Getting past all that "helpful" technology

As people involved with technology, we should love technology in all its forms -- well, not always. Some technology has not been invented for our convenience or for better customer service -- it's there to reduce the cost to the firm that just screwed up our invoice or sold us a defective product.

Dial A Human is a simple service that provides instructions on who to cut through automation hell to reach a real person. I have not tested these techniques, but I know I have used them with success on other sites. Hitting zero or yelling "agent" does often work. Some of Dial A Human's techniques are not obvious and I'm certainly going to use this site the next time I come to a Christmas tree full of automated prompts.

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