We get so used to automation and so jaded that we assume every experience is with a robot.

So naturally exchanges between human workers and their customers can get so awkward and aggravating.

See what this worker has to put up with.

every day someone mistakes me for an automated phone line

I’m American but work for a British insurance company in the UK. i’m probably one of the only Americans taking calls.

Every. single. day. I’ll take at least one call where i do my introductory spiel, and the person on the line will respond with:

“MAKE A PAYMENT”

Her efforts to clue them in are in vain…

And i’ll say something like:

“Great, have you tried out our automated payment phone line by chance?”

To which they will respond with an abrasive and forceful:

“YES”

And nothing more.

So she takes a different tack, but alas!

So, taken aback, i typically pause to collect myself and say – in the most deliberately human and un-robotic manner i’m capable of – something along the lines of:

“… Ah ok, might i ask if you found something about the automated line problematic, or is there some other reason you’re calling this particular line now after already utilizing the automated payment line?”

To which they respond in utter exasperation with:

”Ugh… TALK TO A PERSON!”

Finally, she gets somewhere!

So I pause again and collect myself, then tentatively inform them that ”I am, in fact, a human being, not an automated robot voice.”

Usually this elicits a long drawn out pause, followed by uproarious laughter and apologies for rudeness, which i usually dismiss by saying – quite truthfully – that ”It happens all the time” and that they’re ”Not even the first that day.”

other times though, i just can’t be arsed and don’t even bother correcting them, and just transfer them through to wherever they needed to get to, leaving them none the wiser that they were just interacting with a living, breathing, sentient lifeform.

though in this job, sometimes i even question myself as to whether or not i’m anything more than a prerecorded voice on the line.

Here is what folks are saying.

“Heavy existential crisis” made me laugh.

Getting CAPTCHA’d is the worst.

This must get depressing after a while.

Aw yay for awesome people!

Humans have entered the chat.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.