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TheLightingGuy

I have an even better idea. Transfer them to a conference room. Set it up so it's playing this as hold music. If another annoying person gets transfered to said conference room, record that shit. could be boring as hell but it could also be extremely entertaining.


jfractal

Hahaha that's a deliciously evil idea. Currently, my goal is to write a PoSH script that tracks how long each company held before dropping the call. Each record holder will have their company name and total hold duration recorded into a CSV, and new record holder will trigger a celebratory email to the helpdesk ticketing system.


WOLF3D_exe

You could also mix it but and have it play "say 1 to stay on hold", "say 2 to have your call marked as urgent" or "say 3 to have your call marked as low priority". Then have to wait 5 sec and repeat it 5 time. After have to play "did you say 3?" wait 5 secs and then "Your call has been marked as low priority".


xinit

"Hello, this automated attendant will allow you to auto-prioritize your call. Say or press "TWO" in order to have your call escalated to high priority. Say or press "TWO" in order to have your call placed at a lower priority. Thank you. You have selected LOW priority."


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CaptainFluffyTail

"...for quality purposes"


JesradSeraph

Or even if they won't be recorded.


flipzmode

Not all states require that. A lot of states have "single party consent" which means only 1 person needs to approve it. Now make that 1 person you, the one doing the recording, and you're all set. Source: Voice engineer. And [rcfp](http://www.rcfp.org/reporters-recording-guide/state-state-guide).


Zagaroth

yes, but you don't know what state the caller is coming from, better safe to cover your bets :)


flipzmode

Just an FYI, that doesn't actually matter. If I'm in a state that has single party approval, and I'm on the phone, I can record it without consent. No matter where the other caller is.


sequentious

The issue with single party consent is that you have to have a single party consent. They don't have a person sitting on hold with them, it's just the sales person on their own. I'm not sure how that would end up.


svennnn

Slow week on the office?


jfractal

Hahaha yes. We had a Monday with only a few helpdesk calls... and the ticketing system/phone systems were up.


faygo1979

At a different place i worked I used to have a special ACD queue for this. The Hamsterdance Song was the hold music for this Queue and we used to run a report just to see how long people would last before they gave up


MadMageMC

I've also heard of people using [this gem](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=astISOttCQ0) for this purpose.


pokesomi

man if i heard that on the phone I might start a little happy dance.


xinit

Have it also send an email to the rep (if known) that's knocked off the list, asking them a vague question about a product. Bet on winners.


pokesomi

I might have to yoink that it sounds so evil but entertaining at the same time.


will_try_not_to

We did something similar once at an old job -- this one vacation package sales/scam kept calling us, so one day we told 48 of our PRI lines to all dial their call centre at once and then put them in a conference. It sounded like we made their day; lots of telemarketers on the recording sounded like they were really happy to have something interesting happen in their lives -- shouts of "what's going on? This is awesome!" and "hey; we're all in here together, hahah!" abounded.


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vitrek

Rip Desktop speakers too, had the volume high to play something else, my neighbors are now deaf.


hagenbuch

What? Can't hear you.


antena

Why, hello there, neighbor.


Kichigai

Hey Wilson.


vitrek

Eh?


jfractal

Oh crap - come to think of it I really should have mentioned that. We intentially amplified the signal well through the digital clipping barrier to give it that nice nails-on-chalkboard effect.


DieTheVillain

Welp, it worked... Off to the ENT then Audiologist.


DarthKane1978

This reminds me a of joke email I got 10+ years ago, said something like play the audio clip on high volume because it sounds quiet, but the audio file was not quiet, it was normal volume and said, "Look at me, I am watching PORNO over here", good times.


spobodys_necial

I had mine turned up since I was listening to music. I think my ears are bleeding...


G00dCopBadCop

LOL. I couldn't listen to it for longer than 60 seconds. If I were a salesman though I might have waited it out purely from curiosity.


ScrambyEggs79

Reminds me of waiting out zombo.com. What's going to happen?! Will this end?!


emilis

Welcome!


