Archive for September, 2006

Colbert Report Atonement Hotline

Friday, September 29th, 2006

Have you wronged Stephen Colbert? People of the Jewish faith who feel the need to atone to Mr. Colbert in this new year can call 1-888-OOPS-JEW to leave an apologetic message. Your apology may be aired on The Colbert Report.

Free Conference Calling

Friday, September 15th, 2006

Free conference calling services are just so darn useful, whether it's for a business conference call or just to chat with all your friends or relatives at once. LiveOffice Free Conferencing ups the ante in the realm of free features: once you register with the site, you can set up conference calls with up to 250 participants. Conferences don't require reservations, and can last up to 6 hours. You can opt to have your conference recorded (by dialing 5* any time during the call.) When the call is done, the recording is delivered to you in MP3 format — again, at no charge. Sweet.

Avoid Phone Trees

Friday, September 15th, 2006

"Please listen carefully, as our options have recently changed."

Everyone hates navigating those "press 1 for sales, press 2 for support" phone trees. When you're calling a company, you want to talk to a human, not a computer. GetHuman provides a long list of companies, their toll-free phone numbers, and the sequence of digits that you need to dial to reach a human customer service rep. Sometimes it's as easy as pressing 0; with some companies it is not so easy.

Bringo (in beta) offers an interesting alternative: choose the company that you want to call from Bringo's list, and type your phone number. Bringo will call the company and navigate the phone tree, then call you back — poof, you're on the phone with a real live customer service rep. Their list of companies isn't as extensive as GetHuman's, but it's an interesting idea.

VALPak CBS Phone-In Sweepstakes

Wednesday, September 6th, 2006

In the VALPak/CBS Sweepstakes, you can win a 40-inch Sony LCD flat-screen television valued at $5,000. Enter by calling 1-888-721-3221. You may enter once daily through October 13, 2006.