After 15 minutes, 411 should auto-connect to 911!

Wishing to save myself some time, I decided to phone the Bank of America before going there to follow up on some banking business. My first step was in the Yellow Pages 'Banks', but the only number listed was an 800 number and I wanted my local bank phone number. So, I ventured into the white pages to get the local number, and it listed the address...but the phone number was the same 800 number.

I dialed the 800 number, and a machine greeted me [yuck] asking several questions and telling me what number to press, or say 'other' for more choices.

"Other"

"I heard you say other. Is that correct?"

"Yes."

Then I was given more choices, none of which helped me, and so when the 'voice' asked me to chose an option, I didn't do/say anything.

" It might be noisy there. I didn't hear your response. Say it louder."

"OTHER!"

I was going in a loop that gave me the location of the closest bank to my location [and it told me what street I was calling from...how scary is that?], but never the option of a phone number.

At this point, the people in the room with me at 'Meals on Wheels' are looking at me wide-eyed and laughing.

They suggest that I 'google it' on the computer.

Guess what...the local address was listed, with an 800 number.

"Call 411 for a real voice."

I told them that it costs money, and I wasn't home, and I didn't want to run up their phone bill. {FYI: there is a free 411 number']

"Don't worry about it. Go ahead and call 411."

I call 411. I go through the mechanical questions...city and state...residential or business...

I give the local address of the Bank of America that I was trying to contact and a mechanical voice said "One moment please..."

and came back with the 800 number and, "Thank you for using 411 Directory Assistance" and 'click' ...the connection ended.

One of the women in the Meals on Wheels office gave me a loan officer's number there and said,

" Call Dawn and she will connect you to a different extension."

I called Dawn. I got her voicemail, and there was not the option that if I needed someone to speak with someone immediately...to press 'operator' or whatever!!!! At this point, none of us could believe it!!

I gave up trying for a phone number, drove over there, and there were no parking spaces...so I went home.

Today I returned, and as I spoke to a real person about spending 15 minutes trying to get a phone number, she gave me 3 business cards with direct numbers to those 3 real people...at which point I said[nicely], "Are you telling me that the bank doesn't have its own phone number?"

"Well, there is a number that rings behind the tellers, but we don't really give it out too much

because they are always busy with customers!"

"That's kind of strange, don't you think?"

"It's been that way for quite some time,"

"Just because it's been that way for quite a while ...doesn't mean that it's not pretty strange!!!"

And so I left thinking ...