A reminder/notice to new followers: in addition to this blog I also have a What Betty Knows Facebook page where I post additional tidbits that are useful but not necessarily complex enough to require a full blog post. Follow/”Like” me there (and also check “get notifications”) to catch extra tips like these:
You’ve seen the emails and Facebook posts from your friends:
Frequently followed by a request to repost/forward to all of your friends.
But before you do that, take this step in order to avoid passing on an Urban Legend:
Most businesses that offer customer service phone numbers would much rather you conduct all of your interactions with their automated services (e.g., “press 1 for your balance, press 2 to make a payment, …” etc.). Reaching a real human being to address your “none of those choices” issue can be difficult. Two standard techniques that work less often these days are:
♦ Press “0”
♦ Don’t press or say anything in hopes of being eventually transferred to a human
If neither of those work, and the menu does not give you an option to contact a real person, your next step is to visit the website GetHuman
GetHuman is a free crowd-sourced information site. Enter the name of a company or a product in their search field to get both the best phone number and exactly how to manipulate the call menu to reach a person. For instance I got this searching for Bank of America Click to see larger image):
Good luck in your search for humans!
Negotiating is only fun for certain people, of which I am not one. But whenever I’m asked to perform, musically or otherwise, I need to decide if and under what circumstances I want to accept.
I did write a bit about this in my infamous blog post about playing with Amanda Palmer, so here’s a bit more: when I negotiate various offers, my interior dialog/checklist goes something like this (read more in detail about each point after the cut):
Read more about each point: Continue reading