Ugh – Another call from “Sharon, your local Google specialist”

This appears to be a common problem for many of you. A call comes into your mobile from an innocuous number. Maybe your’re self employed. Maybe this is a client or vendor. So you answer and get a recording that says “hi this is Sharon, your local Google specialist”. You hang up, and several hours or days later it comes again from a different number. Sometimes it’s Kate.

If you “press 1” like you’re prompted, you get a call center of some sort, and no amount of screaming at them will stop these calls. Heck, for all I know they are all different companies anyway. And none are honoring the Do Not Call list.

Anyway, I have two new features to showcase here. This is an example of my robot punching through to an agent. This is why the robot always asks “are you a real person?” If the caller is human, the audio will stop for a moment as they process that odd question. If the audio doesn’t stop, then I know it’s a recording and I punch 1 a few times. Then the robot kicks into normal.

The second new feature is this is a new version of the robot! I have had the same version for many hundreds of calls and it’s been doing really well. But those of you familiar with this robot will note that the audio levels are off slightly when it gets to the bee part. So I recorded some new prompts – both “inane” and “banter” (they respond differently to the agent) but this one may need more tuning. The agent clearly notices that I’m not normal and disconnects. But I did keep him busy for about three minutes anyway.

Anyway, enjoy this latest call. Please check out my Facebook page and feel free to comment, message, or transfer calls to me! Thank you for listening.