Rant Here.......

I called an airline last week to make a booking for a trip. I had little or no idea what was in store for me. It seems that they had installed the latest and greatest in technology - the voice activated telephone menu!

"Please state your name" it said. So in my best telephone voice possible I did so. It repeated it back to me.

This is pretty neat I thought.

Next it said "Are you calling to purchase a ticket?"
"Yes" said I.
Again it repeated back to me "You stated that you are intending to buy a ticket".
Then it said "And where will you be leaving from?"
"London" I said.

At this point, things began to go rapidly downhill.
"'I'm sorry, I didn't get that, please repeat" it said.
"London" I said confidently.
"'I'm sorry, I didn't get that, please repeat".
"LONDON" I repeated.
"'I'm sorry, I didn't get that, please repeat"

By now I was sweating a little -

"LONDON" I screamed into the phone.
"'I'm sorry, I didn't get that, please repeat".....

"LONDON you stupid F**K" I screamed going bright red in the face.

Well, finally it figured out I meant London and then asked me my destination. By now I was ready to throttle someone. After several attempts to tell it where I wanted to go we succeeded and moved on.

This is where I had a total mental breakdown.
"And on what date do you wish to travel?" it asked nicely.
"The Fifth of December" said I.
"OK, you want to travel on the sixth of December" the voice purred....
"No - you bloody idiot, I said the fifth!"
"OK, you want to travel on the sixth of December" it repeated.....

Aghhhhhhhhhh. A stream of abuse hit the air and I was ready to kill.

It was at that point I hit zero and waited for a real person. That real person took the full brunt of my effervescing frustration and was kind enough to patiently listen while I vented and then took my order apologizing all the time for the experience I had had.

Now, I'm all for progress, get off on gadgets and love technology but this is a step backwards in customer service. I won't mention the name of the airline but it was the same one who's website would not accept a credit card billed to an address in the Czech Republic. Furthermore, it didn't even have the Czech Republic in its drop down list of countries. Needless to say its an American airline.... terrible at geography those Americans its a wonder any of their planes ever arrive anywhere outside of the US since one begins to think that no other country actually exists. But I digress...

Telephone voice recognition doesn't work dot. And, all it does is wind up your customer to the point of an atomic eruption when a real person comes on the phone....

Please...whats wrong with a real person....???