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Angrily request an operator and threaten to sue. That will elevate the priority if any sentiment analysis is in place and get you into the queue for a human.

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There used to be some automated systems that would detect curse words and escalate you.

It seems to work less these days, but in the past I would get a robot voice on the other end and just calmly start going “piss shit fuck damn ass” and it would connect me to a human operator.

I used to build systems that did that and other things. When Nuance came out I was like a kid in a candy store just deploying ridiculous features to clients’ IVR systems.

I think this option is being phased out, it seems increasingly hard to ever find a way to talk to a real human on most corporate IVR systems. I've cursed and threatened many AI-based IVR systems and most of the time, the AI would just say "I don't understand. Goodbye" and disconnect me.

If you have a disability or just say you have one, most AI systems are required to have a reasonable accommodation and you will usually get a human quickly. Please don’t abuse this, as it’s like parking in a handicapped parking space. There are a limited number of human operators at any given time, after all.

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