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by AzMoo_
2839 days ago
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Centrelink, Australia's welfare and social services provider, has this beat. You can't get service in offices anymore without an appointment. If you try to do something transactional they direct you to a bank of Internet-connected computers where you have to go through their website. For elderly or less technologically literate people this is an absolute nightmare. If you can't do it online you have to call them. Again, if you try in their offices they will send you to a phone which you can use. Official average wait times are 16 minutes but that's bullshit. Everybody has had the experience of waiting for 2.5 hours, and then getting cut off when the robot answering the call inevitably transfers you to the wrong department. People have literally attempted suicide when faced with the prospect of having to deal with Centrelink again. Our government of sociopaths applauds this system, seeing it as a deterrent for people to be on welfare and encouraging them to "get a job". |
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The number is (08) 80087355 - which is leetspeak for oh eight boobless.
Anyway, one year I discovered calling Centrelink from that number bumps me to the top of the phone queue because the 08 8008 part of the phone number is assigned to a geographic region in remote NSW, even though the area code is 08 because it's closer to Adelaide than Sydney (Broken Hill's area code is also 08).
It looks like this still works, as per the Centrelink website here:
https://www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/subjects/paymen...
Our rural call centres answer calls from dedicated catchment areas in rural Queensland and South Australia. Our specialist staff answer all calls made to Centrelink 13 numbers from the catchment areas. They also answer all calls made to the Farmers Assistance hotline from anywhere in Australia.
Bonus points for being able to keep this number on a $0 per month pay what you use plan.