Loophole Alert!

 

If you're as persnickety as the Dabbler, you probably find yourself on phone calls trying to navigate the ever increasing web of voice activated prompts on your way to a 20 minute plus wait for a customer service representative. Sometimes the wait isn't worth the minor complaint you were going to lodge, or question you intended to ask. Recently, for instance, I spent over an hour on hold with Cingular tech support -- while sitting at a Cingular store no less -- just for somebody to tell me that pressing a little reset button on my Treo would restore the Caller ID function. Why nobody at the store knew this little tidbit about one of their flagship items, I do not know.

What I do know is that it sure would have been nice to get through to a human being right away, rather than after pushing myriad buttons, saying 'yes' or 'no' or 'technical support' only to be misheard by HAL, and ultimately having to listen to corporate Muzak for a good chunk of my Sunday.

So imagine my delight when I was told about the following website, designed to furnish loopholes to various automated call centers for corporations with whom one might be likely to have a gripe. It's called Get Human. I can't wait to try it out the next time my computer breaks down. Customer service reps, be warned!