Phone

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Hate phone calls

Especially to government agencies

I have to choose my words carefully but quickly and I have to talk loud enough they hear but not too loud.

Id rather talk to them in person

On the other hand I don't want to talk to them in person either s**t

Besides then I don't get a written confirmation. I would rather interact with them via a written conversation

I hate phone calls as well.

Recently I had to call the tax office to renew my business number. I was on hold for half an hour. Then when I got through, the person on the other end spoke with a very strong accent and nothing was done because they didn't know what I wanted. I tried again the next day and got lucky. The person on the other end had an Australian accent. But he wanted me to start up a new taxation account (I can't think of a better word) and I'd forgotten the password to the previous one. So I had to get one emailed to me and... the whole thing was just a pain in the arse and I was on the phone for about 45 minutes.

What I did do was have all my numbers for things on hand and a script to say what I needed to when I got through to an actual person.

It made me laugh when you changed your mind about seeing someone in person. I'm a bit off and on with that too.

I do prefer text or email as well. Some organisations do this and I appreciate it.

last week, covered ca wrote me an email telling me to phone medi-cal and ask them to please "release" me from Medi-Cal b/c iearned too much $$$. Medi-Cal had the nerve to put me "on hold" forty minutes. then someone answered and asked my name and ssn and i answered. then she put me "on hold" again". longfuck conversation with another woman. confusing and stressful and scared as f**k s**t. then she told me that i had to phone covered ca. phoned covered ca. she told me that i had to call back on monday for some reason or other. s**t.

tomorrow, i have to phone Covered CA. dreading it. "on hold". annoying lil dipshits do not (1) hear, (2) care (3) understand (4) believe (5) remember what i said.

sometimes the government forms say that you have to tell "the truth" "under penalty of Perjury" and jail and $25000 fine. but some of the questions they ask are kind of sophisticated and complicated. there are plenty of reasons why someone might give a factually wrong answer. when i didn't understand a question, and i asked for clarification, she answered, but the answer didn't answer the question. and i didn't "really" know how to phrase the question. she might not know the answer, and her job description does not require her to know the answer to *everything*.

i hate phone calls. esp to government agencies. s**t!

I have cell phone, do use it. But don't like phone calls prefer WhatsApp. I also painted varnish over selfie camera, which I never use, no conference calls as in camera with voice.

Notice cameras a lot, and I think it's a phobia, as I tend to not relax and feel watched. I won't use cams at all for home security.

That sounds much like my experiences of so-called service providers on the phone, only you were unluckier than I've been so far. These days they're getting very adept at devolving work onto the client, and some of it sounds like such easy work till you try it. Making a client wait in a telephone queue for 40 minutes is barely a telephone service at all IMO. It looks like your mission is going to take a long time.

I guess all you can do is try to keep calm and carry on pushing them gently but firmly. You've probably thought of this already, but if I were you I'd try to get your phone on "speaker" mode so you don't have to keep it glued to your ear. And sometimes it pays to call them back later if the one you've tried to talk to has turned out to be unhelpful. With a bit of luck they'll have ended their shift and you'll get somebody else who might be better. It also gives you a chance to collect your thoughts and re-phrase your statements and questions.


One way of looking at it is that you can't make things any worse, so if you can see it as a chance to improve the situation, that may help keep you calm.


One saving grace about verbal (versus online forms) is that if you don't know an answer, you can say so, and you can say "I'm not sure but I think......" which gets you out of the perjury issue, unlike online forms where the responses are forced and you can't indicate where you're in doubt. They usually say that phone calls may be recorded, so they're hardly going to be able to drag you through the courts if you've made your doubts clear. And if you have the technology, it might be worth recording the conversation yourself. If nothing else, you'll be able to do a post-mortem on what went wrong and the tricks some of these bastards use to fob clients off with nothing. That way, next time somebody tries the same tricks, you'll be less taken by surprise and maybe better able to oppose what they're up to. And you might feel a bit safer for knowing you've got a complete record to use in your defense in case they start any trouble, though generally speaking they don't.

Me too. It's not just you, some of those people don't want to help. Isn't there any way to do these things in writing?