Anyone else tired of......

[DADoES]

Pressing buttons. I have a speech impediment which sometimes makes it impossible to answer such that the damn voice recog can understand. I moved a domain registration from NetSol to Godaddy recently. Godaddy's authorization/confirmation system had me to answer a telephone call from their voice recog system, punch in (or state) an authorization code number, and then say my name. The initial sound that came out was not my name, but the system accepted it as my "signature" and hung up. BWAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!

Another time I was calling Social Security to change the bank info for my grandmother's direct deposit. I went though answering all the questions, the damned thing said one or more of the bit of info didn't match their records and then transferred me to a live rep. I gave her/him/it the exact same info. No clue what part it didn't catch correctly.

 

[Designgeek]

PeteK, would your preference change if you were using a phone with the dial on the base rather than in the handset?

DADoES: Interesting point about speech impediments and voice recognition! This should be handled as an accessibility issue, and someone should look into that question for instances where a company does not provide a touchtone option or a time-out to operator option.

OTOH the variety of accents found in the US nowadays is sufficient to force the issue on its own: Cantonese vs. French accents for example, could be interesting.

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Any place that uses your SS number as the major part of your ID on call-ins, is highly susceptible to being hacked by identity thieves. Object strongly whenever you run across that one, and demand to set a unique password or PIN.

 

[tolivac]

I don't like these auto-attendent systems either-I am a person--not Mr.Machine.Its time to bring LIVE attendents back-Maybe-just Maybe that will improve company images.-and make it easier for customers and clients to communicate.Most of the time I wait for a live operator to answer.Many time the "voice recognition" systems don't work-scrap that.The buttons on the phone work better.I love it when companies brag about when they have "improved" their auto systems-you try top use it and its WORSE!!

 

[rinso]

Designgeek, yes, I've been in the wireless industry for nearly 30 years. And yes, I do possess an old 1940's black, rotary dial telephone, and yes it still sounds better than my cell or my electronic home phone. The voice compressions in cell phones to which you refer, are also buried in the software of a vocoder. Don't you just hate talking to someone who is phoning from a crowded, noisy bar?

Two other vocoder software actions are the Sound Operated Noise Attenuating Device (SONAD) which mutes the recieve path when there is no voice, and the Voice Operated Gain Adjusting Device, which keeps the transmit level constant for different landline side voice loudness characteristics. The action of these two devices is normally a good thing, but in modern cell phone technology, they sometimes causes your conversation to sound like a simplex communication.(only one person can talk at a time, similar to a speaker phone) This is especially true of coversations which have a high level of background noise.

Before there was cellular, there was IMTS. A non-cellular, analog, system. It sounded better. Go figure!