Panamah
05-23-2005, 11:12 AM
Probably a timely article to read in this day and age, especially for those of you still playing MMOG's. :D
http://www.forbes.com/home/business/2005/05/16/cx_jw_0517complaint.html
Rule No. 3: Sneaky Ways To Contact A Company
Customer service representatives are much more expensive than Web sites. That's why companies intentionally make their phone numbers difficult to find. You could get lost in the jungle of information on Amazon.com's (nasdaq: AMZN - news - people ) Web site while looking for its phone number. A better idea is to look up its profile on Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people ) Finance and, sure enough, along with an address is listed a phone number.
Gross suggests finding the company's latest press release on the pressroom of its Web site, calling the contact person and asking them who to speak with. (Sorry PR folks, but it's called public relations for a reason.)
Bailey also has a few tricks up his sleeve. If you call a company's main number and get a recorded greeting, you can sometimes bypass it by dialing another extension. If the last four digits of the company's main number are 2700, try 2701 or 2705. More than likely, you'll get a live body to speak to, and they can transfer you to the department you need.
Another sly tactic companies are using on their telephone systems is not offering the option of talking to an operator until the very last moment--those final seconds when most people have already given up. Bailey explains that the caller thinks the recording is about to hang up on them, then there's a short pause and, finally, the recording suggests dialing zero for an operator. Think you can outsmart the company's computerized phone system by just dialing zero at any time? Guess again. Bailey says that many times the system is programmed not to recognize the zero key until the very end of the message.
http://www.forbes.com/home/business/2005/05/16/cx_jw_0517complaint.html
Rule No. 3: Sneaky Ways To Contact A Company
Customer service representatives are much more expensive than Web sites. That's why companies intentionally make their phone numbers difficult to find. You could get lost in the jungle of information on Amazon.com's (nasdaq: AMZN - news - people ) Web site while looking for its phone number. A better idea is to look up its profile on Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people ) Finance and, sure enough, along with an address is listed a phone number.
Gross suggests finding the company's latest press release on the pressroom of its Web site, calling the contact person and asking them who to speak with. (Sorry PR folks, but it's called public relations for a reason.)
Bailey also has a few tricks up his sleeve. If you call a company's main number and get a recorded greeting, you can sometimes bypass it by dialing another extension. If the last four digits of the company's main number are 2700, try 2701 or 2705. More than likely, you'll get a live body to speak to, and they can transfer you to the department you need.
Another sly tactic companies are using on their telephone systems is not offering the option of talking to an operator until the very last moment--those final seconds when most people have already given up. Bailey explains that the caller thinks the recording is about to hang up on them, then there's a short pause and, finally, the recording suggests dialing zero for an operator. Think you can outsmart the company's computerized phone system by just dialing zero at any time? Guess again. Bailey says that many times the system is programmed not to recognize the zero key until the very end of the message.