Technology

Every time I come back there is more new technology. This time it is computers on the phone. I have called places and computers answered. My years in Southeast Asia have apparently destroyed my accent. The computers usually can’t understand what I say. But that means that I usually eventually get to talk to a real person. Sometimes the voice just reads you a long list of buttons to push, after which another computer voice may tell you to push more buttons and so on. I have even been called by computers asking me to press one for English or two for Spanish. I just hang up. I guess if it doesn’t know whether I use English or Spanish, then it probably isn’t a computer I know. 

I noticed that the announcer at the SW airport is the same as the announcer on the Weather Channel. Maybe that’s the one they call Microsoft Sam. He is everywhere.

This is one of those changes that maybe isn’t so good. For example, if you are late paying your credit card, Sam will call you all day long until he gets you. He is not fooled by answering machines. He won’t leave a message until he has called at least 2 dozen times. Then he will finally leave a message. But he doesn’t tell you what he wants. He expects YOU to call some number and remember some impossibly long pin number to retrieve the message.

Maybe those call centers in India aren’t such a bad thing after all.