please get a clue after the beep

[athena-clam.livejournal.com]

I just had a customer ask me if I was an answering machine. It was sooooo tempting to answer "yes".

Comments

[inahandbasket]

that's phenomenal.
:-D

[oddigy.livejournal.com]

Hah. I can relate completely. (told in 3rd person... because damnit, I feel like writing in 3rd person, sorry.)

Once upon a time, Audigy worked as sole supporter for some professional hardware. Audigy was the only person who ever took support calls for this product.

One day, Audigy answered the telephone as per her usual:
"Hi, thanks for calling (xxxxxx), this is (my name). May I have your telephone number, area code first, please?"

The next thing that Audigy heard was DTMF tones, the sound of the customer punching in his telephone number.

Audigy was nearly unable to contain uproarious laughter, then had to explain to the customer that Audigy was not a recording, but a real person who could not decipher DTMF tones.

[kerberos.livejournal.com]

You can't deciper DTMF tones? And you call yourself a tech? ;-)

[punkygoat.livejournal.com]

I get that all the time. Mostly "are you a real person?" Apparently I have a very strong, announcer type voice and am told I should be on the radio. So my last day (not far off) I'm certainly going to mechanize it a bit and act like part of the IVR.
And I understand what DTMF is, but what's it stand for? I feel I should know, all that time when I first got online reading countless text files about phreaking.