Yes, You Are Talking to a Machine (How to Get a Human on the Phone)

All the presents have been opened and the family sent packing. The college football bowl games are over and you are finally starting to wake up from the tryptophan induced coma. You’re probably wondering what to do now. Well, if your Christmas went anything like mine, you probably need to return those awful gifts that your family members gave you. Didn’t they check the Amazon wish list I created?! Guess not. Anyway, if a lot of your stuff was purchased on the Internet, you probably need to call the gift givers to find out where to send it back, how to get a gift card or refund, what the warranty is, etc.

I’m guessing you probably aren’t looking forward to the hours of being on hold and having to go through repeated menus just so you can describe your problem to a robot that will tell you “we can’t process your request, please try again”. Lucky for you and me, there’s Paul English. He’s created a “cheat sheet” to quickly get humans on the phone. His website lists companies along with their 800 numbers then tells you how to navigate those tricky “speak or press” menus that drive us all crazy. Check it out at http://gethuman.com. He’s even separated the companies into categories like credit, finance, government, and even the internet. Thank you Mr. English. Thank you.