Hal's Mortgage Blog

Are you tired of elevator music and trying to get past a recorded “phone tree”? A Consumer Reports survey earlier this summer found that  71 percent of consumers were "tremendously annoyed"  when they can't get a human on the phone.

Here are some tips to circumvent other customer service lines with automated responses:

Press "0" at the Prompt. GetHuman.com says this works when trying to get through to big companies like Delta Airlines and Bank of America. GetHuman also has a free iPhone app, which lets you know shortcuts to getting a live operator on the phone for many large firms and retailers.

Press "#" at the Prompt. According to GetHuman.com this trick also works in some cases when trying to desperately get through to a live operator. It works, for example, when calling Comcast.

Pretend You Have a Rotary Phone. Sometimes you're asked to hold if you have a rotary phone and that may get you to a live customer service rep faster than following the menu and pressing buttons (and waiting and waiting and . . .)

Pretend You're a Foreign Caller. Some companies have special phone lines for international callers, which usually aren't as clogged up as their domestic lines. If you need to reach a live rep as soon as possible, try this trick. It's worked for me with Pottery Barn, which has a special number for international callers: After failing to get through the domestic line for more than 15 minutes once, I tried the international line and got through within a couple of minutes.

What's your favorite technique to deal with this frustrating and increasingly common occurance?