Shelby's Life and Whatnot

Hello, This is ETS. Can We Be Less Helpful?

Arg! So I had to order my GRE test scores for the graduate schools to which I'm applying. The GRE is administered by ETS, an organization that does its very best to be as difficult as possible. First of all, to order your scores, you either mail in the form and it takes some hugely long time to process, or you call the special number and order them electronically. Mind you, the telephone system is entirely automated. As in there is no human involvement.

You do, however, have to call during business hours to use the phone service. Yes, that's right. You have to call during business hours to use a totally automated phone service. Explain the necessity of that!

Then when you get on the phone you have to enter 1 so many times I think I wore out the button on my phone. It went like this:

Enter 1 to select an institution
1
You have selected to enter an institution. Press 1 if this is correct.
1
Enter the four digit institution code
XXXX
You have entered XXXX (pause) The University of Blahblah. Press 1 if this is correct.
1
Now enter the four digit department code
XXXX
You have entered XXXX. Press 1 if this is correct.
1
Press 1 if you would like to send this institution your GRE General test score.
1
You have selected 1 to send this institution your GRE General test scores. Press 1 if this is correct.
1

And so on. It runs through the whole shebang for every possible option. Like press 1 to enter your credit card. Then enter your credit card. Then it reads back your credit card to you, and you have to press 1 if it's correct. Then you press 1 again to authorize ETS to charge your credit card. It's positively infuriating. Boy am I glad that's over.