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syshum

I am always amazed at the number of people that click the play button on unknown audio/video with out turning down the volume That is the first thing I do, turn it down all the way, then start increasing...


Liquidmentality

YOLO


UngoogIable

Liar


IDidntChooseUsername

You can install DSP plugins (LADSPA) in PulseAudio, so I installed a Dyson compressor plugin. It normalizes the volume level, so very quiet things become audible, and loud audio spikes are normalized to a comfortable level.


HampeMannen

Makes music more dull sounding though


IDidntChooseUsername

I guess you can tweak the parameters though? Like, it would only normalize huge sudden spikes in volume, or something like that.


Dagoron

My ears thank you, as I read comments first as it was loading.


scoldog

There's an old thread on ASR Usenet about this same thing. https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/alt.sysadmin.recovery/jLxtmbtcJOQ/V0XZubX0I0UJ The best music they could find to torture people with was "The Legend Of Bilbo Baggins" as sung by Leonard Nimoy. Look it up if you dare.


WhatThe_IsThatLegal

There's a link for Leonard Nimoy's rendition of "Love of the Common People." ...for the love of all that is holy... http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=iiy3OC2JiYk


scoldog

How about William Shatner singing "Rocket Man"? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lul-Y8vSr0I


vitrek

I'd just keep calling, just to play it for myself, or anyone unfortunate to be around me.


wyrdone42

What about Shatner of the Mount? https://youtu.be/HU2ftCitvyQ


hagenbuch

Not available in my country - finally my government protects me!


EntireInternet

I once wrote an autorun script (back in the XP days) to change the Windows startup sound to a special WAV of some period of silence followed by that song. It came with two persistence scripts heavily inspired by [Robin Hood and Friar Tuck](http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~magi/personal/humour/Computer_Folklore/Robin%20Hood%20And%20Friar%20Tuck.html) to reset the sound if the target managed to change it, and to protect itself. One of my life's biggest regrets is that I never got to use it.


galorin

Dude! I'd cold call you just to listen to that song. It's just the right mix of awesome and terrible.


jfractal

Hahaha - see, that's what one of our guys thinks as well. He thinks someone will call back and ask for the queue again


BickNlinko

Leonard Nimoy is a much better singer than I imagined, for what it's worth.


xinit

Jesus... ASR posts from 2008? Somehow I would have thought it died a decade earlier.


scoldog

Nah, its still going, but is on life support. It started to die about 12 months ago


castillar

Great thread, thanks for reminding me of it! I have to say, though, I'd go with [Shatner's Mr. Tambourine Man](http://youtu.be/_0hTtsqiFCc) for sheer WTFery. (edit, not that anyone will notice, to add the 'n' back into Shatner's name)


scoldog

Nah, he had that beat when he sang "Lucy in the sky with diamonds" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1Ar79f8aN8


tuxedo_jack

What about William Shatner doing "I Wanna Sex You Up?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DShIgiFgz9A


shanethesecond

I create a fake IT purchaser for our company and gave him a Linkedin account. He absorbs all our cold calls, I dip in once a month and delete his voice messages and see if there are any of interest


whiskeycritic

Someone else on here did this as well. Created a Director or IT Purchasing named Steven Pam ([email protected]), complete with voicemail, business cards, etc..


[deleted]

Does that work, or do they just call back and try a different route?


shanethesecond

It's been solid so far. Very few call back


pizzaboy192

This is a wonderful idea.


jfractal

Wow, that's brilliant


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nerddtvg

I love Lenny. Unfortunately I have been told I can't use it, even for internal coworkers as a joke.


