Airports and Telephone Auto Attendants

I am traveling out of the country and needed to call my credit card company to make sure my card did not get frozen while traveling. I called the 800 number on the back of the card and intentionally did not want to speak any of my responses if not necessary. People are sitting around me. Unlike the man who planned a surprise retirement party while yelling into his phone, I didn’t want other people to hear my conversation. It is amazing how much private information people shout into their phones when they are in public.

Receptionist phoneAnyway.

When I sat down at this end of the airport an hour ago, no one was around and no planes were boarding near me. Therefore, there really weren’t any announcements that would interfere with my phone call.

I got through the initial parts of the call to the bank just fine. But when the auto attendant was asking me specifically what I was calling for and was about to wait for my response an announcement came over the speakers. The auto attendant waited patiently for me to stop talking.

The announcement finished and Mrs. Auto Attendant began speaking. She wasn’t but a couple of words into her apology for not understanding my request when another announcement started. She patiently waited again and when the announcement paused Mrs. Attendant said that she would transfer me to a real person who could better help me with my request.

Other than having to wait through the announcements, that was probably the fastest I have ever gotten a real person when calling a bank since the scourge of the auto attendant began.

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