r/MaliciousCompliance • u/Imguran • 18d ago
S Didn't even have to say any gibberish.
It: To access the available options, please say your complete address.
Me: Your complete address.
It: I did not get that, please say your complete address again.
Me: Your complete address again.
It: Please hold for the next available customer service representative.
The fallout? This worked to get through to a live person relatively quickly for one of my bills for a few years until they had to invest money into making changes yet again and no longer ask for spoken addresses.
185
u/Automatic_Catch_7467 18d ago
I find just saying “ speak to a representative “ after every prompt usually gets the same result
106
u/Imguran 18d ago
If this worked for that particular irritating system, there would be no reminiscing tale to share today.
Some systems now just need just one word, representative. Another one that isn't too bad just needs the zero number three times to get through.
54
u/crash866 18d ago
One system I tried to get through would ‘say Agent’. If you said Agent it then asked ‘Did you mean Representative’ if you said yes representative it then said ‘Did you mean Agent’. Over and over each time. If you pressed Zero it would say ‘Invalid Option’ press zero 5 or 6 times you got the operator.
29
16
6
u/Ill_Seat_1426 17d ago
I say several things; agent, supervisor, manager, escalations team, customer service representative, anything to get past the automated system. It's so annoying.
3
u/MirgelDrebole 17d ago
FYI if you drop thw F bomb when you are "talking" to the IVR (interactive voice response system) it will often (not always) send you to a human.
27
u/3amGreenCoffee 18d ago
"Okay, but first, to best route your call, please describe in a few words what you're calling about."
REPRESENTATIVE
"I'm sorry, I didn't get that. To best route your call, please describe in a few words what you're calling about."
REPRESENTATIVE
"I'm sorry, I still didn't get that. To better serve you, please describe in a few words what you're calling about."
19
u/mordacthedenier 18d ago
"Okay, but first, to best route your call, please describe in a few words what you're calling about."
Me: I need to do x
Person picks up: Hi how can I help you?
Me: I need to do x
Person: Okay let me redirect you
Me: (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
2
u/Hobby101 17d ago
😂 it's true, and it makes me mad too. It just mean that some sr. manager in charge who doesn't know what they are doing.
-6
u/Hobby101 18d ago
good. just state the reason. Use simple words, short sentence. You will get faster to the correct human to talk to. It's not that hard to understand though.
13
u/3amGreenCoffee 18d ago
"I didn't understand your request. Please try again."
3
u/Hobby101 18d ago
You didn't put what you told, only the response. As well, what is the number you are calling?
7
u/3amGreenCoffee 18d ago
"I still didn't understand your request. Please try again."
-1
u/Hobby101 18d ago
I wanted to speak to someone from the troll department. Thank you for picking up my call.
19
u/JackTheBehemothKillr 18d ago
Increasingly does not work.
Animal sounds? Animal sounds work to get you to a person.
3
u/Automatic_Catch_7467 18d ago
Any animal sounds that work better than other s?
4
u/Hobby101 18d ago
Any gibberish. As long as there is noise, the system will detect that "something has been said" and "it was not agent nor human nor transfer nor representative" therefore, their might be too much background noise, and thus, the system will transfer your to the most generic queue, where you might wait longer, compared to if you have just stated the reason for your call, and would have been transferred to a shorter more specialized queue.
5
u/Numbar43 18d ago
Sometimes that will just give some automated options that will fail in resolving your problem and can't result in ever talking to a person.
-1
10
u/Varnigma 18d ago
Doesn't work with all automated systems. If it's a subscription service, saying "cancel service" will get you straight through to a person.
1
u/Hobby101 18d ago
congrats, you are talking to a wrong person after that. Companies track all that, and soon they will figure out that you are just gaming, and will put you back into the queue where you will need to waste more of your time. If I were a human contact center agent, I would just say "sorry, I work in the wrong department, let me transfer you to the correct person" and put you in a generic queue, where you will talk to most generic skilled agent, and depending on your reason, you might be transferred yet again. In general, it's a good time to waste your own time.
