Oct 17 • General discussion
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My mother's TV lost signal and I asked why she didn't just call the cable company? She said I should do it for her as she feels uncomfortable having to jump through all the hoops to get to someone who could help. So I made the call to the cable people just to have an automated system through many layers of numbers from me at it's request tell me that I was in the proper place waiting for service.
That's when the human became part of the call. This was the gatekeeper step of the process. After scrutinizing my knowledge of the account particulars and who I was and why was I interacting on behalf of my mother the central scrutinizer needed proof of life from the account holder herself.
Mother was asked a series of questions that she got all correct and of course was asked if I could take actions to the account on her behalf which she agreed to as well. Mom handed me the phone and I asked if we had yet qualified to speak to technical services, which was promptly answered with "hold please" as the line went dead and a moment later erupted overwhelmingly with volumes of horrid elevator MUZAC style tunes, only a couple of minutes passed but the putrid taste of those tunes made it years longer of a wait.
Tech Tony came on the phone with a cheery hello and a genuine "how can I help you today?", when I confronted him with a massive issue, that the TV service was off on mummy's TV and we, meaning myself at any direction from support, cannot touch anything as my mom didn't want anything different, just her cable TV turned back on, so I recommended a hard reset on the account as our best bet given the circumstances. Tony agreed and we discussed the role of the gatekeeper on such accounts as my mother's considering her advanced age she didn't even want to call the cable company at all, she felt sitting and waiting for her service to return was the best approach.
Tony sounded like a much younger person so I explained there was a time when retailers would answer the phone with, "What can we do for you today Mrs.Poell?", as caller ID had opened the door to who will be on the line when you answer. Now they have computer systems that automatically bring up the account when that corresponding number calls in and here's the part that hurts they already know who it is and most likely even why the person is calling just based on decades of experience.
Here's what I'd like to see happen is that the automated system sees these accounts as something very special, when the automated system sees a decades old legacy account with a primary account holder in their senior years it automatically gets special privileges, handled by real people with no auto service choose the number nonsense. A polite friendly representative who understands the value of accounts of this stature with the first question being, "How can I help you today?", most likely it's the most basic reason that could easily be solved very quickly with no account changes and if that is the only issue the lawyers need not be offended when the security standards are set aside to help out our elderly with the dignity they gave bringing us here and are deserved in return.
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