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Believe it or not, there was a time when you could place a phone call to a company and have a real, live person answer. They would answer your questions and, if they didn’t know the answer, they would connect you with someone who could. You might even get to know the person on the other end of the line, maybe get on a first name basis. Those days are gone forever. Now you have to have a photographic memory to
absorb all the options a recorded voice gives you, a list you can punch
in a number on your touchtone phone to access that department. It always ends with an offer to repeat the options and will
keep you on the verbal merry-go-round in hopes you’ll give up.
The persistent help seeker may eventually get a human being on
the phone, but he may wish he hadn’t. The world has become smaller and the tech or
sales person you get could be in Hong Kong or Bombay.
America On Line is said to like the tech people in the Philippine
Islands. Now there’s no problem with that except often
neither can understand the other. There
should be a phone key option to select the language.
I had a Cook’s Tour of international dialects when I tried to
resolve a problem with an AOL account.
When I set the account up, no one said there was a maximum number
of names that could be put in the address book.
I did learn quickly that sending out multiple messages could be
blocked as spamming unless you had one account flag for the maximum
mailout. I asked for 5,000 names to be available for emailing at one
time. So far as I
understood there was no limit on how many names went into the book.
Some sales person said, no problem. We were getting along fine until a popup message
began appearing. “Address
Book entries exceed the maximum allowed.
Cannot add more.” Shouldn’t be any problem to get this
straightened out, I though. Was
I fooled! I made the 800 phone number call to AOL for tech
help. My dilemma was
getting someone I could understand and who could understand me.
I made call after call, talking to Miguel, Eduardo, Yeng and even
caught up with someone named Bojo.
I finally got to the point when someone with an unfamiliar accent
got on the line, I would ask, “Do you speak Southern?”
When they asked what was Southern, I explained that I now live in
Tennessee where I brought with me a Virginia accent. I doubted that we would be able to communicate. Each assured me they could solve the problem and
I tried to explain. One
told me I could have no more than 500 names in an address book.
Another said 1,500 was the maximum allowed. When I explained I had increased the email addresses to 5,000
over six months, and been using them, they said that was not possible.
They told me I couldn’t email more than 50 at a time.
I tried to say my account was flagged for 5,000.
We seemed to be on two different channels. In desperation, I called billing to see how the
account was set up. Sure
enough, for 5,000 names. They
forwarded me to the Community Action Team for AOL.
At least, we spoke the same language.
They affirmed I was cleared to store 5,000 names and email that
many at a time. But 5,000
was the maximum, they told me, when I asked if I could go to 10,000.
In fact, the rep said he had never heard of anyone with a
5,000-email list. He explained my email list was stored on their
main hard drive in Virginia and they had to have a limit one person
could have. Time to try another Internet server, I thought.
ComCast had no limit on the number of names for an address book,
because the names were stored on the customer’s computer and not on
their system. But I could
only email eight addresses at a time.
That would take forever. This
conversation took some time because no one had ever asked the sales
person these questions. Next I tried Microsoft.
No limit to the number of names in an address book, for the same
reason. Names are only on
the customer’s computer. First
she said there was no limit to the number sent out at one time.
I urged her to be sure because I didn’t want the email blocked
for spamming. She put me on
hold four times tracking down the answers. I could send out 500 at a time.
But I might be blocked for spamming if I repeated mailouts too
frequently. Back to AOL.
They seem to have the only system for bulk mailing.
It’s just going to take Rube Goldberg approach to add more
names, but it can be done with additional screen names and bringing the
addresses forward just for emailing. Some years ago when there was an explosion of
long distance phone carriers competing, a friend asked me to see which
was best for his business. I
reported it depended on what yardstick you used.
Each offer some better and some worse service than the other. I just have to learn to ignore the email from
AOL’s tech people. I have
emailed them back the phone numbers of their different departments so
they can get on the plane to keep from being America Off Line. |
