Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/23/tech_support_magic_word/
Just bought an Apple product? Need support NOW? Drop an F-BOMB
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Posted in Hardware, 23rd November 2012 16:00 GMT
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When you're caught in automated telephone-support hell, there's a magic word you can utter to ensure that you're quickly routed to an actual human being: the "F-bomb".
"I was having some trouble with my (older) laptop and wanted to order a new keyboard to fix it myself," a Reddit poster writes [1]. "After exploring every option possible in the machine based list, I eventually got frustrated and used a few choice words that triggered something in the computer I was talking to."
Those few choice words prompted Apple's canned-reponse voicemail system to cut short its well-nigh interminable call-and-response support roundabout, and pop that poster directly to a flesh-and-blood tech who was able to answer his question.
As The Next Web notes [2], Apple is not alone in that its automated lines are programmed to detect "signs of distress," including the aforementioned F-bomb.
Whether naughty language will consistently get you to a helpful techie, or whether it will merely pop you over to a supervisor who will attempt to mollify you, only to send you back into the same ol' support loop after your steam has been released, is apparently a crap shoot.
But if you're certain that you're speaking with a machine and not an overworked, underpaid call-center drone, it's worth a try, eh?
The Reg looks forward to reading your comments after you've employed this gambit when you've found yourself languishing in voicemail limbo. ®