Federal Government Institutes The Ultimate Avoidance of Customer Support
All we needed was for them to send us another blue card – the one that you put in with your pay stubs. The only number my husband could find was for the National SSI number. He called. The conversation went something like this:
“Blather, blather, blather economic stimulus checks, blather blather” as he listened to two minutes of recorded messages.
Followed by a computer which said, “Please tell us what you need.”
“Help with my son’s Social Security.”
“I’m sorry, we can’t understand what you need. Please tell us what you need.”
“Help.”
“Please tell us what you would like help with.”
The thing cannot understand more than two words strung together, or, apparently, it only understands the right keywords in the right order, spoken with the right accent.
Brilliant! The government no longer needs to staff offices full of support personnel because you cannot get past the automated system! They have devised the perfect method of making it LOOK like they are trying, while in fact, completely avoiding anything useful, and the best part is, they can blame it on YOU!
Since people hate the government anyway, they have nothing to lose!