I was just trying to call one of my credit card companies to ask them if they'd lower my interest rate. I couldn't for the life of me get through to a human being, even after shouting "operator" repeatedly, jabbing every combination of "*," "#," and "0" I could think of, and mashing the keypad with the palm of my hand.
Then, I remembered something that had been posted on Dave Barry's blog by a reader after Dave complained about not being able to get through to AOL -- the Gethuman Database. They've got tips to try to slip past any interactive voice response system, and if that doesn't work, a looooong list of just about any US company you can think of along with what number and actions will get you to a human.
For example, the number on the back of my Capital One credit card is 1-800-955-7070. By using the tips from gethuman, I was able to finally get through. But if that hadn't worked, they list the number 1-800‑548‑4593 and say that pressing "0" will get you through to a human.
Just brilliant. Here's the gethuman database website. This has been today's public service announcement.
Note to my Florida peeps -- the database has workarounds for both BellSouth and FP&L. This would imply that there are "humans" to get through to in the first place. I will amend this and say that the tips on the database will get you through to an organic employee. "Human" is probably stretching it for these companies.
Update: They lowered my interest rate. Just for asking. That's another thing I highly recommend doing, especially if you've lived with their high interest rate for years and have (almost) always made payments on time.
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