OT Technology rant

Told the wife yesterday that someone needs to develop a machine for the home owner to deal with robo calls.

All you would have to do is dial the number and your robo caller would answer all the robo receivers questions.

I've been working on a larger version of this problem: designing a device to be an "automated attendant". Imagine how a secretary handles the calls he/she "intercepts" on behalf of his/her boss:

- some calls are politely discarded (folks selling replacement windows)

- some calls are put through with priority (spouse is on the line)

- some calls are prompted to leave a message

- some calls are put on hold while boss is consulted etc.

I.e., the secretary "learns" the boss's preferences/priorities for incoming calls and then efficiently applies those to the calls received. He/she *recognizes* the voice of the boss's spouse, has other ways of identifying specific callers, etc. instead of dumping those tasks on the boss's lap.

"If Tom calls, tell him I'll meet him at the Club after work" "I'm expecting a call from my wife. *FIND* me when it comes!" "If that bozo headhunter calls again, tell him I died!" "Ignore all calls from telemarketers"

With this, you should be able to only answer the phone when the attendant decides you *should*! The rest of the time, the phone needn't even RING!

If I'm required to answer a question a second time, I press 0 continuously until it tells me to hold for an agent. You spent 15 minutes with an automated system. That's 14 minutes longer than I would have tolerated it.

Frank wrote in news:mssoho$3pa$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

Someone has. Visit nomorobo.com .

Saying "Representative" or "Agent" works with many robot-attendant systems.

Perce

Do you *not* think I tried that?

When you "give up" on a system, what recourse do *you* have? In this case, I can sit down and write a letter. But, I can now do so armed with *details* of the faults in their system. Had I given up after the second time she asked me to spell my name, I'd just end up writing a letter that said: "I was too impatient to deal with your system. Now *you* can jerk me around with SNAIL MAIL to your heart's content..."

I was thinking of calls that you place and have to spend several minutes with their robo answerer.

If you called and got a robo, your robo would take over and provide answers. Your robo would be pre-programmed to give all the answers.

There are legit robo calls that you want to get. My doctors use them to remind me of appointments for example.

Ah! I understand.

I'm not sure I would want to trust a device with deciding what information to universally "leak" to those who ask for it.

E.g., the call I was commenting about (up-thread) asked for my SSN but indicated that giving it would be optional. I'm not keen on providing that -- especially when it *shouldn't* be needed.

It's amazing how much information folks "require" that isn't truly necessary. "Why do you need that?"

If you went to purchase a pair of shoes and the salesman asked for your name and address, why would you comply with that request? "I'm paying cash. How does my name and address factor into this transaction??"

Exactly. Our local library gives you a courtesy notification when you have an overdrawn item (so you can promptly return it within the grace period). And, can alert you when items you've reserved have arrived for you. Doctors/dentists/laboratories/etc. all call to remind you of appointments, give you instructions to follow prior to your visit, cancel/reschedule your existing appointments, etc.

OTOH, just because you are willing to *receive* the message doesn't mean that you need to be *disturbed* by it the moment it arrives!

Often times if you punch # sign or 0(zero) warm body comes on. If you have to answer numbers like 1,2,3(one, two, three), just punch in 1,2,3. My insurance agency, bank, lawyer, accountant are all located in the vicinity. 10 mins. drive at the most. I can deal every thing in person.

Today's kids are becoming KB punching robots any how. No I.Q needed just punch.

I tried that. I even made sure I called "during normal work hours" to ensure someone *would* be there. But, it's a nationwide service so doesn't make sense for them to have live staff for a service that they don't make any *money* performing!

And, it *should* be a no-brainer application to automate. Just make something that can recognize spoken digits and letters and you can handle all of the data entry! The only reason to ask the user to pronounce his/her name is if a HUMAN will have to eventually try to suss out what was said: having a spelling *and* pronunciation can make that easier.

In some cases, they allowed DTMF input. In other cases, when I did so, it complained "I'm sorry, I didn't understand you".

As I said, it was just a piss poor implementation!

I don't think any of those are offices for nationwide credit reporting agencies! :> I can phone my insurance agent, bank, accountant, lawyer, doctor, etc. and talk to a real person -- no "machine" getting in the way. If push comes to shove, someone will take a message and have them return my call (e.g., doctor is typically "seeing a patient" when I call; I wouldn't want him to have to run out and take my call at

Don,

Having determined that the provided number was inadequate did you look for other numbers for this company? I'm presuming here that you do not have a local agent.

Dave M.

Local insurance agent (i.e., the company which initiated the credit check) was of no help -- nor did I expect them to be. A preprinted flier comes with the new policy indicating that they accessed my credit history, etc. and contained *an* address and phone number. The phone number, at least, appears to be given out *only* to folks who have had their credit checked for this sort of reason -- it's not the same as for a *general* contact regarding your credit history. I.e., the machine that answers the phone makes a statement to the effect of "You have been given this number by a company who checked your credit... yada yada yada". Elsewhere in the dialog, you are prompted for the 14 digit identifier that the credit agency provided to that company when it checked your credit...

So, it is obvious that this contact is *just* for folks "entitled" to a free copy of such a report -- not the "one free copy per year" that EVERYONE is entitled to. I imagine if Joe Nobody called the number and tried to get results, the system would balk when he couldn't provide that reference number, the name of the company that initially checked his credit, etc. He'd probably be directed to something like

In my case, the "dialog" ended "successfully" -- leading me to believe that a human being would review the data that the machine was apparently unable to process. *Or*, contact me (by phone) for further clarification.

Regardless, I will followup with written correspondence to ensure I am not cheated out of this opportunity due to a faulty implementation. And, to take the time to describe how silly the interview was (why do you need anything more than the 14 digit identifier? And, perhaps, one other bit of trivial data as "confirmation"? After all, the data that I was asked to provide OTHER THAN the 14 digit identifier could easily have been forged by any of my neighbors -- who know my name, address, birthday, ZIP code, insurance company, etc.)

You are very considerate.

I get those. The bot takes too long to start talking, and I'm about to hang up since no one's there. They're often painfully slow, like

"The ........................... time ........................... is .......................................... twelve

------------------------------------------- thir

------------------------- teen

------------------------------------------------------ pee

------------------------------------- emm"

I used to buy a lot of stuff at Radio Shack with cash. They always asked. AFAIK, all they did with that data was send advertising (including the "free" 5-D-cell flashlight, batteries not included).

And often not. Or, you get a person who's not any better.

One reason I got cable TV instead of satellite. The cable company has a local office and I can go there and talk to a real person.

BTW, that sat customer service was real bad. I told them the problem had been fixed, and they messed me up again.

Exactly. For folks *so* intent on "I have to do this", I have no problems staring them in the eyes and giving them a bogus name, address and phone number, if they insist. Am I breaking a law by doing so? Am I pissing them off? :>

If they want to be unreasonable, I can surely be just as unreasonable! :>

My wife used to write a lot of checks. Businesses would ask her to write our phone number on the check (as it wasn't preprinted). She would. I quizzed her: What would they need that for? In case the check bounced? Have we ever bounced a check? Are we ever LIKELY to bounce a check? No! Then, they will NEVER need to call that number! So, they can just as easily NEVER call a WRONG number!! :>