I had a GREAT sale at the end of last week that I was really looking forward to sharing. But. It’s taken a bad turn. The good news is that the buyer seems really nice, the bad news is that I will eventually be refunding his money. But more about that in a few days.
I needed to get additional info on the package in question. The uploaded tracking information wasn’t cutting it. But, have you ever tried to get a live person on the phone when calling the USPS 1-800 number? It is a time-suck-nightmare. Unless you know a trick, which I figured out accidentally a couple months ago.
Their system is all voice automation. The menu will give you several options and you are supposed to choose one. And, take it from me, you can jump through their hoops and spend the better part of your morning getting nowhere. Or, you can ignore everything the voice automation system is asking, and just repeat “more options customer service more options customer service more options customer service” until the system has no idea what to do with you and dumps you over to a customer service rep. It’s what I tried out of exhausted desperation a couple months ago, and I was surprised when it worked. I tried it again this morning and had a live person on the line in less than a minute. Ta-da! Sometimes it’s the smallest victories that are the sweetest.
Louis Toth says
October 23, 2012 at 6:54 pmIf there is one thing I despise, it’s having to go through that voice mail hell. I just keep pressing “O” until they send me to a real life person.
Lynn says
October 25, 2012 at 8:03 pmI sell on Etsy and have one of my packages go astray or so I thought. The tracking number showed it had been delivered. My customer went to her post office and they told her I would have to call because I had mailed it. Long story short the postman scanned it and then didn’t leave it because IT WOULDN’T FIT IN THE MAIL BOX!! Why he didn’t leaved a slip to tell her we’ll never know. It turned out it was at her post office. Luckily I got a clerk there who questioned the postman and realized what had happened. Good luck with your package – I hope if it’s lost it turns up.
Ms. Goodwill Haunting says
October 29, 2012 at 7:02 amBusinesses don’t tell you but you can usually hit “O” (not zero) for the Operator to bypass the messages and get a live person. Learned that one when I worked for local government and that’s our phone system worked.
Kari @ She Thrifts says
October 29, 2012 at 7:42 amThat’s interesting. I tried zero and it didn’t work. I never would have thought to try O. Thanks for the tip!