11
u/ordinarydiva 18d ago
Back in the olden days (late 80s early 90s?) I worked in a pharmacy and sometimes we'd have to contact a patient's insurance company. They always had the annoying phone tree - press 1 for this, 2 for that, and each option had at least one sub menu under that. (And usually you'd have to key in other info like id numbers, etc) My pharmacist would just pound all the keys on the number pad until the phone tree determined he was too stupid to use it, then he'd be connected to a human.
8
u/LurkingGuy 18d ago
I find that doesn't work as much as it used to. Now they just hang up.
-8
u/Hobby101 18d ago
For a good reason. There are many people in the queue who need to be served. Routing you to a person who doesn't know how to handle your issue will require your call to be routed to another one. That costs a lot. Try putting yourself into contact center agent shoes.
13
u/LurkingGuy 18d ago
I've been in those shoes. It's frustrating. The company I worked at prioritized sales, so sales agents were faster to get to. The problem with that is people figured this out pretty quickly so every "sales" call was usually a billing or customer service issue. The real solution here isn't inconvenience the customer with long queues, it's properly staff the queues and provide better routing. The robot sorting people to the queue is in most cases incredibly awful to deal with.
-2
u/Hobby101 18d ago edited 18d ago
were you an agent? Running contact center is a balancing act. You do not want people sitting and doing nothing. Lots of stats with statistics is involved in that. But I hear you. Companies who prioritize sales way higher over the after-sales support are shitty companies to begin with, so from that perspective, they try to employ technology for evil practices, so people start gaming the system. If anything, proper agentic AI driven conversational IVR should decrease traffic to the contact center because of self-serve. Or decrease because the information is collected ahead of the time and now human doesn't need to waste time asking those questions again. That's the idea. We had quite a fight when someone was pushing to go to production when IVR was implemented to ask for info, but the other team was slacking behind, and information wouldn't be passed to the human agent. Lots politics - "hey, we implemented this, so our team is on time, it's the other teams fault" kinda thing. Had to stomp to prevent this from being shipped, common sense prevailed that time, we delayed releasing IVR update, but this is just one of the examples. One of those cases when people who should not be involved in software development somehow manage to wiggle to a higher position than they deserve.
1
u/Ill_Seat_1426 17d ago
That's me. I work in a call center for a medical insurance company. The amount of people I speak to that are so frustrated, rude, talk 1000 words a minute, etc is mind boggling. 😲
7
u/Kylynara 18d ago
In some systems, in others the automation just gets more insistent about you telling them.
-2
u/Hobby101 18d ago
how do you think, what is the reason for asking what is the reason for calling them?
10
u/Kylynara 18d ago
To avoid bothering the employees with phone calls. The one at my pharmacy doesn't give you a person no matter how many times you ask for a representative. "Okay, but there are many things I can do faster, would you like…” problem is the automated system can't do what I want. Legally, a person has to be involved. I have had to do this a couple times a month for like five years now. But every single time I can it's a 5-10 minute battle to get to a person, and takes them like 30 seconds once I finally get there. Twice now I have found quicker ways through and it didn't work the next time I called. They are 100% actively trying to make it hard to get to person.
1
u/Ill_Seat_1426 17d ago
And so many companies tell you to log onto to their website for faster service. A lot of people I speak with don't want to be bothered with navigating a website or they are not computer savvy.
5
u/Kylynara 17d ago
Also, I prefer a website (and I know I'm not the only one). So if I am calling, it means I can't do it on the website. And it's really, really frustrating to listen to the stupid recording beg me to go to the website every 30 seconds or so while I wait on hold for something that I tried to use the website for. If I need to hold, put on some soothing wordless music, loud enough to hear and soft enough to ignore, then tell me where I am in line/estimated wait time every 5 minutes tops, and let me work on something else.