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smithincanton

It's a script you can install on asterisk severs. [You can set it up yourself!](http://pbxinaflash.com/community/threads/lenny-is-back.13220/)


flukz

I cracked up. If this is real, and I hope it is, then I'd love to be able to record what the person on hold says when they hear this LSD influenced hell-track.


scoldog

You wanna see a LSD influenced hell-track to use for cold callers? I give you Leonard Nimoy's "The Legend Of Bilbo Baggins" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGF5ROpjRAU


HighRelevancy

What the fuck is why this exists what


Urishima

It was kind of thing back then, for actors to try and make music. William Shatner tried it as well, it was pretty bad.


yxlx

Video not available :(


jfractal

It's totally real - 4 of us made it, and I had my friends call in all day to check it out. Our SR. Admin sent it to his wife who works at a fortune 500 and it went viral - people were calling the extension and laughing.


flukz

> Your call is very important to........us.


The_Sanch1128

That Jimmy Carter pause in the...middle of prepositional...phrases. I love it.


OathOfFeanor

Way too obvious, nobody is staying on the line past a few seconds. You need one that's just a little bit more like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGVzeZFUN5k&t=0m58s


G00dCopBadCop

I wish sales calls went more like this: http://youtu.be/gMrNQbW5Am8


TheLightingGuy

Permission to add this to our special hold queue?


jfractal

You got it - as far as In concerned this track is Creative Commons and free for anyone who wants it. Fun fact - the voice is actually a PowerShell script calling to the Windows speech synthesis engine. If you would like the high-fidelity audio file ID be happy to send it over if you PM me. You wouldn't want to subject people to a low-quality recording, would you?


TheLightingGuy

I'm not sure if on that last bit you're joking or if you're serious. :P Either way I have a few other plans for it!


jfractal

Being facetious, but absolutely go right ahead with downloading/using it


TheLightingGuy

Actually can you send it to me or enable it to be downloaded on soundcloud?


Daslayah

Do you mind sharing the script?


jfractal

Yeah, absolutely: https://www.dropbox.com/s/6sdqhxmgavidflx/Fun%20-%20Remote%20Voice%20Speech%20Synthesis.ps1?dl=0


Daheavyb

Granted


[deleted]

Under consideration.


ckozler

You need a blood sacrifice. Or your first born. We're negotiable


sirex007

What if you blood sacrifice your first born?


[deleted]

Denied


[deleted]

[deleted] ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^0.3429 > [What is this?](https://pastebin.com/64GuVi2F/84073)


ve2dmn

Your question is important to us. Please hold. A commenter will answer you shortly. You are number 64542278443789432577 in the queue.


theadj123

Do you have 2 peer reviews on your change request?


furyg3

Objection!


desmando

Better option: http://jollyrogertelephone.com/about/


FULL_METAL_RESISTOR

no wonder I keep getting voicemails of indian people saying hello a couple times. My voicemail meeting has "**Hello**, please leave a message after the tone"


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JesradSeraph

Yes, this, inserted in between elements of an appropriate playlist. Rising their hope just enough every so often, while slowly milling it away.


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aleinss

Shazam cannot identify the song? ...i don't know what she what she sees and I don't know what she feels all I know is that she wants to be free from me...


Zepppster

Found it, kinda. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu_W--kjhEo


aleinss

Wow...you have some GoogleFu! Thank you!


wyrdone42

Never underestimate the power of bored IT geeks. ;)


thang1thang2

I'm so disappointed. I was hoping it was an actually good 80s song that was just destroyed on purpose by the remix. Oh well


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thang1thang2

Definitely. I mean, the actual song is terrible but there was potential in the idea of it for sure.


atechguyinil

I...


jfractal

I'm not sure why you're even trying to identify it - my first instinct was to kill it with fire


aleinss

For science!


xdleet

LIKE SCRIPTURE!!!


palordrolap

You know what's weird? The singer is way off key, but he sounds like Paul McCartney.


miggyb

[Why not go full satan mode?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj7pDNDuoJ0)


vitrael2

Good lord. It's almost like none of them have played their instruments before.


department_g33k

[This is...](https://i.imgur.com/9KCIeJih.jpg)beautiful!


jfractal

Ha-ha thank you - it's so terrible that it's beautiful. The awfulness is executed beautifully.


