[fallingfrog]

Just yesterday I was on the phone with my insurance company because I needed to reset my password, snd I got stuck in the following in the following infinite loop:

“What do you need help with today”. - My account. “Great, can I get your account number?” -enter number. “Ok, now that I have your account, what do you need help with today?” -my account “Great, can I get your account number?”

Etc etc.

I complained about this on Facebook and one of their reps showed up and said, “oh, just tell the automated system that you want to buy car insurance right now, then it will connect you to a human.”

I did this, and it worked, and she answered with “how can I help you” and then I got my account unlocked right away. She clearly didn’t know before she picked up the phone what I needed.

I’m pretty sure that my experience is the norm not the exception.

Remember: the company has to pay for the representative’s time, but the customer’s time is free. They don’t want you to have wandered away from your phone while on hold. So they give you a task to perform while you wait. It also helps to encourage you to get your account numbers and stuff ready and have your paperwork in front of you when the rep picks up.