Land of Oz

Help? Line

Have you called a help line lately? Companies efforts to use computer voice recognition for their customer support just plain sucks - is that clear enough? I suppose it's OK if you happen to be asking about one of their choices, but for whatever reason, I rarely do. So that means Ihave to listen to tons of crappy messages about stuff I have no interest in.

And then when I finally do get a question I can answer, the computer doesn't understand. How many times have you heard, "I don't understand that, can you repeat it please?" at which time I repeat my phrase and the computer repeats its phrase. I slowly and clearly speak midwestern English with no speech impediment and little or no accent. You'd think the stupid computer would understand that.

And you know what really pisses me off? After all that fighting with menus and computers and you finally get a human, their accent is so thick you can barely understand them! I really don't have any strong prejudices against people who speak with a strong accent unless I can't understand them. I had a couple of university professors who spoke with such strong accents that I often had no idea what they were talking about. I've had the same experience with more than one customer service rep.

Come on companies, get it together. Get rid of the speech non-recognition software and at least go to keyboard controlled menus.If you have to out-source your calling center to some exotic country,please make sure the folks you hire can speak understandable English if needed. How about making a first choice menu for language preference.

Now, do you agree? Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't understand that, could you repeat that please?

Labels: computers, gripes, tech