Bringo: Talk to a Human–and the End of Sitting on Hold?

Just ran across a promising new beta service called Bringo. The idea is they do all the hard work of calling a company, waiting on hold, and navigating the system to get to a human — so you don’t have to.

Here’s how it’s intended to work: From their directory, you find the company you’d like to call, enter your phone number and then wait while they navigate the phone tree. At the right moment, they call you back, you then pick up your phone and voila! You’re talking to a human at the desired company.

I tried the service with three companies to see just how effective the system is:

First AOL customer service. Since at least one research project has indicated their wait times are longer than many others, I figured they’d be a reasonable test. Result? My phone rang in less than two minutes, and within seconds I was greeted by a human being.

Then United Airlines. Same result!

Finally the big test, Dell customer service (for home users.) Result. My phone rang and when I picked up I was on hold, being prompted to enter a numeric choice of options — no human. I hung up. Perhaps Dell, in their never ending quest to minimize support expenses have found a way to counter the Bringo system…

All in all an encouraging new tool for road warriors. I’d love to hear from others if the system has worked for them.