How to Get Around Voice Mail to Talk to Someone
When you need help as a customer or client on the phone, you are likely to spend a lot of time waiting for a person on the phone. You probably often find the person who answers sends you directly to the voicemail of the person who was supposed to be able to help you. Now what? You have some options when you need to talk to a real human instead of waiting for someone to return a message you left on voicemail. Be creative and resourceful, and you should be able to get a live, breathing human on the phone who can help you.
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Instructions
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Press "0" repeatedly when you call an organization or business. This may, however, confuse the answering system; it may even hang up on you. It often leads to "invalid entry" messages. Sometimes, however, you will get to a human faster by hitting "0" over and over again or for each option.
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Wait until the end of the recorded message after it lists everyone you can talk to and their extensions. There is often an option to select that will take you directly to a receptionist or a customer service representative.
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Call back and try a different extension if the person you want to talk to is not available. The person at a different extension may be at his desk and may answer the phone. Some companies have phone directories you can search for by entering the first few letters of a person's name. Try that for each letter of the alphabet until you reach someone.
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Talk to a secretary or someone at another extension who will answer the phone, and tell him what your problem is and that you have only been able to reach voicemail. The person may be able to direct you to someone else who is available to answer your questions, or help you herself.
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Choose the Spanish option on the recorded message. You are likely to speak with a bilingual representative faster than if you waited on hold for several minutes since fewer people speak Spanish.
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Speak with the accounting cancellation, account collections or sales department. These departments answer the phone more quickly in some cases than other departments.
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Try calling the non-toll-free number. Find a customer service number that requires users to pay normal charges to use the service. Waiting times are usually shorter on these numbers.
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Say, "Get human" to the computer response system. Try "agent" or "representative" if "Get human" does not work. This will often prompt the computer to put you through to a person right away.
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Look up a phone number for a company or type of business on the No Phone Trees or Get Human websites. These sites list phone numbers for companies that actually have a human on the other end.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit answering image by sumos from Fotolia.com