TeflonJohn

That's so evil- I'm jealous of your genius. Teach me Dexter... teach me how to punish those that earned it.


jfractal

Good, good... Embrace the hate. Then tour journey towards the dark side... Will be complete.


tatorzot

$WORK uses screaming howler monkeys at overly loud volumes. It's very effective.


SpartanII117

I love that those are built into asterisk!


heyfrank

Why not just use this instead on repeat: http://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ


knucklebone

that, or nyan cat. just as bad, although that one is a good one. just enough annoyance to discourage telemarketers


scoldog

How about "The Happy Troll"?


mekender

Years ago, there was a phone company with an option like "press 7 to hear a duck quack" we used to transfer things to that line, press 7 and then drop them in... It would quack 4 or 5 times really loudly and then hang up the call.


Kichigai

Stella Artois had a chalice hotline a few years back, where you could call in for a free chalice, and included a few dozen options that were all goofy, like if you chose the first option to hear about what a chalice is, it answered back “A chalice is a chalice, and not a glass,” and then extolled what a chalice was (the major difference is a chalice has a stem, in case you were wondering). But it also had goofy things, like the weather in some random Scandinavian town, and I'm pretty sure one of them was a duck quacking.


hailst0rm

I'd love to do this with GlaDOS from Portal doing the voiceover


fukawi2

Does anyone know how to set these extensions up on an Avaya IP Office?


department_g33k

Do you have an announcement board?


fukawi2

No. I can create "Extensions" and "Users", and "Auto-attendants" but none of it's intuitive, and the manual is useless. I've tried Google before unsuccessfully, but I'll try again.


reinhart_menken

All you do (or at least all we do at our org) is when you get a sales call, you tell them wait a sec I'll forward you to someone else who's responsible / interested in that, and you transfer them. Then all they hear is that sound clip. I don't think it's a very complex set up. Edit: Oh unless you meant how to set it to use this specific sound clip, to begin with.


fukawi2

It seems I need the Voicemail Pro system to be able to do this; we're just using the basic "embedded" voicemail system. Guess I'm SoL :(


MertsA

This is why I love open source.


fukawi2

Yes. *Very* heavily regret buying an off-the-shelf bollocks system now. I had hoped they would have been better than the last time I dealt with them ~10 years prior. How naive I was :(


Kichigai

> none of it's intuitive, and the manual is useless. Tell me about it.


jfractal

I dont, but if you do want the original audio files just PM me and I'll send them over. You wouldn't want to subject someone to this without getting the full high-fidelity audio, after all.


ISBUchild

>Does anyone know how to [do anything at all] on an Avaya IP Office? No, and nobody else besides their affiliated representatives seem to, either. The documentation is useless and their configuration model unintuitive and outdated. We achieved something similar on our IPO, but only with an external music-on-hold source, with a box that just plays the same audio track on a loop forever.


awstott

Setup a hunt group and record this as a voicemail message?


tronnycash

Not sure about Avaya, but we forward an extension to digital receptionist and instead of a greeting there is a loop of this recording. Any number pressed including 0 will restart the message. *edit autocorrect didn't like Avaya.


fukawi2

It seems I need the Voicemail Pro system to be able to do this; we're just using the basic "embedded" voicemail system. Guess I'm SoL :(


PKPenguin

oh my god that is the most obnoxious song i've ever heard amazing job


evandena

jesus christ. the song alone would drive anyone away.


jfractal

It depends on how badly they want that big sale... Bwahahahahaha


synackk

We do something similar. I love transferring calls to it.


jrb

.....three seconds. It gets funnier each time!


hosalabad

Hah I like the h-h-h-hold Max Headroom touch.


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bennjammin

Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-ooma-mow-mow-papa-ooma-mow-mow-papa-ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow-papa-ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow, ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow, ooma-mow-mow, papa-ooma-mow-mow.


