9 Ways to Get a Person on the Phone

• Press everything on your phone. You may be able to trick systems into thinking that you’re on a rotary phone — or that you’re crazy. Either way, you’re in.

• Mumble. If the system can’t understand you, it has no choice but to connect you with a live person.
• Speak nonsense. See above.

  

• Do nothing. They sense a rotary phone. Voila — a human.
• Speak Spanish. The Spanish option often has a shorter wait time, and you’ll probably get a bilingual operator.
• Select the cancel-service option. If a company thinks it’s going to lose you as a customer, someone may try to
  convince you otherwise — in person.
• Mention a competitor. Systems sometimes monitor what you say while you’re on hold. If you name a competitor, someone may help you sooner.
• Swear. Some systems put anyone who is using profanity at the front of the line.
• Plan your call time wisely. Avoid Monday, and call at an odd hour if you can.For more help, consult gethuman.com, which maintains a list of more than 900 U.S. companies and how to get a human on the phone at each one.

— voip-news.com

Originally Published in Reader's Digest