Today I had an interesting experience with my credit card company. I’ve mentioned before the ridiculously circuitous automated phone system they call customer support. I’m sure most of you are all too familiar with this sort of thing. In a way, it makes sense for them to use automated systems because it lowers their cost for providing a service. Unfortunately, the service provided is usually only a small subset of what can be done and may not meet your needs at all.
In this case, the menu didn’t offer me a choice at any point to request that my interest rate be lowered. I was given my balance and credit limit up front and there were plenty of options to get more transaction detail and even to request a credit limit increase. None of this was what I wanted, though.
The problem is that there is no option in this system to request to speak to a real person. Human beings who talk on phones must be paid. In this case, what I decided to do was get kicked into the error chain or ‘stupid customer’ chain. That is, I pressed options that weren’t valid choices and didn’t input requested data when asked. After just a short time of this, I was put into another system that didn’t tell me where it was sending me, but began attempting to get authentication information from me, i.e., last four of my social, home phone number, etc. Now I was getting somewhere.
I didn’t want to get shifted back into menu hell, so I held back on supplying any more information until I heard a human voice. It’s funny, but as soon as someone started speaking again I assumed it was an automated voice. It could have been the canned spiel she began with, but presently the kindly female voice began asking about the weather where I live and making small talk as she pulled up my account. Finally.
I made my request and after reviewing my account for a few moments she transferred me to another person (real human being) who within a two minutes had authenticated me and granted my request to lower my interest rate. Awesome!
He asked me an interesting question, though. He asked what kind of balances I was carrying on other accounts and I told him this was currently my only credit card. I’m not sure what bearing that may have had on anything, but it stuck in my mind. It’s possible he was going to try to hit me up for a balance transfer, but who knows?
The moral of the story is this: if you’re going to get what you want, you sometimes have to be willing to break out of the boxes that the world wants to put you in. Something as simple as this automated phone system can stymie your efforts if you let it. If you choose to go off the beaten path a little, sometimes there are great benefits to be found. Be prepared to question where everyone else is pushing you and maybe you’ll decide that’s not where you want to go.
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When I get an automated response, I always try pressin 0 or 9 to directly speak to a real person and ask him/her to direct me to where I want
That’s a good idea. It saves them loads of money to keep you from talking to a real person, but it’s sometimes impossible to get what you want through the automated menu. I suppose there are many ways to break out of the loop. Thanks for your comment!