Did you know that over three quarters of Americans had a bad product or service experience in the past year? Your Survival Guy’s not making this up. According to the National Customer Rage Survey (love the name), 77% of customers reported a product or service problem in the past year—a new high.

A new high. Wow, wouldn’t you think that with all of today’s creature comforts and tech, a frustrating experience would be lower? Not true.

Yes, using Amazon is a piece of cake. But if you have “a” problem (not necessarily a lot of problems), getting in touch with a live voice is a different story. Have you ever tried finding a phone number?

How about making a dinner reservation by phone, old school, I know. It’s a 50-50 endeavor at best. In the few times you need to talk to the maître de (I date myself), for example, with a special request, you’re stuck in a phone death loop.

“Thank you for calling Chez George. Your business is important to us. If you would like to place a takeout order, press 1. If you would like to make a reservation, press 2.”

After Your Survival Guy finds the keypad on my “smart” phone, I press 2.

“Thank you for choosing Chez George. To make a reservation, please visit our website at www.youtechilliterate.com.” Click.

How about when Your Survival Guy is brushing his teeth after a long day of conversations with you, and my phone lights up from one of the two people who used to live down the hall rent free?

“Dad, what’s our Netflix password?” in a tone as if I’m the inconvenience.

“Don’t you have school/work tomorrow?” Your Survival Guy thinks.

Several minutes later, after finally finding the password.

“Thank you.”

And just before I’m about to turn out the lights.

“Did you get a code from Apple?”

“Thanks!”

Are we done?

Action Line: Imagine when you need to deal with hangnails like these with your money. For whatever reason, you need to change something, and it should be a piece of cake, but it’s not. Getting a live voice can be brutal. Explaining your situation to someone whose second language is English? Try again. I understand.

When you need somebody to talk to, I’m here.

Email me at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com to set up a call.

Originally posted on Your Survival Guy.