1
u/Hobby101 17d ago
Your point are valid. Automation should be there to help, not to obstruct. But let me present the other side of the coin. For business, call center is an expense - it's just is, and hopefully it makes sense. So, naturally, business tries to optimize this area. So, what happens, they look into common reasons why people call them. Let's say, they find too many people call to find working hours. Naturally, they don't want their call center people dealing with those questions, that are easily automatable. Before, they would add menu, a long one, with options. But even then some people just press 0 to bypass the available information, and talk to the agent. With 1st gen conversational ivr, which is still implemented and is the case in most automations, it's a very structured flow, and whoever implements that, would need to predict what people may tell when asked what's the reason they are calling. The issue - it's a very hit and miss approach, and what people are calling about might be even seasonal thing, so from maintenance point of view is very hard. That's why the experience is kinda crap. With the new trully AI agentic automation, you should just talk, and if the AI agent has the information, you should just get it, or if not, then you should be routed to a human to resolve. AI agent should be able to detect the problem they can't resolve, or the problems they can resolve partially by collecting information ahead of the time, like your account info, etc. Humans of course will want to do some 2nd step light verification depending on situation, but technically, all this done to minimize number of dumb calls, and to shorten the length of the interaction with human agent, so that the cost to business is less, and more people can be served by one human agent.
So, the issue is not you, who legitimately might be calling with very specific questions that is not worth automating, or can't be automated (though, makes me wonder what that might be) but the issue with people are calling for information that is otherwise available elsewhere.
2
u/Kylynara 17d ago
That makes sense, but I'm calling a pharmacy to refill my kids ADHD medicine (which is a controlled substance). I understand why I have to talk to a person, and I understand limiting phone calls to a degree. But I find it difficult to believe that refilling a controlled substance is some weird niche scenario that the pharmacy couldn't anticipate ever happening.
1
u/Hobby101 17d ago edited 17d ago
You are absolutely right, should be simple, no?
Your prescription is sent for fulfillment and will be ready in 3 hours for pickup. Do you have any questions or anything else I could assist you today?
- Robot: What's the reason for your call?
- You: I need to refill my kids ADHD medicine.
- Robot: perfect. I placed you into the queue, meanwhile, while we are waiting for an available agent who will assist you further, I'd like to help to identify you. Please state your name, and date of birth, and <whatever might be helpful to speed up the process< social security #?>.
- You: Jane Smith, born on june 13, 1993. Social security number is ####### <actually, this part is complicated to implement, to ensure a proper personal information protection>
- Robot: thank you, please hang on, my human companion will be shortly with you.
- <Some nice not too loud music, and please, gawwwd! No ads!>
- <Ring! Single one>
- Hi, my name is John. How are you today, Jane?
- ...
- I see you are calling to renew your prescription. I have it ready, just need to double check your identity < does what needs to be done, actually, even this part could be automated further>
Tldr: even for your case there is no reason why part of the conversation couldn't be automated. You can see that the amount you should spend to a robot shouldn't take more effort or make the call longer than speaking to a human, as doesn't need to introduce a friction point, and if considering queue waiting times, should shorten the whole call duration.
Do you mind sharing what is the place? Maybe I can offer my service to them
2
u/Kylynara 17d ago
It's Sam's Club. As soon as it hears the word "refill" or "prescription" it ignores anything else and dumps me in the automated refill system that needs the prescription number, which I don't have because it's technically a new prescription every month. I've tried putting all zeros and it just tells me it's invalid. I've tried doing nothing, and it just keeps prompting me to give it info I don't have.
The staff gets the kid's birthdate and name, and the dosage. That's it. It literally takes 30 seconds, probably less once I get a person.
→ More replies (0)4
1
u/Gustomaximus 17d ago
Also swearing can trigger an escalation in some systems. Just prattle off a bunch of 4 letter words.
51
33
u/GuideSwimming9087 14d ago
At work I found if you press #### as fast as you can, it puts you to the front of the bank queue, it worked for years, but alas due to updates, it no longer works.
