our time and money that is usually wasted, not theirs.
Any number not in my contacts list I never answer. Repeat never.
But then again I am retired, so I don't need to answer any calls from unknown Toms, Dicks and Harrys.
However, my work was traditional 9-5 and my mobile number was never given out to customers either. Business calls came via a dedicated landline - and it was desk-based work, which of course is very different to trades where you are out and about, so fair enough on that score, you have to take calls on the move so it's a different ball game
But it doesn't work the other way round, does it, i.e. you trying to get some kind of "spoken" customer service with the big guys?!
There are a multitude of other ways of establishing legitimate contact these days, voice phone calls are just one of many. But try telling that to all the businesses & public services who never answer their phone calls - that's if they even supply one as a means of contact in the first place!!
If they have a contact phone number it's typically only found if you're prepared to dive down through several online links. And I now refuse to use their AI chat as it can often take 10 times longer than a simple voice call between humans would.
One example: you can't contact the Passport Offices via telephone number, or at least you couldn't when I renewed ours not so long back. Cost us several weeks of waiting for stuff to be corrected (no fault of mine) that would have taken 5 minutes to sort on the phone, and I'm 100% sure there are thousands of other tear-your-hair-out examples out there.
Businesses now often seem to operate online systems with no sensible safety nets in place - i.e. actual humans to talk to who know what to do when either the AI, or you - the fallible user - cocks up and things go wrong. Online cock-ups rarely happen in our house, but when they do - speaking from experience - it can be a labyrinthian nightmare to get sorted. And it's our time and money that is usually wasted, not theirs.
