Glad you feel better. did the robot win the argument? Thankfully, I have not encountered those. Although they have informed me I could do tasks online, they didn't make me feel uncomfortable for requesting the service over the phone.

The silly one that irritated me recently was at a fast food restaurant. I was purchasing only a soda (inside, not from the drive through). The cashier asked for my name. If I was ordering food, I could understand them wanting to know my name to let me know when my order was ready. (Although, I much prefer they just call out the order number instead.) But after paying for the drink, the cashier was going to hand me a cup himself, and the transaction would be complete. He kept insisting he needed my name; I finally told him to just make one up.

Was it Starbucks? I know they're supposed to write your name on the cup.

Funny story. I have a friend who works at Starbucks. The customer insisted his name was Penis so she would have to write that on his cup. But they're not allowed to do that. So she wrote Pe'Nus.

Everything can be done online now days. Checking your bank balance, checking the status of a prescription, ordering groceries, or ordering a pizza. I save myself the aggravation of dealing with phone robots by doing every thing on line.

I feel the same way. I don't call if I could find it online! I sure as heck don't want to be in that stupid system that never understands me and I-inevitably-press Zero as fast as I can so I can talk to the human. Who, amazingly, understands me perfectly even if English isn't their first language. Go figure.

Some of the required language is definitely too stilted.

I can't remember which firm must've taught them to use the customer's name.

May I call you Annie?

OK Annie, I'm looking up your account now, Annie.

I will have to put you on hold for a moment Annie. Is that ok Annie?

Drove me nuts.

English is my second language, and I speak it with an accent. The STUPID robots mostly do not understand me. If pressing 0 doesn't work, I ask to speak to a human. I hate it, when they hang up on me.

I hate it even more, when I have no computer access for what ever reason, and the automated message goes: you can also get help online!

YIKES, I really, really hate that one.

Moni

I don't know if you call this customer service but after visiting my doctor, afew days later they have a recording to call me and ask all kinds of questions about my visit to the doctor. They don't call during the day it is in the night! At the end they ask if there is anything else I would like to tell them about, leave a message. I told them I did not like taking surveys and that they call too late at night. This happened last night. I would not have answered it if I had known it was to be a survey. The caller ID just said Community Health Network so I knew it was from the doctor or hospital office.

Sue

When I'm put on hold for a time ... or have a recorded voice offer a number of options that I find of little or nil interest, sometimes when I get a warm body on the other end, I've been known to tell them that I've been waiting for whatever number of seconds/minutes, while their company was saving money but wasting my time, so now I'm suggesting that I talk nonsense to you for an equal amount of time, to waste an equal amount of your company's time.

They're usually surprised, sometimes laugh, sometimes say that they're busy and can't take time for such nonsense, so then I ask for their name and to talk to their supervisor ...

... or, maybe, do they know how some folks earn about $45,000. per year before they need to pay income tax ...

... or how to earn a second income with no extra work involved, etc.

ole joyful ... who gets a bit o' fun out of life, here and there

I hate when they ask me for my email during the transaction. Even if I am paying cash! No, just no, you may not have my email or my phone number. I just tell them they already have it in their system or flat decline.

Same with me, outside, I never give my email, phone number or postal code. I always say no. I know they are told to ask by their bosses but it drives me crazy.

And asking to donate? Every single store I go to is collecting for something - the Red Cross, Kids Help Line, a local school, the food bank, etc. I prefer to donate on my own time, not let the big company get a big tax break because every person donates a dollar or two at the checkout.

Casey, a friend and I were talking about that today. People don't realize that the grocery store, etc gets a charitable tax donation on the money collected, even though it came out of our pockets.

Same as Walmart asking at every purchase if I want their MasterCard. I can save 10% on my purchase. No thank you, I'll forgo the 50cents savings on my $5 of cat food.

Pawprint, I could have written your post as those are irritants to me, too. I love calling customer service at Williams-Sonoma/Pottery Barn where I get a real person who helps me do exactly what I need to do without resorting to a script.

I was at a new-to-me doctor's office last week and the assistant was going through my medical history asking all the questions that were answered by the form I had already completed and that was right in front of him. I finally asked him if he was having difficulty reading the form. So annoying. Then, of course, the doctor came in and starting asking the same exact questions. Really? Read the d*mn form, would you? If after doing so, if you need clarification, then ask that question, okay?

I love when I call comcast to report an outage and they keep telling me to go online even when I've pushed the option to report a problem with service. Grrrr.

Not a Starbucks, Pawprint; it was Taco Bell. He handed me the cup and I went over to the self-serve machine to fill it.

