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I’ve never encountered an automated phone system that can direct me to the manual for a product. Do you have an example of this? I have, however, encountered p

I’ve never encountered an automated phone system that can direct me to the manual for a product. Do you have an example of this? I have, however, encountered phone systems that make it literally impossible to talk to a person.

IIsi50MHz 4y ago
A number of years ago, Tracfone realised it _would_ be a good thing for customers to be able to automatic'ly extend their end-of-service date rather than having to remember to buying airtime minutes they don't need (due to already having lots of unused minutes) just to prevent getting their number suspended. Tracfone also decided it should be possible to activate this feature using just your phone number and a credit card, without having to sign into the website. There wasn't even a way for customers to sign into anything! Years later, they added a possibility of customers signing into an online account. But doing so did not give access to payment information enter in the old no-sign-in system. The call-in help number's menu system also got changed sometime, such that it was no longer possible to talk to a person — all permutations of the menu tree, as well as fallbacks like "just press zero a few times" resulted in loops.The mandated contact number for the vendor on credit card bills also went to this menu system. The end result was that the only way to modify or cancel a recurring payment created under the old no-sign-in system seemed to be telling the credit card company to either refuse charges from Tracfone or to close the revolving account. Doing so would cause Tracfone to cancel your service (which might not be what either you or Tracfone wanted). And after they cancelled? The remnants of Tracfone automation would do two things: send your now-disabled phone occasional messages trying to entice you back, and keep submitting charges to the credit card company to be rejected. When the credit card's refuse-charges instruction expired after five years, Tracfone would resume taking payment, for a now unrecoverable (already reassigned) phone number, for an IMEI that had not appeared any network for years. On the upside, I know somebody who has no problems with current Tracfone.

IIsi50MHz 4y ago

A number of years ago, Tracfone realised it _would_ be a good thing for customers to be able to automatic'ly extend their end-of-service date rather than having to remember to buying airtime minutes they don't need (due to already having lots of unused minutes) just to prevent getting their number suspended. Tracfone also decided it should be possible to activate this feature using just your phone number and a credit card, without having to sign into the website. There wasn't even a way for customers to sign into anything! Years later, they added a possibility of customers signing into an online account. But doing so did not give access to payment information enter in the old no-sign-in system. The call-in help number's menu system also got changed sometime, such that it was no longer possible to talk to a person — all permutations of the menu tree, as well as fallbacks like "just press zero a few times" resulted in loops.The mandated contact number for the vendor on credit card bills also went to this menu system. The end result was that the only way to modify or cancel a recurring payment created under the old no-sign-in system seemed to be telling the credit card company to either refuse charges from Tracfone or to close the revolving account. Doing so would cause Tracfone to cancel your service (which might not be what either you or Tracfone wanted). And after they cancelled? The remnants of Tracfone automation would do two things: send your now-disabled phone occasional messages trying to entice you back, and keep submitting charges to the credit card company to be rejected. When the credit card's refuse-charges instruction expired after five years, Tracfone would resume taking payment, for a now unrecoverable (already reassigned) phone number, for an IMEI that had not appeared any network for years. On the upside, I know somebody who has no problems with current Tracfone.