press one for....

Our cellphone service provider is MTC. We have been pleased with their service for 4 1/2 years now. Today I had to call to get my cell phone working again. As I made the call I was confronted with one of my fears and one of my pet peeves while trying to solve my problem.

One of my pet peeves is automated phone directory service. You know the kind where you dial the company and rather than get a live person you get a machine giving you a list of choices and telling you which number to press that corresponds with your choice. One of my fears is speaking Russian on the phone... well, not the speaking part just the understanding what is being said to me when the other party is speaking really fast part.

The combination of the automated service with the menu of choices being presented to me in Russian was a mini nightmare! Thank goodness I remembered a trick that works with most of these types of services in America. Just press '0' for the operator. Once there was a live person on the phone to speak with the rest of the call went smoothly. Within 15 minutes of hanging up my cell phone was back in operation!