On Wed, 10 Oct 2007 12:41:33 -0400, Terry
wrote:

On Tue, 09 Oct 2007 22:01:15 -0700, JLF wrote:

FOLLOW UP: I contacted my phone company (PacBellSBCAT&T) and after
the usual voice mail maze, the nice lady said there should be no
problem if I just plug in an older rotary pulse phone.


I call it menu hell.

I was trying to get the social security office this week and I had to
call 4 times before I picked a combo of menu options that did not play
an self help option and then hang up.


After hurricane Rita passed through, I found the cable TV line on the
ground. When I called customer service, I had to answer several
irrelevant questions before getting to talk to someone.

There was the time when I canceled wireless phone. They cut off the
service right away, but I was still billed for it. After calling the
company and stating the problem FIVE times they promised a credit on
next month's bill. I got the credit and was charged for another month.
I called them again, stated the problem ANOTHER five times, and was
told to call a different number. On that number, I just had to repeat
the problem statement THREE times, before the problem was fixed.

Last year, I sent email to a satellite TV company about an error in
the online guide. They replied with an email giving some info on using
their site, which did not address the problem. I sent some more email,
and they replied with instructions on operating the receiver (even
less relevant than before). This time I tried calling, and that person
refused to do anything but reset my password, which had nothing to do
with the problem. I sent some more email, and got my password reset.
The problem was fixed, although it's quite unlikely the password reset
had anything to do with it. I replied to that email saying the problem
was fixed. They reset my password AGAIN.

Many times I've gotten a voicemail menu where none of the menu items
were appropriate to what I was calling about and there was no stated
option to talk to a person (not even the old "if calling from a rotary
phone, stay on the line").
--
76 days until the winter solstice celebration

Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"I have found Christian dogma unintelligable. Early
in life I absented myself from Christian assemblies."
-- Benjamin Franklin