A bit of perspective from someone on the other end of these systems, there may be 10 people who can help with an customers issue but if you get the direct dial number for 1 person that person will be constantly barraged with calls and the 9 others wont be. Those phone systems fairly assign the calls to the 10 people. I do agree that some systems are set up far too complicated then they need to be so some simplification needs to be done. hopefully that helps to explain it Rory.

Helpful tip: When you’re stuck in a voice-controlled call-handling system (where you actually say “yes” or “no”, etc) and it’s obvious they’re just out to waste your time rather than let you talk to a human, whistle (much as you would to call a dog). Normally, the system will ask you to repeat what you said. Whistle again and most systems will then forward you to a human.

mashing the keypad also works to get human attention ;-)

Whistling, eh? I usually just start swearing profusely. It’s the physical response to blood boiling and it works every time.

Ian. Below the belt. Lucky you if you never made a misteak , or is that missteak, anyway I think you know what I mean , which is the purpose of communication.

Jason, 10 receptionists can work off the same line with a rotating transfer system surely that us basic nowadays , everywhere. In fact it does the opposite to what you say I that it spreads the load exactly evenly. Have I gone wrong , anyone?

I always repeat “strawberry shortcake” to the automated call gizmo, it totally confuses it an usually gets a human on the end of the line next.

Rory, my example is a support centre not a receptionist. No tech company is going to pay for a person to take calls and manually transfers to the right person. The switch board system is long gone. That said I do hate the talk to the computer system, the number system is better as if you do call allot you can remember the numbers to punch in, 6 then 3 then 1 and the person is onto the right group to talk to.

Funnily enough, a friend who was recently lucky enough to get approved for a mortgage, the only two options they had to get the paper work (P60, CC statements, ect) to the bank was to either hand them in personally or fax them. Seems Banks cannot accept attachments in emails for fear of virus’s, or even take them from USB stick as they are usually disabled in bank PC’s, Fax machine was king in this instance.

And then we wonder why banks in Ireland are f***ed. With foresight like this they might as well just give up now.

Checks will not obsolete in the UK by 2018. The UK have pulled back from, that and will now support the check format for as long as people keep writing them.. As for Ireland there has been no information released as to if they will follow the UK or not. but suspect they will, as there are UK banks here in Ireland and the government get great income from people who cash checks. (greedy feckers)

I haven’t had a chequebook since 1988. No need.

There are over 500,000 checks process daily in the Ireland. Business’s, Solicitors, Large companies like the HSE, Inland Revenue. Collages, all actively use the Check format. I think the Government recently put the tax on writing checks up to 0.70c, unless its 0.50c cant remember off hand but either way that’s a lot of revenue to just dismiss.

Simon : Are you American? If not then check the spelling of cheque!

Paper could be dropped drastically if people changed their attitudes.

I work with people who print e-mails just to file them.

Or printing copies of electronic orders as ‘back-up’ despite electronic version being stored off-site.

Ian: are you also American? If not then you should check your spelling of “e-mail” !. Seeing as it appears most frequently in edited published American English writing. But hey lets not get picky about how to spell word seeing as they are both correct.

I’m with you on that one!

Interesting question. I was watching a police drama the other day and they were using a double cassette machine to record an interview with a suspect. One cassette each for the interviewer and the interviewee. Anybody know what they use now? Just curious, but not enough to get arrested to find out.

Three VHS tapes are used by th guards. One for the prosecution, one for the defense and a sealed master copy for court purposes.