Pluggers by Rick McKee for July 14, 2011

I tried that yesterday with Microsoft. They kept promising me a service rep who never answered. After 15 minutes I quit trying. I’m about to pull the plug on them.

Oh, us male cube-farmers had some interesting calls, too!

Don’t you love it when you call about computer or internet access problems and you have to spend 20 minutes listening to Hal’s daughter telling you that you can slove problems by logging on to their website?

Dial 0. It may not help if the rep doesn’t “do” English, but it’s a step in the right direction.

Well, dialing 0 and all that is great if you have touchtone. not everyone has a touchtone phone. Some folks DO in fact still use Rotary dial.

Pfft, that doesn’t make you a Plugger. That makes you a human.

My wife, the inspiration for this ‘toon, says 0 doesn’t help much and often doesn’t help at all. But she still uses it anyway, just in case.

“Customer Service” certainly isn’t what it used to be, that’s for sure. And by the way, why do I have to press 2, 3, or whatever behind Spanish in order to talk to someone in English? I live in America, for God’s sake! English is supposed to be our official, national language and yet . . . I still have to make that “choice” whenever I get one of those automated messages at some business I’m trying to call. :-(

Thats good info Tigger!

So true! :D

Keep in mind, not all voicemail systems have “0 for operator”. I’ve known several where all “0” gets you is, “You have pressed an invalid number. Please select from the following options..”Of course, the fact that she has a rotary kind of trumps that, yes… :)

You can wait for a live person but more systems aren’t giving you that choice. If you don’t pick a menu item they hang up on you. Dial phones do not allow you to pick an item. To call my urologist I have to go downstairs and use the kid’s phone.

Thanks, Gweedomurray! I’ve known that for years! “…If you would like to throw this phone out the window, press 4…”