Folks losing homes dial 1-800; no one answers

• Many homeowners facing foreclosure say getting through to banks is nightmare.
• "After being on the phone with them, they send you to an automated lady."
• Lenders say they're overwhelmed by the amount of calls, doing all they can.
• Lawyer: "In the meantime, lenders are continuing to move forward with foreclosure."

The entire ordeal has been draining, especially trying to reach somebody at the bank. "You call them. After being on the phone with them, they send you to an automated lady. [Then] they send you to a Web site after you've been on the phone for an hour." Banks and lenders say that they have been overwhelmed with calls and that they're doing all they can to help ease the situation for Americans in distress.

Megan Cavallari waits on hold for more than an hour with her bank as she tries to save her home from foreclosure. Then she gets the "automated lady" -- again. It's happening to Americans time and again, with some put on hold for 2 ½ hours. "The waiting time is ridiculous," one attorney said. "They called 800 numbers that went into a black hole."

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Escape Voicemail Jail and Long hold Times

Everyone has experienced calling a major corporation and put through their seemingly never-ending voicemail prompt system. Once you finally do reach a human operator, you’re most likely in the wrong department anyway. Then, you get placed back on hold to wait in line for the next available agent.

This list helps solve the frustrating process of reaching a human operator. It doesn’t eliminate all of the button pressing, but it will guide you to the fastest route to a human operator. The sooner you reach an actual human operator instead of prerecorded greetings, the more likely you will be satisfied with the results of your call. Waiting on hold for what seems like an endless timeframe (five minutes can seems like a half hour), can really hurt the overall customer service experience.

This list provides at least 740 different major companies with instructions on how to reach a human operator. I tried a few of the numbers myself for companies that I normally call and have a good feel for their average hold times. The time from dial to speaking with the first human operator from the “gethuman list” compared to the usual button pressing was vastly quicker, noticeable after only a few calls.

For the corporations that are listed, the phone numbers to dial along with the instructions to follow once you are connected are listed in their respective columns. There is also a column for consumer rating: a rating for each company’s phone support system. It also provides you the option to leave feedback on any of the companies and your experiences with them (1 through 5 rating plus the option of written comments).

Save yourself some time the next time you need to dial any major company and check this list first.

www.gethuman.com