Sometimes folks ask us why we spend so much time and energy on this free website. Rather than just giving you our reasons, we thought we'd show you some of the emails we have received from other consumers:
From: Montie K Date: Dec 8, 2005 9:47 PM My mother is 82 years old and is so frustrated with the IVR systems. She usually just hangs up. When it is really important, she has called me crying and has asked me to do the calling for her. She is hard of hearing and has difficulty following all the instructions. It makes her feel stupid and not capable to take care of business anymore. It has taken away her independence and dignity. From: Melvin G Date: Dec 11, 2005 2:34 PM These automated systems do more than aggrevate the person attempting to make contact. It actually covers up for the level of incompetency that exists in both the private and public sectors that service the public. From: Bill R Date: Dec 15, 2005 12:35 AM Five years ago I survived a stroke. Well, sort of: with the loss of my right side, negotiating IVRs and telephone trees has been an unending source of frustration. Having the cheat list is truly an answer to prayer. Now some companies have switched to 100% voice activated systems. Even though experts say my speech is 100% rehabilitated, there is no voice activated IVR (as in zero, nada, none, 0%) that can understand my responses. SBC's customer prevention system recently reduced me to tears. When I said "agent" the system replied: "You indicate you want make a payment". And I was transferred! I finally emailed corporate HQ and the following day a real person called me. From: Leanne F Date: Mar 14, 2006 8:18 AM I realized their was a problem with automated telephone service in the spring of 1999. My father moved in with us and tried to take care of his questions with bills by telephone. He could not complete the telephone call for various reasons: thought he was talking to a real person, the person on the recording talked too fast, hearing difficulty, response to automated system too slow, confusion, frustration and his fingers were too large for telephone buttons. From: Deb D Date: Mar 14, 2006 9:00 AM I stutter and when I get an automated message the computer does not understand what I am trying to say.