Don’t Get a Brain Aneurysm … GetHuman.com
Anyone who spends too much time close to technology has to sense that Technology (if you can consider it an organic enttity) is at odds with itself to either save or swamp us. This sensation is, of course, is simply a sentimental concept based upon a world of humans trying to use technology for myriad uses. But it’s ficticious nature still does not keep one from thinking the battle is well underway. Skip my venting about BofA’s automated technology in the next para to get the goods on GetHuman.com, another brave foot soldier taking technology back for ourselves.
Today I was banging my head trying to get a human at Bank of America. Our credit card had been put on a security freeze because a vendor we authorized a hundred times, had a hiccup and BofA’s dumb alogorhythm froze our account. I wouldn’t be nearly so heated about this if we had simply received a call or two tell us about this. But for the third time in a year their over-active system froze our account based upon purchases we requested and for the third time they did not call us, email or even send a letter. Today I had the rep read to my my account notes which say customer complains they did not receive notice. As luck would have it the rep’s supervisor was in a meeting so I could not talk with her. It was funny because the rep had no idea of the supervisor’s future schedule other than she was in a meeting at that moment.
But that was all after I finally got a human on the phone to transfer me to the fraud dept. I was banging my head because I was battling BofA’s IVP system (Integrated Voice Processor) simply trying to avoid hearing about sending money to mexico when Greg O. our Dir of Systems used GetHuman.com to find the key entry to get me human right away.
GetHuman has a couple dozen volunteers which scour hundreds of customer service systems and share key presses to Get A Human. This is clearly a work of passion. Their caption should be ‘Don’t get crazy … Get Human!’
And another line has been drawn in the sand in Technology’s inexorable battle with itself. Long live technology. Technology must die ;>
What web services do you love that help you save yourself from technology?
Friend, colleague and artist Kevin Cheng inks his frustrations with voice systems at the excellent OK/Cancel.
