It is the time of the year again when you find great deals, bargains, discounts and rebates. Thanksgiving is around the corner and Christmas is a month away and the retailers and online shops have enticing offers such as a 32" flat screen TV for just $650, A laptop for just $300, Faster broadband speeds and better downloads at $29 /per month, you are ecstatic and order all these and more. Well all is not rosy for a few unfortunate souls who are stuck with faulty or defective products, then begins the endless struggle to get a faulty item replaced, a tech support question resolved or a problem with the refund, you call the help and support number and politely ask them to solve the problem, they say you have to talk to another department, your call gets transfered, the next person then politely puts you on hold. you wait, wait, wait and wait some more knowing that patience is a virtue and wait a little more, then you hang up try again the next day and the same thing happens. You are answered by a robot which sounds suspiciously like Mr.Anderson from the Matrix, you answer a number of questions after which you are transfered to the appropriate extension and you thank the stars and cross your fingers only to be put on hold again, it takes days and hours of on-phone time and you are still left hanging. This is when you need that special trick which will cut thru the noise and get you to someone who cares or at least pretends to care.

Here is a list of some of the worst offenders and how to bypass their phone systems.

AOL	888-265-8001 703-265-1000 800-827-6364	Cust. service Corp. offices Cust. service	Keep pressing 0 until you get a person (wait until intro is done). 9a-6p M-F (Eastern)
Cingular	866-246-4852 916-843-4685 (or dial 611 free of charge on your phone)	Cust. service Calling from overseas	24/7 24/7
Compaq.com	800-474-6836	Product support	24/7
Dell.com	800-915-3355 800-624-9897 800-624-9896	Sales* Customer care Tech support	7a-10p M-F; 8am-6pm; Sat/Sun; 24/7 Press 3 *Pressing 0,0 (zero, zero) will immediately let you bypass menu
HP.com	800-474-6836	Product support	24/7
Microsoft.com	800-426-9400 800-936-5700	Sales Tech support: Personal support	6a-6p M-F (Pacific) Option 2 5a-9p M-F 6a-3p Sat/Sun
Norton / Symantec.com	800-441-7234 800-721-3934	Consumer support Enterprise support	24/7 Na
Sprint.com	888-211-4727 800-639-6111 800-658-7564	Billing and support Billing and support Direct to a human	24/7 Nextel subscribers
T-mobile.com	800-937-8997 (or dial 611 free of charge on your phone)	Cust. service	24/7
UPS.com	800-742-5877	Track package: Shipping info: Cust. service:	Press "1"  24/7 Press "3" Press "0" 7a-12midnight M-F, 7:30a-9pm Sat/Sun (Eastern)
USPS.gov	800-275-8777 800-222-1811	Main Tracking/confirm	8a-8:30pm M-F; 8a-6p Sat/Sun (Eastern) 7:30a-10:30p M-F; 9a-8p Sat/Sun/holidays
Verizon.com	800-256-4646 800-483-5558 800-447-3420 800-456-6793 888-553-1555	Sales Tech. support Cust. relations DSL internet FiOS tech support/cust. service	---

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