United’s IT staff may not win m/any accolades, but one thing I do is appreciate is not having to enter my Mileage Plus number each time I call reservations on my mobile phone. Because that number is the primary number on my profile, I am greeted by, "Hello. Am I speaking to Matthew or someone calling on behalf of Matthew?" each time I phone in. It’s not too big of a deal, but it saves me a few seconds each phone call (and I make a lot of them to UA…).
Lately, I’ve been use Skype when calling United Reservations. I have a basic Skype account with no personal telephone number assigned. For a while, I would be prompted to enter my Mileage Plus information but lately, I’ve been greeted by, "Hello. Am I speaking to Andre or someone calling on behalf of Andre?"
Andre? Anyone have an idea how that happened?
Somebody associated “unknown caller” with “Andre?”
It’s worth it to spend the $25 or $30 annually to get SkypeOut for USA/Canada, which comes with caller ID (e.g. so that you can be greeted by the 1K line as yourself!).
This happens to me as well. I actually DO pay the annual fee for my skypeout number to be correct. i.e. if I call you with skype, my cell phone number shows up as the callerID. However, even so, when I call United 1K line w/ skype, it always asks me if I’m somebody else.
I get the same from Skype calls to the 1K line as well…
When I call from my cell phone it thinks I’m “Rebecca” or someone calling on behalf of Rebecca. I usually use google voice for blackberry though which solves the problem. Google voice is free and I love it.
@HunterSFO aka Rebecca: I will check out Google voice.
@Kevin: That’s strange that even with your number you still get another name. I wish I knew what was behind the technology.
@Steve: I’ve been thinking of setting up a paid Skype account because I want a local Washington, DC number. Maybe that will fix the problem.