I love Microsoft’s terrible automated voice attendant

Long-time readers may recall when I got an angry caller from a Vista user that had trouble configuring it the way they wanted it. They got to me because they were looking for “sales” using the automated voice attendant that matched my last name instead (“Sells”) and forwarded him to me in the middle of a 1:1 in my office. Not wanting to let a customer go away angry, I stopped what I was doing and did my best to try to help.

It happened again today, except for an angry middle-aged guy, I got a call from the sweetest 12-year-old girl you’d ever want to talk to. Her Word CD had gotten scratched and she needed a replacement so she could write a big paper due next week. I considered telling her that I wasn’t in sales or support or getting her number and calling her back (I was IM’ing with four other people at the time and I was late for a meeting), but she was so earnest that I just couldn’t turn her away.

Instead, I took her name, address and email, went to the MS store and purchased her a copy of Office 2007, which I then had sent to her place via 2-day shipping, all the time assuring her that it wouldn’t cost her a dime. I ended up using my own personal quota for discounted software and charging $60 to my MS AMEX, but I would’ve spent my own money (and still might if my boss reads this and rejects my expense report : ).

She was so grateful and it made my day to solve her problem. I love our customers and I hope the terrible robot on the main MS line keeps sending ’em my way.