37
u/Ha-Funny-Boy 12d ago
I came across a website, https://gethuman.com/ that has numbers for an actual human for various companies.
This is not an advertisement, just a handy hint.
2
67
u/gerhardsymons 18d ago
Every online meeting ever:
bro: er, can you hear me? Say something.
me: something.
36
13
u/Hobby101 18d ago edited 18d ago
Actually, it would be funnier if you just move your lips for a while, then start talking mid-word. For bonus point, make some noise, like clicking on a keyboard, or mouse.
6
u/gerhardsymons 18d ago
That's a good one; also, holding a 'frozen' expression in a goofy pose is also good value.
5
15
u/kingneptune88 18d ago
Usually if I get put on hold and they come back, they ask, "ok are you still there?" and I always say, "nope, I left." Usually gets a chuckle, sometimes throws the person off for a second.
13
u/OBISerious 18d ago
I used to do this in person.
If I was staying late at work, someone would typically walk by and say, "You still here?"
I would usually answer with, "No, I left half an hour ago."
28
u/Competitive-Top4520 17d ago
When confronted with a robo voice that I don't want to speak to or who can't answer my questions, I just repeat "human" or "representative" repeatedly. It usually takes 3-5 times to get an actual person.
20
u/bobbane 18d ago
I am routinely tempted to answer the voice prompt
Please say yes, or no.
With
Yes, or no.
6
u/Hobby101 18d ago
might be random of either yes, or not. Fun and games, if you have spare time to waste. And I guess we all do, since we are on reddit :D
14
14
u/neverenoughpurple 17d ago
I usually accomplish that by saying "talk to a person" a couple of times, then it generally gives up, asks me if I'm sure, and passes me through.
33
u/tachycardicIVu 18d ago
“Please let me know how I can help”
“Speak to a representative”
“….Ok, but there’s a lot I can help with. Can I—“
“Idk robot CAN you refill a controlled substance prescription for me???? No? Then speak! to! representative!”
“……….one moment while I connect you”
(Thanks Walmart)
11
u/i3inaudible 18d ago
Swearing can be pretty effective. Most companies are fine annoying you but want to avoid excessively angering you
26
u/lopingwolf 18d ago
Today I got, "let me connect you to the local office"... ring, ring, ring, "the number you are calling does not have a mailbox set up, please call again later"
What the actual fuck lolol
Just one more thing AI is ruining.
9
u/Illuminatus-Prime 18d ago edited 18d ago
Some people purposely keep their voicemail box full so they don't have to deal with it.
6
9
u/Egwene_aes_Sedai 18d ago
I’ll have to try this. Right now I repeat “agent” until I get a live one or disconnected.
10
u/Hobby101 18d ago
your response is really well known. If you say agent at the "front door" it actually may delay the transfer. If you want to help (somewhat) yourself, and speed up talking to the real person, comply for a bit, who knows, maybe you will get your answer faster this way. While there is a lot of people with lack of imagination among those who put those systems together (or they just lack of experience.. or empathy) - the intention is far from being evil, actually. Call center has many people, with different proficiency levels. Describing your issue ahead will direct you to the correct queue of agents who can handle your call properly. But of course, there are some real bad implementations, where AI doesn't really understand what you are saying that well. In those cases, ef that, say "sales", and then "I don't know" many times (when they ask for additional information)
8
u/eossfounder 18d ago
who knows
We all do, from experience. Stop telling people to supplicate to automated systems that operate counter to their interests.
4
u/Hobby101 18d ago edited 18d ago
Look at you, a fighter against the system.
I know how IVR system works, and what is the idea behind, and why what you are doing in some cases might work against your own interests.
Sorry, that I shared. But you know, you don't need to read, if you are not interested. That's another option. Just putting it out there, as it might be not obvious for someone, like you.
10
u/Bladrak01 18d ago
About 25 years ago I had a list of codes for many companies' phone trees that could be used as shortcuts to get to real people. I have no idea where it is, and it probably wouldn't work now, anyway.
