Wednesday, November 28, 2012

How to jump Apple’s automated customer service queue: swear

Ranting and swearing at Apple’s automated call centres can get you fast-tracked to a human operative, an aggrieved Apple customer has discovered.

   Reddit user floppybutton started a forum thread (which, please be warned, contains quite a lot of swearing) explaining that when attempting to order a new MacBook keyboard over the phone, they had “got frustrated and used a few choice words that triggered something in the computer I was talking to”.
   Apparently the call centre program is able to recognise swear words, and interprets this as a warning sign that a customer is unhappy. It then transfers that customer to a human operator who apologises and attempts to ease any anger. “It cut itself off in mid-sentence, apologised, and in about 10 more seconds I was talking to an Apple tech,” wrote floppybutton. Fellow Redditer and former AppleCare employee rob79, however, warned that such policies, while initially satisfying, may ultimately cause more delays.

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