Calis Beach and Fethiye Turkey Discussion Forum

General Topics => All things that have nothing to do with Turkey => Topic started by: usedbustickets on May 17, 2013, 16:08:12 PM

Title: This man deserves a sainthood or a medal for services to humanity
Post by: usedbustickets on May 17, 2013, 16:08:12 PM
Anyone who has suffered the frustration or indeed the loss of valuable life minutes through using a corporate (HMRC / Banks / Mobile / Broadband etc.) call centre auto-attendant,  knows how difficult  it is to get an answer or worst still get to speak to a real person, will be cheered by what this man has done – see article on link below.  He has mapped the auto –attendant options (press 1 for xxx or 2 for yyy etc.) of all the major organisations to help people to get the answer they need, or perhaps more importantly to speak to a real person (ideally UK based)  – see website link below.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22567656 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22567656)
http://www.pleasepress1.com/ (http://www.pleasepress1.com/)

When reading the BBC article I did laugh at the numpty from the HMRC (the worst organisation in the UK to contact or indeed do anything) who believes that the introduction of new (it’s not!!) speech recognition technology will improve things.  S/he has obviously not used this technology themselves; otherwise they would know that it is even more frustrating and takes longer to use than the phone keypad and menu options.  How many times have you tried to use the voice driven systems to  ‘instruct’ using your voice: only to be told – usually a minute or so later – that they are ’Sorry but we didn’t hear/understand/get that’ only to be taken through the whole original announcement again, only for it to fail to understand you again and again ……. Only to give up!!
Title: Re: This man deserves a sainthood or a medal for services to humanity
Post by: Colwyn on May 17, 2013, 16:14:35 PM
Fully agree. Perhaps this ought to be in the Grumpy section.


Also HMRC apply a ferociously expensive charging rate for calls so you pay almost as much as you are complaining about being overcharged in order to make the complaint. I think this was raised at a Parliamentary Select Committee in the last two weeks and their spokesperson asserted they would continue to use it. The more inefficient their phone system the more money they earn. Great. It would be appreciated if they switched their attention to finding ways to successfully challenge the corporate tax dodgers and getting money that way rather than gouging the rest of us.
Title: Re: This man deserves a sainthood or a medal for services to humanity
Post by: stoop on May 17, 2013, 19:27:51 PM
I rang the HMRC 0845 number (free on my BT calling plan) about a fortnight ago. Got through to human after about 7 minutes waiting and sorted the problem in a Jiffy.

Maybe I was lucky?
Title: Re: This man deserves a sainthood or a medal for services to humanity
Post by: usedbustickets on May 18, 2013, 10:03:41 AM
Quote from: stoop on May 17, 2013, 19:27:51 PM
I rang the HMRC 0845 number (free on my BT calling plan) about a fortnight ago. Got through to human after about 7 minutes waiting and sorted the problem in a Jiffy.

Maybe I was lucky?
Stoop I think you were just lucky mate...
Title: Re: This man deserves a sainthood or a medal for services to humanity
Post by: stoop on May 18, 2013, 13:20:29 PM
Quote from: usedbustickets on May 18, 2013, 10:03:41 AM
Quote from: stoop on May 17, 2013, 19:27:51 PM
I rang the HMRC 0845 number (free on my BT calling plan) about a fortnight ago. Got through to human after about 7 minutes waiting and sorted the problem in a Jiffy.

Maybe I was lucky?
Stoop I think you were just lucky mate...

..and my wages were correct after they re-distributed my code correctly.

Can't say I've had anything but good service from them in the past but last time I rang before this was about 2 years ago when I gave up my self employed status and needed them to change my records. I had no problem that time either. It does help though when you know you aren't paying for the call. I just stick it on speaker and wait for them to pick up  :)

Maybe it's got a lot worse since then?

Title: Re: This man deserves a sainthood or a medal for services to humanity
Post by: Colwyn on May 18, 2013, 17:59:51 PM
"People are being hit with "rip-off rates" when calling government departments which use premium rate phone lines to rake in millions of pounds, figures show.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10065059/Callers-hit-with-rip-off-rates-for-phoning-government-departments.html (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10065059/Callers-hit-with-rip-off-rates-for-phoning-government-departments.html)


“The private company running HM Revenue and Customs’ 0845 telephone helplines is making hundreds of thousands of pounds in profit from taxpayers' calls, tax chiefs have admitted.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/tax/9832821/HMRC-0845-phone-number-makes-make-six-figure-profits-from-41p-a-minute.html (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/tax/9832821/HMRC-0845-phone-number-makes-make-six-figure-profits-from-41p-a-minute.html)