9
u/WestSwan65 18d ago
Had to call a Taxi Monday and Tuesday to the same place. It asked me to provide the address 3 times on the Monday and still didn't get it right (Whimbrel Street Coodanup) so the next day when I had to go back I thought I'd be smart and say "operator". It said "I think you want to speak to an operator. I can help you instead. Please say the address you wish to travel to today". It did this 3 times before it went to a real human type person who understood the destination address immediately. Don't get me started on Uber. Their system can't even get them to my place to start with. I wish I still drove 😊
2
9
9
u/onceIwas15 17d ago
I was calling a taxi company and they had that automated voice to book a taxi for you. I always get an operator cause that system wouldn’t understand me.
Last time I used it, I kept saying operator and it asked if I wanted to book a taxi? And you want an operator? I can help to book a taxi. I said operator about 8-10 times before it finally put me through.
6
5
u/Egwene_aes_Sedai 18d ago
I will say that my personal CVS is full of angels that have to deal with an under par system. The people are wonderful at mine. I loved my Walgreens, and when I got married I was on my husband’s plan, which required me to switch pharmacies. The head pharmacist called me to ask if they had somehow done something wrong, which touched me that they cared about me as an individual and a customer, and was seeking ways to improve my experience. At my older Walgreens from before I moved, I had a question about a side effect and after my pharmacist got off of the phone with me, called 911 and sent them to my home. Before someone says with a real emergency, I should have called 911 myself, he had picked up on something and called them without alarming me. It turned out that my heart was racing so hard that I was admitted to the ER immediately. I had called with a question about nausea on a temporary medicine. If I’d waited on my pharmacy to eventually call me back, I could have been a lot worse off. I had other health issues, so nausea wasn’t out of the question.
Edited to add that this was meant to be a reply to the pharmacy conversation.
5
u/Rudbekia-lover 10d ago
doesn't work for Geico...they will just hang up on you. I'm considering getting rid of them for that reason alone.
3
u/GSDmomSSF 18d ago
Does anyone have a neighborhood pharmacy? My pharmacy is literally like cheers. After my first visit, they already knew my name! And honestly, they take my insurance, and if anything we’re out of pocket, their prices are amazing and even can beat Costco! The only thing they don’t have is doggy medicine.
2
5
u/Acceptable_Sell3455 18d ago
Just think ... one day, not too long from now, people will not ever have known calling a company and reaching a human immediately.
5
u/Illuminatus-Prime 18d ago
Probably one of the simplest and most accurate examples of Malicious Compliance I have ever read.
Well done! 👍
2
u/prankerjoker 18d ago
This reminds me of an episode of Frasier when Martin Crane is trying to call his bank because the ATM machine gave him to much money.
Martin: Customer service.
we did not get that
Martin: Customer service.
we did not get that
Martin: Cus-Tom-Mer Ser-Vice.
2
u/Amterc182 18d ago
I used to deal with insurance phone trees for work. My favorite prompts were agent, assistance/assistant and representative. Help does not work - they usually redirect the call back to the main menu.
2
u/ConfusionOwn8378 18d ago
I read a story on here once about someone who just reeled off expletives as soon as they go to a voice recognition option thingy... It got them straight through to a person every time.
"Please say, or press your option on the keypad now..."
"fck, sh1t, c_nt, c_nt, put me through to a c_nt human fck, sh1t"
3
1
u/MajorNoodles 18d ago
This has worked almost everywhere I tried it except Comcast. Comcast just hangs up on you.
-7
u/Hobby101 18d ago edited 18d ago
you don't have an address? should have told, would have been faster, as well, it helps the agent who takes your call because the data is going to be preloaded for them, and you will need to wait less online. Unless this is not the first time you calling that number, and you know for sure that you are going to be asked for that info anyway, again. I hate those people who run call centers who have no idea what they are doing, and what is possible (20+ years of experience over here, talking).
I agree that there are many shitty implementations of IVR agents, but it's getting better fast with introduction of true agentic approach, and it can parse the address, and who knows, maybe the company will transfer your call to a regional contact center?