The operators hate the script too. I remember when I was doing phone support. So many ridiculous things to be done on every call. Customers don't like it, operators don't like it. Only management seems to like surveys and forcing operators to use a customers name as many times as possible (because some study with information gathered **probably** from a survey showed that people like to hear their name).

I called WalGreens today to check on an RX. Went through the recorded phone loop twice. Finally hung up, called back and then pushed the option to talk to a human in the pharmacy. I got "Please hold while we transfer your call."
Then it hung up.

Did that two more times, before I just gave up.

Called the Doctors office and went there and picked up a paper RX, took it down to the Mom & Pop pharmacy got it filled.

How about "did you find everything you were looking for today?" (Again, I know they have to ask but it's still annoying.)

Do they jot down what you couldn't find or so they just say "sorry"? I have never mentioned that I couldn't find something as my guess is not much would be done about it.

Pawprint, have you ever considered the doctor's office might be trying to verify if you are on the level, or possibly some junkie (no disrespect intended, I'm sure the successful ones look just like everyone else) registering at several doctors' offices to get multiple prescriptions? I'm sure it happens.

While I see no reason to stick up for pawprint, I've been fighting my pharmacy for days now! I ordered 90 days via mail order, and got double charged, not mail order, 30 days... And I work for the medical center. Probably nothing to do with junkies!

LOL. I'm not a junkie. My doctors office will call in a script while I'm in the office. Well now they send the script through the computer. So while driving home I call the pharmacy to see if they got it and what time will it be ready for pick up.

Oh sorry, I see my reply should have been addressed to "Fun2BHere"- not meaning to imply anyone is a junkie, just that the doctor might be looking at the form in F2BH's example and asking the questions to see how well his/her answers matched.

And they want me to check online but I'm driving! Most times the prescription is ready for pickup by the time it takes me to drive from doctor to pharmacy. Unless they're swamped.

Colleenoz, so they think I might give three different answers within an hour? Why? These weren't pain related questions...just medical history questions.

I always have been annoyed by Starbucks asking for my name and then calling it out when my coffee is ready. I think I'm going to start telling them my name is Littlebug. Or John. Or Queen Latifah.

Hi Little bug ... (is someone who bugs you called a "bugger"?).

Did you ever tell the Starbucks person ... (is that a "barista" ... or a "buck-aroo?) that you could answer to "jackass"?

ole joyfoul ... don't know about Starbucks - too rich for my blood

Fun2BHere- say they asked you to confirm when you had your eye operation (pulling a medical condition out of the air here). If you were doctor shopping, you might hesitate ("did I put June 1993 or 94?" etc) and that might give the doctor pause.

You all know I work in customer service and I do answer the phone at work quite often. As a CSR when I do answer the phone, I always answer with: "Customer Service! How can I help you?" Now, when you call our store you get options. 1 is for the pharmacy. If you need ANY pharmacy question asked, push 1. But no, somehow people manage to push 4 because it's the last option and they don't want to listen to the robot go through the numbers again. Then they have to push one for (and the robot tells you in a clear voice) Customer Service. And I would have to say, the odds of the person on the phone needing Customer Service is small. Really small. They want their prescription refilled. And will give most of their personal private information to me: a receiver who quit high school and is not a pharmacy employee. I try to cut them off as quickly as possible and transfer them to the correct department. I also answer the phone again with "customer service. How can I help you?" And the person will say, "Why didn't the post office guy leave my parcel?" And I"ll cut them off and say, "Oh! You have customer service. You needed to push 2 for post office" and cut them off and direct their call to the proper department. Drives me crazy when people call our store, but refuse to listen to the prompts and then get mad at the person who answered the phone because we can't answer their questions.

On your subject though, I have to call our call center often. And YES, they repeat everything I say and it drives me crazy. I've even held the phone to my ear and started hitting my head on the counter. Especially after I've told them the problem, they repeat what I've said word-for-word, and then they still don't understand what my problem is yet I've pretty much drawn them a picture. They don't understand because while we work for the same company the CSR has NEVER used my program on my computer and doesn't have a clue how retail works, nor does he or she have any idea how the computer program works and it frustrates the begeebies out of me.

Okay, I got to vent. You can move on to the next person now. I got a lot of my chest. Thanks for letting me hi-jack your post.

:)

Oh I hear you loud and clear. I worked in tier 3 tech support at Time Warner Cable for 5 years. Every time I called I immediately was routed to the Philippines.

I had to walk them through step by step what I wanted done to my equipment because they couldn't figure it out.

Since I've been on disability all year I can't do it myself. Thank God I have my memory & can tell them what screens & codes to enter.