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What Grinds Our Gears: Automated phone lines

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ILLUSTRATION: Victoria Xi / The Peak

By: Sarah Sorochuk, SFU Student

Do you know the feeling where you are missing a package or something, and the only way to get your package back is to call the “help” number? But how helpful is it, really? Most of these big corporate companies are too large to have someone sitting over the phone to help with every little issue. So, they have delegated these conversations to robots. 

“Press one for tracking and deliveries, press two for lost packages, press three to repeat this menu.” 

Like, hello! I am calling to talk to another human being!!! And then when there is a human being button, I’m transferred to a never-ending queue with awful elevator music. 

But to add to the irritation — some of these automated systems are getting so realistic. For the longest time they sounded obviously robotic. But not anymore! Now I don’t even know if I’m talking to someone real or to a robot. It’s sad, actually. 

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© The Peak Publications Society

Simon Fraser University’s independent student newspaper since 1965.

For advertising inquiries: [email protected]
For promotional inquiries: [email protected]

© The Peak Publications Society