I am a real person!

[tadiera.livejournal.com]

Me: Thank you for calling Technical Support, my name is . Could I get the ten digit telephone number that is installed on, starting with area code?
Cust: *insert dial beeps here*
Me: .oO(WTF?) ... Yes?
Cust: Oh! I thought it was automated!

Jeez. And I use a lot of inflection in my tone to try to avoid such an occasion.

Comments

[zercool.livejournal.com]

ROTFL...

that is classic.

I've got a few clients who will answer the phone, and I wait for the answering machine beep ... until they say "hello?"

[tjernobyl.livejournal.com]

When I got into the zone on a common issue, I'd drop inflection from my voice entirely. Thrice I was asked if I was a robot. "I am a human, sir."

[pygmymetal.livejournal.com]

Whenever I made announcements over the PA to the manufacturing floor, we'd be flooded with phone calls asking to speak to the 'hot girl'. Evidently I've missed my calling as a phone sex operator. *rollseyes*

[geekgrrl-ca.livejournal.com]

I took that as an opportunity to hang up. Abuse you know.

[tadiera.livejournal.com]

Even if the cust is swearing and insulting us, etc, we're not allowed to hang up.

[geekgrrl-ca.livejournal.com]

That sucks. They get 3 warnings and then they're gone, though I'm just as likely to put them on hold to cool off.

[tadiera.livejournal.com]

Hahaha.

"Sir, while I am not human, I am not quite a robot. I am an android."

[tadiera.livejournal.com]

Haha! :P

[tadiera.livejournal.com]

We can transfer them to a senior agent, but that's it.

[anaesthete.livejournal.com]

I have found that slowly dropping my voice into what I call the "phone sex register" (think Lauren Bacall) is an excellent strategy for making ornery male callers stfu and listen to, if not obey, my every command.

[pygmymetal.livejournal.com]

hahaha! exactly! ;) It's how I got the cable guy to reset the cable modem when calls from my exhusband weren't getting any results. I acted all blonde. :p Worked like a charm.

;)

[punkygoat.livejournal.com]

At my old tech job a day wouldn't go by without me being asked at least once if I was a real person. I could never react quick enough to simply say 'no....BEEEP'. That and that I belong on the radio. One of my (few) strong points in a deep, sexy, professional sounding voice that I'm sure helps with call control and general bullshitting. 'cause who the fuck is going to argue with James Earl Jones?
Oh, and I did once get the same situation once of script/beeps/"Hi"/"Oh..." People apparently miss the whole "My name is" part...just like when you ask your 2nd question in the opening and they launch into the problem in lue of answering.

-the Sexy Professional

[abstrak-tokatl.livejournal.com]

ya, it's happened to all of us.

[jdotmi.livejournal.com]

We get to hang up on them. Of course, they're all company employees, too, so we can tell them that if they don't calm the fuck down and behave like human beings we're going to report them to their manager.

[kerberos.livejournal.com]

You can't hear DTMF tones?
And you call yourself a Tech? *grin*

-Are you a human?
- Negative I am a meatpopsicle!

[tadiera.livejournal.com]

I'm usually half-asleep. ;)

[dacut.livejournal.com]

Given that a lot of automated systems have "names" now, expect more people to miss the "My name is" part in the future.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Gotta love the zone. Ever freaked anyone out by dropping into it during a face-to-face? Voice is mellow and soothing, face has all the expression of a half-melted wax dummy. People think you're having a stroke.

But the voice... ah yes. Nothing like Zone voice to out-soothe Soolfinians from beyond the Cloudworlds of Yaga.