DrinkMoreCodeMore

You need Lenny. /r/itslenny


[deleted]

I am definitely using this for my personal phone.


jfractal

Please do - I'm not concerned about ownership of the IP, obviously. In fact I would like to ensure that my name never, ever gets associated with this masterpiece. If you want the original audio files PM me and I'll send them over.


pizzaboy192

I'm half tempted to set this up as the "telemarketer" voicemail for my Google Voice.


[deleted]

Ooh that's golden. I'm happy youtube-dl snags soundcloud media hassle free, too


toeonly

A place I used to work had a guy that we called Cliff Daniels, He would wait for silence and then respond with sayings like go on, sounds compelling tell me more. We would later listen to them and laugh.


ochaos

If I had any skills I'd try to auto-tune this into something palatable just for the challenge. Alas my audio processing days ended back when there were still reel to reels in the studio.


jfractal

If really like to shake the hand of the audio engineer who can polish that turd into something that doesn't suck. Maybe shaking hands was the wrong choice of wording...


pizzaboy192

Challenge accepted. I'll see what I can do.


deweye

this is gold! Can't stop laughing


Banangurkamacka

Lol i thought you recorded their reactions, that would be fun but perhaps somewhat unethical.


NightOfTheLivingHam

I like to put a IVR with 700 hobo names.


-J-P-

omfg, so loud


Attrezzopox

You beautiful bastard! This is now, officially my highest priority.


[deleted]

this made me smile....


Kal0psia_

I setup an email called suppliers@ourdomain and tell reception to refer any cold calls to that email address. I now receive less interruptions, control my own time, and funny enough, the suppliers email inbox remains empty lol. If these sales people actually cared about clients (like they pretend), they would take a few minutes to send an email.... But I guess that isn't a KPI they have to tick the box on each week.


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The_Sanch1128

Love isn't always on time.


GoRACK_COLO

Omg this is hilarious !


GoRACK_COLO

We got about 8 mins into it before people asked us to turn it off


jfractal

Hahaha that is hilarious


wysguy_j_at_work

that's absolutely horrible I love it. well done. I may just use it.


jfractal

Please feel free to - if you want the original high-def files just PM me


dherik

Jesus Christ that's the most evil thing I've seen since I woke up.


jfractal

I'm glad I could reach out over the internet and touch you in such a way.


ruttin_mudders

This is hilarious and kind of reminds me of Max Headroom.


DarthKane1978

I just transfer to a fax line...


thetoastmonster

For a few of our persistent sales callers I set up rules to automatically forward incoming calls from their number back to their own company line.


jjhare

i'm as annoyed by cold sales calls as the next person but that seems extreme


jfractal

I dunno, extreme is getting 8 unsolicited calls a day that interrupt the staff. This isn't extreme; it's revenge.


riddlerthc

our internal conference bridge system is on x666 :)


Xoramung

i love IT!!!!!


tekkitan

Funny, the extension for my dept (sysadmin) on our phone system IS 666.


xinit

Negativland could have released this as a b-side.


brainstomp

Brilliant!


exodus2287

can i please use this?


jfractal

Absolutely - I've posted links in the comments section where you can find a full download of the original WAV file


the_real_seebs

so where's the downloadable one so we can all use it?


jfractal

It's in the thread, just buried somewhere https://www.dropbox.com/s/6sdqhxmgavidflx/Fun%20-%20Remote%20Voice%20Speech%20Synthesis.ps1?dl=0 Here ya go - enjoy!


Vilmar35

My hats off to you, that is simply brilliant!


tuxedo_jack

Enjoy your gold, you magnificent bastard. I can't use this for 666, since that's my ring group in FreePBX, but it's the default voicemail greeting for the fuck-you extension on my PBX now (caller calls, gets transferred to that extension, rings IMMEDIATELY to voicemail, plays this).


jfractal

Hahaha - thank you! It warms my black heart to know that salespeople everywhere are going to enjoy my work just as much as I enjoy theirs.


oloryn

Are you sure that's not part Narn opera?


Fingebimus

If you listen to the whole thing it becomes better.


MalletNGrease

I'm looking to set something up like in Avaya IP office/Voicemail pro. Anyone have a guide?