fake customer service

on the continuing trend of grown-up activities, I called the bank this evening to make a transaction.

I was introduced to the banking phone system by a pleasant-sounding recording of a woman's voice who had the correct accent in both English and French. I was immediately impressed. This did not last long. She informed me that the bank had a new voice recognition system, and that if I wanted service in English, that I should say "English". This seemed straightforward, so I said "English" in a clear, slow, and enunciated tone. My choir director would have been proud.

However, to my complete suprise, the computer misinterpreted my word, and began speaking to me in French. I grew alarmed, and repeated my request "english", with no response aside from "je ne comprend pas...". So I listened to the french promptings for a while until I realized that my facility with french was not good enough that I would feel confident to make investments in that language. Heck, I was nervous about doing it in english.

It was at this point that the voice recognition computer and I had a bit of a melt down. I kept repeating "english.... anglais.... je veux anglais.. anglais... ENGLISH.. englishenglishenglish!!.." etc. All the while my volume kept increasing as though I was talking to a person who was hard of hearing.

By the time I gave up and hung up, I realized that I had just been shouting at a computer that is designed to make my 'experience' more plesant. HAH

I took a deep breath, made some tea, called them back and continually pressed zero until I talked to a real person. Technology is complicated.