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I recently had to cancel an ongoing subscription I had with Equifax, which requires you to call by phone. Unbelievably frustrating. I had to dial the service at
by danso 8y ago
I recently had to cancel an ongoing subscription I had with Equifax, which requires you to call by phone. Unbelievably frustrating. I had to dial the service at least 10 times. Each time, the automated responder would make me go through a very slow menu selection process, only to randomly fail to acknowledge either my correct SSN or zipcode or street number, which I entered using a keypad. As a consumer, I've had to enter info via phone keypad for as long as I can remember, and I've never run into a system (not even small local businesses) that was so randomly buggy.
I thought maybe I had the wrong phone number for cancellation. Turns out, when you google "cancel Equifax phone number", there are several phone numbers listed by Equifax itself, on various sections of its "help" pages.
Took me about half an hour to finally reach a human operator. Surprisingly, the cancellation process was quick with her with no haggling. But I imagine the process is so frustrating overall that a good number of people just give up.
- jjoonathan 8y agoWe really need some kind of consumer protection against IVR gauntlets.
- lallysingh 8y agoCertified mail letter saying that you want to cancel?
- jjoonathan 8y agoThere's a thought. The evil of IVRs goes far beyond cancellations, though. Warranties, insurance claims, anything where the company "wins by default" admits labyrinthine IVRs as a dark pattern, and some of those are "interactive" enough that certified mail winds up introducing as much friction as the IVR itself.
- User23 8y agoThe really evil ones hang up on you after you've been on hold for a fixed period of time.
- LeifCarrotson 8y agoInteractive Voice Response System, to save a trip for others who didn't know the acronym.
- inetknght 8y agoTrip saved, thank you
- JadeNB 8y ago> We really need some kind of consumer protection against IVR gauntlets. My brain tried really hard to read "IVR gauntlets" as a description of wearables, like AR goggles, before I realised what you meant.
- fishbone 8y agoPlease listen closely, our menu options have changed
- ethagnawl 8y agoThat has got to be the default, right?
- fishbone 8y agoI swear some haven’t changed for years but they still say that, argh
- thelastidiot 8y ago>>> Please listen closely, our menu options have changed. You are missing the "as". Please listen closely, as our menu options have changed. I know it by heart and can hear the same voice over and over again in my head. Crap!
- aerique 8y ago>>> Please listen closely ass, our menu options have changed.
- mistermann 8y agoWe are experiencing higher than normal call volume. Every. Single. Day. I would like to give executives the option to stop this or go to prison for this never ending nonsense. I think most would choose to stop.
- yellowapple 8y agoRelatedly, I've been flying a lot more than usual in the last couple of months. Every single flight, the boarding announcements start with something along the lines of "this plane is going to be more full than usual, so we're going to need to check some of your carry-ons". Well guess what, United? Maybe if you didn't cram passengers into the fuselage like sardines in a goddamn tin can, you'd have enough room for everyone's carry-on luggage in the bins.
- 13of40 8y agoHalf a year back I got a check from American Express for $50-ish because of some accounting issue they had. Bank error in your favor. Unfortunately, the local meth heads stole it out of my mailbox and I only got the check stub when someone found it in the street and turned it in to the post office. So I called them up to ask them to reissue the check. Long story short, they dodged and weaved with their phone automation and outsourced call center until I finally gave up and wrote them a letter. Six weeks passed and right when I'd written it off, I got a check.
- dd36 8y agoOnly reason you were refunded money was because they originally errored in their favor. You probably would’ve received nothing but a class action was threatened by private or government actor.