Pet peve of the day - robodialers

So Dish Network was meant to upgrade the PVR on Monday. They didn't.

At 4:30 they call to say that they won't make it, they reschedule for Wednesday. Again they are a no-show. This time no call.

Its not as if I need them to run a cable from the dish hookup to the TV. What I do need them for is to provide the multiplexer that allows four tuners to hook up to the three satelite LNBs.

So anyway I call up Dish to ask when they plan to make it here. They have one of those auto-attendant things.

I loathe these automated systems because the only reason I would ever use the telephone rather than the Web is because I have a problem that requires talking to a person.

Worst of all is the way that they require you to type in your account number at the keypad then when you actually get to a represenative they ask you for the number again.

The first time I got through to Dish I am asked what my telephone number is. Since I have seven different telephone numbers I pause for a couple of seconds while I try to remember the middle of the area code. The representative hangs up.

So next time I dial in I am pretty pissed and make no attempt to hide the fact. And so the cost of running these operations goes up because the representatives spend all their day talking to people that the automated systems have made angry.