I needed to order a new credit card today. Mine’s getting worn out from over-use. Look, I buy chewing-gum with the damn thing. Everything goes on plastic.
Quickly look up the phone number. Dial the number… couple of rings…
“Hello and welcome to [card company]. Please enter your 16 digit card number.”
*sigh*. OK.
*beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep*
Pause. Erm… Ah.
“Please wait a moment.”
I just have.
“Please enter your date of birth. For instance, if you were born on *blah* *blah*”
*beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep*
“Now please enter the four-digit card expiry date”
*GRR*
*beep* *beep* *beep* *beep*
“Your current balance is…. Your credit limit is… leaving you….”
I DON’T CARE!!!
“If you want another service, please use one of the following options.”
Oh grud, I just *know* “talk to a human” will be last.
“If you want to….” etc etc etc.
And of course, after four other options, I get to talk to a human being. By pressing “*0”, not even just “0”. “*0” so you can’t guess it and jump ahead.
Phone rings. Once. And a nice young lady picks up. And then takes my name, address with postcode, card number (again), expiry date (again), date of birth (again!)… Didn’t I just get past all this so I could speak to her? What’s the point?
Anyway. Rough time spent keying numbers in and getting through menu… about 4 minutes.
Rough time spent giving same information to a human and sorting the card out… 2 minutes. At what point is this automated service actually helping me?
