I'm sorry, I didn't catch that....

Voice activated phone systems make me crazy. Here are just a couple of the many reasons for this:

1. Are you listening to me?? If you've ever called 511 here in the Bay Area to get traffic information, you know that the" guy" tells you that you can begin speaking at any time. However, I don't really want to speak over him, partially because I feel like I'm interrupting (I know it's not actually a person, but still...); the other reason is because I don't think the system can hear me because the system is "talking." Most people can't be simultaneously listening and yammering, so I feel like this is a reasonable assumption.

2. I am enunciating the best I can. I really dislike telling the system what I want and having it think I said something different. One time, I pushed the voice dial button on my cell and said, "Call John Cropper" (this is my boss). My phone says back to me, "Did you say call John Weber?" No, I didn't you stupid piece of technological crap! Or when I say, "Call Terri Nocco" it thinks I said "Call Irene work." Seriously, what the heck?!

Or, I will again call 511 and say "680 south" and the man says, "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that" or, even better, "I heard interstate 80 west, is that right." SO annoying!

3. "Talk to customer service" Many times, these voice systems work well, however, many times they only serve to send me into an escalating cycle of screaming into the phone. At this point, I feel bad for the live person on the other end when I yell, "speak to a customer service representative" only to have the system force me to tell it WHY I would DARE ask to speak to a breathing human being.

Oh yes, all this technology is supposed to make my life better. Does it? "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that."