We’ve all been there, stuck in an endless phone menu wondering if a real human even works at this company. Businesses use these systems to cut costs, but if you know a few tricks, you can improve your odds of actually getting a human on the line. One way to get past the maze is to use a tool like GetHuman, which provides direct numbers and step-by-step instructions to help you bypass the endless menus.
These are some other tried-and-true methods that can boost your chances of getting help:
- Ask for a supervisor: Phrasing it as “someone who can solve my problem” is less confrontational but usually works.
- Press zero: Many menus default to a live person when you do this.
- Say nothing: If you don’t respond, many systems time out and connect you to a human by default.
- Call during off-hours: Early mornings or late nights are often less busy.
If you do manage to finally reach a representative but still can’t get results, there are more ways to push through.
- Customer service reps follow strict scripts, so repeating your request several times can force them to escalate it.
- Refusing upsells or freebies can also cut through the script and speed things up.
- And if you hit a dead end, it might help to simply hang up and call back, you’ll likely get a different rep, maybe even at another center, with more authority.
And if none of this works, as a last resort, you can always choose an option tied to spending money (like upgrading or adding insurance), which will usually get you connected to a real person who can then transfer you where you need to go. Stay strong, keep holding on, and hopefully you’ll spend less time yelling at robots and more time solving your problem with a real person.
Source: Lifehacker