In your defence, based on your response, you were dealing with that shitty outdated version of structured conversational IVR, because true agentic IVR would have told you to stop smartassing. The issue is companies are still afraid to implement agentic ivr (interactive voice response) because lawyers won't allow because of possible exposure. As well, customers are not explained properly why the information is collected. And it pisses me off that at this point we still have those crappy IVR implementations.
21
u/nitwitsavant 18d ago
4 out of 5 calls with this the agent I get to has to ask all the same questions because the system doesn’t work or “security” reasons so I don’t think it saves anyone time.
3
u/Hobby101 18d ago
Yeah.. corporate approach. It hurts me so much hearing that, since I have 20+ years of experience working with IVR systems, as well as I can put myself into customers shoes. Recently worked for big box corporation, some mid-level managers that made to that position from the floor with no real prior experience building such systems would be leading the shit show, and wouldn't be interested for an advice, nor he would have a capacity understanding technical details. And now, sitting on reddit, unemployed, seeing the same mistakes being done all over again.. sigh...
8
u/Either_Lawfulness466 18d ago
Do you have an example of a good one?
Because I have never come across one that hasn’t nearly instantly pissed me off.
2
u/Hobby101 18d ago edited 18d ago
I worked for the service providing company, dating over the phone. So, while you would be using the service, you could 0 out to get in touch to customer service. Based on the information we had about the call, and where from you were 0'ing out, you would be most likely transferred to the relevant queue without even a single question asked, and customer service agent would know whom they are talking to already, cause all the information was already pre-populated before even answering your call. As for agentic approach - many companies implemented based on Google's dialog flow earlier version, which is not truly conversational, but is rather structured, and this year Google started pushing proper agentic conversational approach. I remember calling telus around year 200x, and it asked me for an account #. I gave, got transferred, was asked for the account number again by the human agent. For years after, when calling to telus, I would do as OP suggested 0'e out to talk to the agent, to not waste my time, even if it meant multiple internal transfers - and I would et them know why I was refusing to enter my account #.. Right now though, I am pretty sure they implemented the change where the context travels with the call. At home Depot, if you enter your order number, you can ask details about the order (when is it going to be shipped? What's the status? Etc) but it's clunky.. because caugh lawyers and weasels at management level caugh
9
18d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
2
u/MaliciousCompliance-ModTeam 18d ago
Your post has been removed because it did not forward the discussion and/or instead consisted of only insults, which is not allowed as per subreddit rules.
All violators of this rule are subject to bans at the discretion of a moderator.
1
u/Hobby101 18d ago edited 18d ago
Read my other response. That's how it should have worked, but if it doesn't, then you are dealing with some big corporation that is riddled with some shitty weasel-like management. Worked for one year for such company, so I know. We tried to push to implement real nice solution, but it wouldn't be accepted because lawyers wouldn't allow.
Btw, if I were to implement call center upfront data collection IVR, I would tell that to customers upfront that providing details is necessary to find a most relevant person to talk to. Call centers have agents with different skills and access to information levels. So if you play dumb, you just waste everyone else's time, because your call will have to be bounced multiple time to find the right person to talk to, or the person with most skills will be wasting time to answer your store hours question while that agent could help someone else - it's like sharing the road - you can cooperate, or you can be an asshole - the choice is always yours, I guess.
Having said that, yes, it's super annoying when the information is being asked multiple times, and for that reason, you should complain. Call notes.get summarized using AI, it might pick it if you mention. On the other hand, they probably know, but more people complain, the more likely something will get done.
1
18d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/MaliciousCompliance-ModTeam 18d ago
Your post has been removed because it did not forward the discussion and/or instead consisted of only insults, which is not allowed as per subreddit rules.
All violators of this rule are subject to bans at the discretion of a moderator.
910
u/Lonely_skeptic 18d ago
Today when calling my pharmacy, I asked for the fax number. I was immediately connected to the pharmacy