Self-sighting: I'm embarrassed

[Food Lady]

So I had to pay a bill over the phone today since I couldn't do it online at the time. I was trying to hurry up & get 'er done; had to go to work, and trying to use the voice-activated automated system to avoid a fee. Of course I got one that wouldn't understand me, and all calls are recorded. I got so frustrated that at one point I yelled into the phone "BUT I DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING!" I realized afterward I'd been yelling at an unreal person. I feel like an idiot.

[RayvenQ]

There there, have some cookies and consider that at least it was a machine you said it to and not a person I've been close to doing that myself at times.

[Food Lady]

Well, at least a machine won't post about me on the SC board!

[wraiths_crono]

Our machine LOVES swearing, gets you to a live person instantly.

[elsporko]

I don't understand the purpose of voice activated phone systems. Its just like the ones where you push the button but less convenient. Its like if I invented a car that used just as much gas as cars do now, but required you to peddle to keep it running.

[Andara Bledin]

I don't understand the purpose of voice activated phone systems. Its just like the ones where you push the button but less convenient. Its like if I invented a car that used just as much gas as cars do now, but required you to peddle to keep it running.

If you're on a cell or a phone with the keypad in the handset and thus pressed against your face while you're speaking, having to press buttons makes the call very annoying, and you will often miss the first part of any statement after the button press.

I'm a stickler for proper diction, so I've never had a problem with those systems, but I feel sorry for people with accents outside of what the systems are designed to recognize.

Hell, even so, I can't get my phone to recognize the name "home" half the time...

^-.-^

[Midorikawa]

Our machine LOVES swearing, gets you to a live person instantly.

Yep...There's a certain DSL internet provider here who has a voice system that's unwieldy at best. First few time's I called in I spent 10 minutes in there before giving up...third time I called after 5 minutes I got frustrated and cursed at it. It replied "one moment while I transfer your call."

As a sort of SC moment, ever since, I've resorted to cursing at it to save 10+ minutes of my life to get to a rep...especially since I'm calling from a cell and have to pay for the minutes I use.

[BrenDAnn]

If you're on a cell or a phone with the keypad in the handset and thus pressed against your face while you're speaking, having to press buttons makes the call very annoying, and you will often miss the first part of any statement after the button press.

This. I usually use my speakerphone setting when I call to pay my cell bill and car payment on my cell. Makes it a whole lot easier!

[Plaidman]

I don't understand the purpose of voice activated phone systems. Its just like the ones where you push the button but less convenient. Its like if I invented a car that used just as much gas as cars do now, but required you to peddle to keep it running.

Not to mention several states in America now ban the use of cellphones without freehand in cars. So keeping hands on wheel while using it works alot better.

[trunks2k]

I've yelled at the IVR bots before. I was trying to start a new home phone service with Verizon for my apartment. The system was entirely IVR.

Rough transcript:

IVR: "Thank you for calling Verizon, please speak your 10 digit Verizon home phone number"
Me: "Uh...I don't have one."
IVR: "I'm sorry I didn't understand that. Please speak your 10 digit Verizon home phone number"
Me: "umm... New number?"
IVR: "I'm sorry I didn't understand that. Please speak your 10 digit Verizon home phone number"
Me: "Help?"
IVR: "I'm sorry I didn't understand that. Please speak your 10 digit Verizon home phone number"
Me: "Assistance!"
IVR: "I'm sorry I didn't understand that. Please speak your 10 digit Verizon home phone number"
Me: *pressing random numbers on the key pad*
IVR: "Please speak your 10 digit Verizon home phone number"
Me: "I don't have one. CUSTOMER SERVICE!"
IVR: "Please speak your 10 digit Verizon home phone number"
Me: "OPERATOR"
IVR: "Please speak your 10 digit Verizon home phone number"
Me: "CUSTOMER REPRESENTATIVE"
IVR: "Please speak your 10 digit Verizon home phone number"
Me: I DON'T HAVE ONE YOU PIECE OF @#*@@&!! WHAT THE @*@#@* AM I SUPPOSED TO SAY?!
IVR: "I'm sorry I didn't understand that. Please speak your 10 digit Verizon home phone number"
Me: *slams down phone*

IIRC, I ended up having to do a google search to figure out what to say. Turned out you had to say "New Service Request".

[ApolloSZ]

Hee, all I can think of is the scene from Red vs Blue -

(this is from memory, so a lil rough)

Church gets an IVR system...

gets to

"To hear these options in spanish, press eleven"
"There is no f*cking eleven!"
"To hear these options again, press 12"
"I. WILL. F*CKING. KILL. YOU. COMPUTER. PHONE. LADY!"

[labgirl27]

I've done that a few times with my insurance company's machine...surprisingly, if you say "I want to talk to a person, I want to talk to a person" over and over, you get patched over to someone who can talk to you :P

I don't think this should even be placed in sightings, as you weren't an SC...you got mad at a machine that was making your life harder than it was supposed to be. You didn't yell at a person, insult anyone or berate anyone. Don't be embarrassed :P

[freeatlast]

A few years ago, during one of my moves, I was trying to call AT&T to have my landline and internet transferred. Every time I tried to tell the voice prompt the reason for my call it would say "I'm sorry, did you say..." After several tries, I got mad and yelled "Can you understand FUCK YOU!!!" It immediately transferred me to a live agent. So now I know the secret

[Sunsetsky]

I hate those damn things. I usually find myself yelling and swearing into the phone.

[Seshat]

My husband's voice is at frequencies the machines don't recognise. Very annoying.

As for the Verizon system where you have to say a specific and unstated thing to get the "new service request", that's hideous design: it should be saying "please say your 10 digit number, or 'operator' if you do not have one". There are plenty of reasons a person without an existing Verizon phone might be calling!

All voice systems should be designed to switch to a human after some number of failures!