Voice response phone
What really gets my back up, is when there is something you cannot do on the website (even when it is working) so you have to resort to calling. Even though you know it will take at least 30 minutes to get through...
And every 20 seconds during the music on hold, you get an announcement "why not go online to our website, where you can do almost everything, apart from the one thing you actually fecking want to do quickly and easily. Or, if you would prefer to speak to someone, please hold and we will answer your call sometime in the next week" (ok - not quite what they say, but you get the gist) JUST IN CASE IT HAD PASSED YOUR LIMITED COMPREHENSION, I AM ON THE PHIONE BECAUSE I CAN'T DO IT ON THE WEBSITE, YOU MORONS.
I always hope that while these messages are going out and we're listening to music on hold, that they are recording and analysing what is being muttered (or shouted) down the phone - then they may get an idea of what their customers really think about them.
And as for the one that do as Mr Dabb's system does - ask you to answer a question in a few words - I always try to figure out how many swear words you can fit into a sentence and it still tries to work out what you want.
HMRC must be the worst one I have dealt with recently...........
Biting the hand that feeds IT
