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i had a similar problem with the phone and ISP provider where it often didn't worked, so i wrote a mail that the phone doesn't work and the should write a mail ... well i got a mail that they couldn't phone me ... i send a contract canclelation next

...then we had to repeat it 3 times since the pass did not match

This is soooooo frustratingly true. It's 2025 and we are all still supposed to do tech support on our own devices. (Couldn't log on to a site when id/pwd that hadn't changed in 7 days since last login. Called. Major "system change" w/ new pwd req. No notice.)

Needs box for "Accidentally click 'login with email' button for fuck-ups who can't use a password manager"

You are lucky you have a phone number to call, I only get to chat with an AI.

An hour with HMRC. Website said if no letter call them. Phone menu sent me down a blind alley requiring a number from the letter. Which I did not have. Kept telling me to go to the website. The website is where I found the number. An hour.

Why polluting the sea?

so like, I see your stuff on tvtropes and junk and I just wanna know like...is that your handwriting or do you use a font

Had exactly this experience for an hour yesterday while trying to install a “simple to install” and highly rated WiFi extender. Somehow restrained myself from throwing it across the room. Instead returning to sender.

Thank you for your patience while we’re serving customers who are more important than you.

Throw the servers in the sea. Be free

Missed a step: Is CloudFlare down again?

😂😂😂👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

One time it was literally "You can do the thing you want to do on our website" and then it hung up on me.

I don't understand what "Nice! Done!" means.

AI Chatbot doom spiral

That's 100% all of our experiences.

@stltoday.com see this?

Reminds me of when I was trying to get into my old battle.net account and they wouldn't let me reset my password until I completed the 2SV through the app, which I didn't have because the last time I opened my account was before they had 2SV....

This is right on. Companies deploy massive amounts of garbage software and customers deal with the consequences.

Me : "I've got no internet" Mobile phone company : "Please check our website"

Yeah at this point I'm calling on the phone because the web site didn't solve my problem, not the other way around.

and the "give us your email for a discount code" popup, and the chatbot popup every time you go to a new page

It will continually nag you to allow notifications. That bit always works.

There will come a time where they'll find/realize that everyone will have gone to their website first without prompting because talking to a live person is only a last resort

Brave of you to assume that there's a customer service number to call, rather than an AI chat bot and service ticket system that only works when you're logged in.

You forget the service desk step where they make you repeat all the previous steps a few more times before saying, "We've opened a ticket on your behalf, someone will email your shortly" I say this as a 20 year IT guy lol.

An entire stand up routine could be based on this. Maybe more than one.

I struggled to buy a ski pass online and after at least an hour, finally gave up. I called the ski club and was told ‘you know you can do this online and also we are not here right now to help you. Try next week.’

I feel this especially hard this week. (“Yes, there is a known issue where checkout with multiple items in the shopping cart always fails. We are working to resolve this soon.”)

Same for Apps. And, NO I refuse to download your (company, service) upchucking app!

Also we all love to provide a lot of information about ourselves only to be transferred to another person and start repeating from scratch

Yes exactly. Either tell us when you have low volumes so we might have an option to do something about it, or make sure you have enough people answering calls to be commensurate with call volume.

Oh God yes

💯👌

just needs a line connecting “nice! done!” to “throw phone and laptop into the sea” and then it’s perfect 🤣

Pretty much.

And not to forget, if you have the patience and finally get a real person on the line…

Aha.

Well, yeah. Phone trees exist to frustrate you into not bothering them.

We went through this last week trying to find a pharmacy in town that had COVID shots for kids

love it

You forgot: Did you try using their "AI" chat agent?

Title text: "Tired of waiting on hold? Use our website to chat with one of our live agents, who are available to produce words at you 24/7!" Alt text: https://explainxkcd.com/3175#Transcript