Tricks to talk to a human

iceburn

also number 27, you might of got the same lady and she look at your bank transcation like in my case cause I used the card the day before at 9am to put money she said "you must be in UK." Money was put in to cover bills and stuff like life insurance at the time going out whilst overseas. Maybe it was her time of the month and we both just got her. Since I have to say it only happen once with A&L other times have no problem.

Philycheesesteak

Frustrated with not only hearing the recorded info-mercial 3 times over and paying 0870 charges, I found a neat way to speak to a person.
(Tried not saying or pressing anything it doesn't work with sky)
Choose the path of numbers which is for upgrading your package, I rang at peak time and got straight through to a person. Don't bother emailing them unless you want a response two weeks later !

Mad_Marty

Getting through to the first human you might not always be the best idea. In 3 at least, each menu prompt is chosen to get you through to the right department. If you choose nothing, you'll go through to First Line. This isn't much use if you have a billing question - so they’ll transfer you, and you'll have to queue twice.

Believe me - the system is there because it makes customers and companies lives much easier. Why else?

kazh_2

When calling Halifax (08457 203040) just press '*0' three times in quick succession, this saves you going through the touch tone bit and the voice recognition bit!! It transfers you straight to an advisor. Always works and the person on the end has always been able to help.

phil-99

paddocks wrote:

For customers who have an online self serve plan, 150 is charged at 50p per minute, using this number uses free minutes or is only 10p per minute if allowances used.

No problems with the adivce on using this number, but I have to correct you on the charging. It used to be the case that this number came out of your allowances, but this 'issue' has been fixed. The above number will be charged at 50p/min up to a maximum of £5 (if you're on an online p/p).

thesealeyboy

Mad_Marty wrote:

Getting through to the first human you might not always be the best idea. In 3 at least, each menu prompt is chosen to get you through to the right department. If you choose nothing, you'll go through to First Line. This isn't much use if you have a billing question - so they’ll transfer you, and you'll have to queue twice.

Believe me - the system is there because it makes customers and companies lives much easier. Why else?

Quite true, and certainly true in my workplace. I work in a contact centre for a food retailer and pressing the right option does ensure you get through to someone best trained to deal with your problem. I am not sure if any of the tricks mentioned above work, but will certainly have a play this afternoon. We also monitor queues and abandoned calls very closely and have targets to meet with regards to these figures, aiming to answer every call within 20 seconds, I guess it's for this reason alone I get so frustrated when calling other companys and have to sit in a queue for 10+ minutes!

Incidentally, does anyone else get wound up by these automated systems where it asks you to enter your telephone number before you join the queue, presumably so that the call taker can identify your account the second you're put through, only to be asked you teleephone number again when the call is answered?

Oh and one final, mini rant. BT phoned me at home the other day in response to an email I had sent them, the woman confirmed my name and then asked me to confirm... yep you guessed it, my home telephone number! Grrr.....

Omni_2

I cannot remember the company, however, I got bounced out using "dial from abroad" option after receiving an automated response indicating that I had NOT dialled from outside the UK. Retried but prefixed number with 141 to stop my number being sent and got through.

CJSnet

I normally find pressing '0' can work.

CJSnet

pwpevans wrote:

Frustrated with not only hearing the recorded info-mercial 3 times over and paying 0870 charges, I found a neat way to speak to a person.
(Tried not saying or pressing anything it doesn't work with sky)
Choose the path of numbers which is for upgrading your package, I rang at peak time and got straight through to a person. Don't bother emailing them unless you want a response two weeks later !

If you don't want to pay 0870 charges have you tried https://www.saynoto0870.com ?

chris_batchelor

Personally I'd rather spend a few seconds pressing buttons that at least get me close to someone in a department relevant to my call, than speak to a random person who will still have to transfer me - and may be completely clueless.