Little things that p*** me off.....

Dick Rees

Dick Rees

Curmudgeonly Scandihoovian
Jan 11, 2011
1,551
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St Paul, MN
I was just on the phone to the local Apple Store and their automated answering system got me going. First off, it starts out by stating, "I am an automated answering system.....". No, you do not qualify as an "I", Hal.

But the thing that really got under my proverbial skin was the recorded sound of keyboard strokes which would come on after any voice cue I would give to the "system", as if my request was being logged in by hand.

It's a f****** machine and I'll never accept it as a substitute for a living, breathing operator even if they're half-way around the globe.

Rant over........for now.
 
Re: Little things that p*** me off.....

What annoys me the most: When you move and it takes several attempts to update your address.

About 20 months ago I moved out of the Ex's house... When I changed my address on the DMV's site, I sent in my information to the Election Board to change of address with them. About a month ago, I called the Election Board and questioned them as to why I have not received any election information; you got it, old address. Today, I go into vote at my “new precinct” I found out that my address for the Election is STILL incorrect and I was at the wrong polling site.

I have another fun story. I purposely let a credit card default because I tried several times update my address with them. I went into the bank, call their 5 different 800 numbers, and sent them numerous emails. About 2 months after I moved, they sent a replacement card to my ex’s house and it was returned back to them; in turn they lock my account and I wasn’t able to use it. After 4-5 months of trying to get my address corrected, I stopped making payments. About 6 months after that, they got the hint I didn’t live there; needless to say they updated my address and my Account is still locked, but at least I have 0.1% APR on the account to pay off the remain debt.
 
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Re: Little things that p*** me off.....

I am more pissed off by music on hold for longer than one song.

I am more pissed off by incompetent humans... (unplug it and try again). Or incompetently designed service menus that send you to Bangalore, when the problem is on the pole outside your house (happened to me with DSL problem). Maybe a human first could have helped there, but it seems the human I finally talked with after lying to the service menu was not pleased or very gracious. I got my problem fixed eventually, but I had to outsmart their service system and diagnose the real problem cause by myself, then accept the risk of having to pay an extra service charge if i was wrong with my diagnosis (I wasn't wrong).

I am more pissed off by many things other than a well designed interactive computer/phone service interface.

have your computer call my computer.

JR
 
Re: Little things that p*** me off.....

Back in my TV/Film post production days, I would often have to call Avid support get bug investigations going. They had the same Seal CD (Seal II) on infinite loop for the hold music. This was before Avid had internet forums and they used dial in BBS. I would get stuck in the hold cue for long periods of time, up to an hour with that damn CD looping over and over - and every time I called in which was often. I started a thread about in on their BBS. I also complained every time I called in. The issue became legendary in the 3rd party Avid field support community. It only took them 9 months after the complaining started to change the hold music. But guess what? They just put on another CD that looped over and over...

...Don't Cry.... ayy ayy ayy....

Seal - Don't Cry - YouTube
 
Re: Little things that p*** me off.....

So anyhoo.......

After more attempts to actually contact a human being @ Apple, I dialed up the number and, when prompted to "tell me how I can help you", replied, "F*** off".

The response I got had me cracked up. Gotta admire the voice recognition programmer who prepared the system to respond to that one. Try it and see for yourself.
 
Re: Little things that p*** me off.....

Greg Cameron said:
Back in my TV/Film post production days, I would often have to call Avid support get bug investigations going. They had the same Seal CD (Seal II) on infinite loop for the hold music. This was before Avid had internet forums and they used dial in BBS. I would get stuck in the hold cue for long periods of time, up to an hour with that damn CD looping over and over - and every time I called in which was often. I started a thread about in on their BBS. I also complained every time I called in. The issue became legendary in the 3rd party Avid field support community. It only took them 9 months after the complaining started to change the hold music. But guess what? They just put on another CD that looped over and over...

...Don't Cry.... ayy ayy ayy....

Seal - Don't Cry - YouTube
Click to expand...

That's funny.

My favourites are one place I call often that has a Commodore64-ish version of "The Entertainer" going on and on forever (think greeting card sound quality):

The Entertainer (full song) - synthesia - YouTube


My other "favourite" is the place that has a badly tuned radio going...that one drives absolutely bonkers!
 
Re: Little things that p*** me off.....

Dick Rees said:
I was just on the phone to the local Apple Store and their automated answering system got me going. First off, it starts out by stating, "I am an automated answering system.....". No, you do not qualify as an "I", Hal.

But the thing that really got under my proverbial skin was the recorded sound of keyboard strokes which would come on after any voice cue I would give to the "system", as if my request was being logged in by hand.

It's a f****** machine and I'll never accept it as a substitute for a living, breathing operator even if they're half-way around the globe.

Rant over........for now.
Click to expand...

You're pissed about the i-store calling things "i"? LOL!

I'd be a lot more worried about paying 2-3 times what the tech is worth, if I shopped there!
 
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