I just found out from Kim Komando that there is this great site called "BRINGO" at www.nophonetrees.com that lets you immediately talk to a human being when you’re trying to call a big company, like a lender, insurance company, or airline. You go to their site, find the company you want to speak with, enter your phone number, and they call YOU back.
I just tried it with AT&T/Cingular. First Bringo calls you, and I mean IMMEDIATELY, and you press # to verify your number. That is a one-time set up. Then they call you back again and you are connected. When I tried it, the guy answered "hello," so it was really very direct, definitely not a main public line! This saves tons of time vs. navigating through a confusing system and waiting in the queue!
Another way to save time on the phone (and aggravation!)…When you need to do complex calling between multiple parties, such as calling a health care provider and an insurance company to explain who has paid whom… it’s great to do 3-way calling and add in both parties so they can hear what each other are saying. You get rid of the volleying-of-responsibility problem that you often run into in these situations. I have done this many times with disputes in health insurance, and I am sure you can think of other instances that this is helpful. Many people have 3-way calling on their phones and never use it.
Try Bringo and let us know in the comments how you liked it and what happened. I’m a believer!
Lorie, don’t you just love Kim Komando? I love this concept,too!! I will definitely try it. I have also used a web site called gethuman.com which tells you what to push to talk to a real live human being at hundreds of companies. Navigates you right around the voicemail hell we’re so often stuck in!
~Monica
That’s a great one Lorie. You always come up with the best tips!! Here’s another great site that does the same thing! Down with phone trees!! Time to Get Human – http://www.gethuman.com/.
Clyde, Your Biggest Fan!