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Today I needed to contact a government service office for a task that only a human could perform. Now unfortunately, the phone tree of this office is broad and
by NoZebra120vClip 3y ago
Today I needed to contact a government service office for a task that only a human could perform. Now unfortunately, the phone tree of this office is broad and deep, you need to authenticate with about 4 data points before continuing, and if you hit the wrong option after authenticating, they will hang up on you without a second thought.
So I authenticated got through to the correct option on the first try, and it seemed like they were going to drop me into a queue to wait for a live operator. And then a recording informed me that "due to a high call volume, nobody is available to take your call." and dropped the call! Can you believe that. No option to leave a callback number or wait 4 hours in a queue, just terminate the connection. I called back and got the same thing.
The website does have a chatbot, but of course it is not capable of connecting to a human being and only capable of relaying the simple FAQs they've programmed into it.
I am pleased and impressed, for the most part, with the proliferation of Live Agent Chat for many services. I really prefer this over a telephone interaction (most of the time.) So it's good when I can easily break past the "virtual assistant" trying to FAQ me and get to a human.
But in this case, today, I suppose there were no humans to be found. Tragic. They have good compensation packages there.
- rahimnathwani 3y agonobody is available to take your call." and dropped the call! Alternative endings for the last step: A) Nobody is available to take your call. Press 1 to leave a voicemail. Mailbox full. Click. B) A human answers. They're not the right person, but can transfer you to the right person. Click. C) Same as B, but after they transfer you you're told 'Mailbox full. Click.'. D) Same as B, but they transfer you to the top of the phone tree.
- NoZebra120vClip 3y agoE) all of the above. Yeah, when I sense that (B) or (C) is coming up, I stop the person cold and I demand to know the direct-dial number for wherever they are transferring me. And these days I also ask to know the department name as well, so I can figure it out if presented with a tree or org chart or something. It doesn't always help, but it helps me feel a little more secure.
- benj111 3y agoHMRC? I'll bet my tax rebate on it.
- kayodelycaon 3y agoYup. Ohio unemployment office. They didn't process my application during the pandemic. I had to sit through a 6 minute monologue and then immediately get hung up on after it's finished, many, many times. Several people I have talked to had the same problem. Their applications automatically expired and couldn't be resubmitted because no one on the government side did anything.