Heaneyland!

Conned by Con Ed

So I called up Con Ed today to pay my bill by phone, and after I had walked through the payment menu, I wanted to talk to a representative. (The automated payment-by-phone system had never asked me my name, and since Rose's name is on the bill and not mine, I wanted to make sure this didn't matter.) Accustomed to the standard phone system in which one can press "0" at any time to get an actual person, I kept hitting the zero to no avail. When I finally got back to the main menu (after hearing their interminable and shrill ad for automatic payments twice), I thought, well, I guess I need to listen to the full set of options since this zero thing isn't working, and a good thing too, because the lady phone robot informed me that if I wished to end this call, I should press 0.

Sneaky! Now that we've all finally figured out how to navigate the first wave of irritating phone systems, they've moved on to the next level. To talk to a Con Ed operator, one presses the pound key.

Well, at least they actually tell you how to make contact with a human, unlike many companies I've had the bad luck to need to call. (I'm looking at you, Time Warner.)

Posted by Francis at 10:16 AM