On Hold with Wells Fargo

I probably shouldn't say this, but my company actually programs the scripts that people use to navigate through a companies phone system... buhahaha

lol, i know.  I hate it too.  It's funny to sit in on customer design meetings and listen to them come up with what they want us to implement.   As you can imagine many companies want to minimize the number of agents they have to staff to keep costs down.  
One solution is to "hide" their agents deep in a menu that only the strongest wills can find and the other is to use technology to help people self service themselves, like enter your account number and we'll give you your balance, payoff, etc...

As you can imagine we always push them towards the self service option because it is better for the customers, but it costs more money so we don't always win.  :-/

Thank you gentlemen now I will go get some paper towels to clean up the coffee I just sprayed on the monitor.

Check out this website...

http://gethuman.com/

I just instructed my boss to get passed the prompts at Verizon.  I know it sounds funny but,

dial 0, hit # 4 times, then dial 0 again...

I'm sorry - but if I'm making a call it's because I have a question that the website has not answered and therefore self-servicing myself will not solve my problem...

Bradley - you said "Wells Fargo"...but I'm guessing you meant 1-900... :-P

I am trying to get my short-sale approved through them.

Unfortunately, the conversation does not get any more intelligent when you get a human on the line.

I also doubt that it will improve your results.

Have you tried the online app?

Yeah, that's a whole other can of worms.  I'm batting 1000 here because my last job before I started my own company was running the IT department at the largest outsourced teleservices company in the world.  (as in offshore callcenters)

(i feel so dirty)

Ask friends and family locally for a recommendation for someone to work with to refi.  Much better than working with an 800 number.

I'm a mortgage banker and we're super busy right now.  Past clients get first priority, referrals from them come next, call ins go to the back of the pile.  Surfing BT for a mental break while I eat lunch...

OMG, awesome...I will have to check that out.  I often end up picking the wrong option (i.e. yes, of course my card has been lost or stolen if that will get me to a real person) to get to a person faster.   I will have to check out the website!

if you are, any insight as to why only 25% of the 3mm homeowners under water that could qualify under the governement's plan to refi actually have? sounds like this impenetrable automated phone service and the "priority hierarchy" create quite a barrier.

sorry, just cranky from watching the market fall another 3% today.

Interesting.  I'm not aware of any way to refi without pulling credit.  Some conforming options allow no appraisal, this is based on the market your home is in.  Tell me more about no closing.  Do you mean no closing costs, or no actual closing?  No closing costs is certainly an option.  Not sure how they would do a refi without new loan papers.  I work for a small bank and we sell all of our paper, including to Wells, and our process and products are determined by Fannie and Freddie.  As a huge lender Wells may have options that we don't.  However you do it, now is a great time to lower your interest expenses!

These government programs are lots of political posturing and very little substance.  The only way I can get a refi done for a borrower who is under water is if their current loan is FHA and we do a new FHA loan.

I read on teh interwebz that cursing at a voice activated menu will sometimes skip you straight to a live person.

I was skeptical. 

But, the next time I called up my credit card company, knowing that I had precisely seven layers of menu to go through, I dropped a very loud "**** YOU!" on the computer lady at layer one, and was immediately transferred to a real person.

My boss did the same thing.  It was hysterical, because of the situation and the personality of my boss.  We still crack up about it.

I do this all the time but without the the "very loud" part. I'll nicely say "get me a (*&%ing person" and voila: human contact. I've often wondered if some systems notify the CSR with some kind of status code for the incoming call eg. "profane, irritated loudmouth".

I also have sympathy for these people as I once created the back end for a call center monitoring system.  It was a reporting system that managers could use to track stats on call centers and individual employees around the world in real time. These people had pretty stressful jobs.