Calling Customer Service? How to Avoid Holding and Get Through to a Human
Ever call up a company's customer service line and find yourself waiting for what seems like hours to talk to a representative? If so, then this trick is for you! Here are three options to avoid Disneyland-on-a-school-holiday-sized waits the next time you need to get through to a company representative:
- Mums the Word! For systems that are not voice activated: if you want to get connected to a human rather than a computer in a company's system, then instead of pressing "0" try pressing no button at all. If all goes as planned, this will trick the system into thinking you have a rotary phone (yes, they still exist) and patch you through to a human operator or representative.
- Talk Gibberish! For voice-activated systems: Try responding to the computerized prompts in garbled, incomprehensible gibberish until the computer system gives up on you and hopefully connects you to an actual human.
- Use the GetHuman Site! Try out the completely free website GetHuman. Enter the name of the company you want to call on the GetHuman site, and it will give you the best phone number to call, an estimated amount of time you'll spend holding, and telephone codes to bypass the phone tree. Don’t want to wait on hold?Just enter your own phone number and the phone number of the company you're trying to reach on the GetHuman site, and GetHuman will call the company, wait on hold for you, call you back once it gets a person on the line and then connect you to that person.
Viral Video Lovers Rejoice! How to Skip Over YouTube Ads on YouTube
Attention, YouTube addicts: Those 30-second ads at the start of each video can disappear like magic by following this trick! Simply wait one or two seconds into the ad, then refresh the page using your web browser's refresh button. Now you can watch endless videos of snuggly bulldog pups without interruption.
Lights, Camera, Action! Skip Straight to the Movie on a DVD
Ever wonder how much popcorn could be made in the time it takes those movie trailers, advertisements and warnings to play when you’re viewing a DVD? Who has time for that? And who needs that much popcorn? It is usually possible to bypass all those messages by using a hidden remote control shortcut. Next time you pop in a DVD and want to get straight to the movie, press “Stop,” “Stop” (again), and then “Play” on your remote. If that doesn't work, then press “Stop” three times, followed by “Play.” Still no success? If that doesn't work, then head to the kitchen to make some stove-top popcorn while you wait for the movie to start.
“Leave a Message And I’ll Call You Back”: How to Skip Straight to Voicemail
“Hi! You’ve reached the Smiths! Suzy, Bobby, Anna, John, Jason and Scout can’t come to the phone right now. But if you have the patience to get through this two-minute greeting, please leave us a message and we’ll call you back!” There’s no need to sit through extra long voicemail greetings with the help of Slydial, a free service that sends calls directly to voicemail. It's easy: Call 267-SLYDIAL, enter in the phone number you are calling and Slydial will send you directly to voicemail. Slydial is also great for those awkward life scenarios where you'd much rather leave a voicemail than actually speak directly to the person (i.e. "I'm breaking up with you!" or "I'm [cough, cough] too sick to come in to work today"). Or at least that’s what I’ve heard! I would never, ever pretend to be sick or break up with someone by leaving a voicemail!
