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Comment by hiei | Hacker News Reader

At least for my phone provider, you can hit 0 about 6-7 times after the automated responses and be directly sent to a live agent.

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I use another method. I select all the options in the automated system that indicate that I want to buy stuff from them. Suddenly I get connected to a live person almost immediately ;)

But then when you ask for help they transfer you back to hold...

Sometimes, but I've found it's generally more accurate than trying to figure out the phone tree. Every time I've called my bank about a mortgage issue none of the phone tree options describe my issue at all; a customer service rep usually knows who to send me to.

Sometimes “sales” can’t transfer calls internationally and routes you to the domestic support.

True, _sometimes_ they can't.

The “Canadian” method is to know enough French to get through the French menus to get to a real person.

They’re almost always bilingual and based in Canada (often New Brunswick, which is the most bilingual place in Canada anyway).

In the US you call the Spanish line. Same thing.

Honest question: does this actually help you get what you're after faster? I've never been a call center agent, but I've worked closely enough with call centers to know that they are often divided up in to different skill sets. Even if the automated responses won't get you what you need (modern ones can do quite a lot!) and you really need to talk to a person, you still have to talk to the right person. (Or the right group, anyway.) My impression is if you mash '0' until someone picks they will just end up transferring you to the right group to handle your query and you might end up waiting longer overall.

>Even if the automated responses won't get you what you need

I honestly hate that this is a thing at all. If I'm calling customer service, it's because I've exhausted every other option _other than calling customer service_. I'm not here to have fun, I've got a problem than I unfortunately need a human to solve.

Sitting through several minutes of "helpful" suggestions, options, and tips completely unrelated to why I am calling only heightens the annoyance of needing to call in the first place.

You and me, but that is not the case for a lot of people.

I feel the same way as you, but the HN crowd is different in this sense from ordinary people.

Our first resort is a search engine and a FAQ page, and possibly making a forum post.

For many people, their first and only resort is to ask a person on the phone, no matter how factual or trivial the question is.

> Honest question: does this actually help you get what you're after faster?

For me, yes! Absolutely!

Having worked in a call-center before, there is a large amount of undeserved trust in their routing. I'm usually going to be transferred two or three times if I follow the phone-tree or not, skipping the phone tree just lowers my latency to those transfers.

I did that once, and it worked, but I was greeted by an agent angrily saying "Sir, please calm down!"

It was weird. I wonder if the same system was triggered by people yelling at the phone tree.

Anecdata:

The more advanced systems monitor for customer irritation while the customer is "on hold". It is quite possible to skip the line by fitting the profile of a really irate customer. While saying "agent" would put one into a standard queue, saying "<f-word> agent" does magic on some Verizon, ATT, Comcast and Optimum CS or billing numbers.

I look forward to the day that this trick is so ubiquitous it loses all value, and the companies lose all ability to manage people via queue, and have to come up with a system that possibly involves people communicating with people in a timely fashion.

The Uber customer service line just transferred me to Uber Escorts.

Uber has a CS line?!

When I was in AV sales we had to phone credit card companies often to help the customer seek approval for a steep purchase, etc.

We would do similar— mashing the 0, *, and # keys intensely would usually trigger an operator call rather than sitting on the phone tree.

If it's a voice response unit words like "agent", "operator", "person", and "help" often are recognized similarly.

But for both of these, "directly" often means being on hold.

Prefix it with the famous f word and become the next call answered.

Twitter too in some ways. Publicly say something negative about the company and if they have a reasonable support team you'll be helped instantly. Tmobile is really good about this, as is Delta and Chase. Also surprisingly enough got some good support from California DMV over twitter. Who would have guessed!

In a recent hellointernet episode, they talked about how companies have essentially trained them to do just that. If you have enough public clout it seems to be the easiest way to get a response.

Once you get a real person, the word "chargeback" also can sometimes get them onto a different track.

Just call the “collect” number on the back of the card.

When they think they’re paying $4/minute for the call, they route you prettt quick to someone experienced.

I once said 'freedom of information' on a call with my bank, and magically all the insurmountable problems went away and I got a call back (a real call back!) within minutes.

Simply stating that you are considering contacting your attorney will ring the same alarm bell a little more reliably. A bank employee might not know - but should know - that literally nothing the bank handles is subject to FOIA, but they're trained to treat a threat of litigation seriously.

Yeah the funny thing is I was actually idly talking to myself while the person was busy typing something - 'Does FOI work with private organisations? Oh no of course not' then all hell broke loose on the other end.

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