As annoying and racist-enabling as Twitter may be, you’ve gotta hand it to them: sometimes you learn some very useful things from the Bad Blue Website.
Today’s nugget of handy info is especially noteworthy, as it pertains to dealing with those incredibly frustrating, seemingly interminable phone menus you encounter every time you try to call your phone company because they’ve inexplicably dropped your data allowance.
Editor at The Verge, Casey Newton, was the first to flag the fact that apparently, the best way to get immediately transferred to an actual human person (or at least a useful part of the menu) is to swear your fucken head off.
https://twitter.com/CaseyNewton/status/931944534858014720
Then someone piped up with the fact that this technology is actually a real thing invented by someone specifically to deal with frustrated callers who have reached the limits of their politeness and are entering the state of fury in which yelling at robots seems like a good idea.
https://twitter.com/CaseyNewton/status/931952391099785216
And because the internet is full of nerds (NEEEERRRRDDS!!), someone went and found the actual patent for the sweary phone-bot response system (not its actual name).
https://twitter.com/blogan/status/931985628400463872
Yep, it’s true: there’s a system in place that hears your swears, exasperated sighing and strangled screams and actually does something about it. And people are absolutely (understandably) in love with this idea.
Not that I know of. Either profanity OR saying “operator” typically works
— anneboticus maximus (@annebot) November 18, 2017
I yelled “HUMAN HUMAN HUMAN!” at a system the other day and got immediately transferred to a person. It’s such a pleasant surprise when technological advances make things BETTER for me instead of worse!
— Naomi Kritzer @naomikritzer@mspsocial.net (@NaomiKritzer) November 18, 2017
“Agent” is also a code word to bypass directly to a human https://t.co/HoH83v3QfK
— General Strike (@mtnwizard) November 19, 2017
https://twitter.com/BRlDG3/status/932061316742893569
This feels really important. https://t.co/hHLVQI3EjF
— Brendan Reichs (@BrendanReichs) November 19, 2017
https://twitter.com/laurasaurusrex/status/932060703644532736
Omg I can’t wait to try this 👇🏻 https://t.co/ALtluggUiy
— Bernie Michalik (@blm849) November 19, 2017
Can confirm. I once swore at an automated marketing call and it removed me from their call list and never contacted me again.
— Christina D (@akasha111182) November 18, 2017
A word of warning: this writer did try the strategy out while attempting to get through the labyrinth that is a particular Australia phone company’s automated menu. While yelling “FUCK FUCK FUCK” did make me feel pretty good, it did not, unfortunately, immediately transfer me to an operator.
Could it be that the system is only in place in the United States? There’s only one way to find out, friends. Go forth and swear at your next robotic greeting, and report back immediately. You’ll be doing the Lord’s potty-mouthed work.
