How to deal with automated phone responses

There's a trick: get mad. The new software that records your verbal response to automated queries is being modified to capture not only what you say but how you say it -- the "energy level:"

The angrier the caller becomes, the greater the energy that will be apparent in the wave pattern. Once the wave pattern hits the level the computer is programmed to recognize as the frustration cutoff point, the caller will immediately be transferred to the operator.

The automated system keeps you cycling until you're so mad even the computer feels the heat -- then they switch you to a person. Oh, that would be a nice job.

Of course, there are complications:

You also have the problem that the caller may be calling from a cell phone, a cordless phone, that callers have different dialects .... You don't want to assume they are mad only because they are not speaking normally. They could stutter, for example.

They expect to have a preliminary version available in two years. We have to wait two years? That's maddening!