# I never thought I'd be mad at Julie



## the_traveler (Oct 28, 2011)

At least she works for Amtrak! She moonlights for the Post office!

Try to get her attention there!




There is no "0" to bypass her. You need to "press 1" or "press 2" or ...



And there is no easy way to get to Customer Service either!





Julie should keep her day job!



(And I say this as a former Postal worker and currently having a sister who is a Postmaster!)


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## Trogdor (Oct 28, 2011)

I had to try to contact the postal service once or twice a few years ago, and it was damn near impossible to find a way to speak to an actual human being, and none of the automated messages addressed the issue (i.e. mail that wasn't being forwarded/delivered properly).


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## JackieTakestheTrain (Oct 28, 2011)

Wow, I must be lucky.

Not only have I called the post office 800-customer service number and got a real person, but they gave me the phone number for my local office, too.

When I called that number, they answered the phone!

I guess they must know not to mess with me! 

And traveler: I think Julie works for a lot of other businesses. I saw it on the news once. I will see if I can dig up the link and send it to you.


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## PetalumaLoco (Oct 28, 2011)

We've had good luck calling the local post office, but getting any problem solved? Naaaaah! :blink:


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## JayPea (Oct 28, 2011)

Fortunately I live in a small town where the postmaster knows about everybody, me included. So when I have had some problems, I go talk to him personally. And my problems have been solved right away. People tend to look down on us bumpkins who live in rural areas, but getting personal service in areas like this can be so much easier than in urban areas.

As for Julie, she's cute........I can overlook her personal idiosyncrasies. :lol: :lol: :lol:


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## JackieTakestheTrain (Oct 28, 2011)

Had to hunt, but I found the article that mentions her other clients --at least at the time of this article appeared in 2009.

Funny to find that the real Juile lives in MA and she was even on The Simpsons!

http://bcm.bc.edu/issues/summer_2009/works/answering-the-call.html

I wonder how much she would charge to be my ringtone on my phone? "Hi, Jackie. This is Julie. Answer your phone!"


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## the_traveler (Oct 29, 2011)

I know she is from the Boston area. She was a contestant on "Jepordy!" and came in 2nd. (Her train was late!



)


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## the_traveler (Nov 2, 2011)

As a conclusion to this thread, here's what finally happened.

When I checked the tracking on Thursday, it said "Notice left" and "Signature required". Because no notice was left, I called USPS on Friday and after arguing with Julie, I talked to a human. She checked her computer and saw the same thing!




So she took my information and said that it would be sent out on Saturday to my house.

While on the phone (on Friday), my mail came. Guess what I found in my mailbox?



The item - and no signature was needed!


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## The Davy Crockett (Nov 6, 2011)

I'm sorry the_traveler, but I can't let this thread go without commenting.

I like Julie.

And the article about the real Julie was great - Thanks JackieTtT!

But unfortunately, as much as I like her, I have found Julie to be a compulsive liar when it comes to ETAs, especially when a train is running late or experiences a service 'event.' Sigh.... :giggle:


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## DET63 (Nov 24, 2011)

From Your Train Will Be Late, She Says Cheerily (Nov. 24, 2004)






Julie Stinneford, who provides the voice of Amtrak's customer-service system, working at home in Massachusetts.


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## Devil's Advocate (Nov 25, 2011)

Here's a quote from that article...



> Since her debut in April 2001, Julie has earned high marks from callers, who have given her an approval rating of more than 90 percent, according to surveys done by Amtrak and by a company hired by the railroad. Many riders say that she sounds and acts so lifelike that they did not immediately realize that she was just a computer program.


So ninety percent of people too clueless to immediately realize they were talking to a computer think she's great? I've never once been able to get Julie to handle anything even remotely important. When Amtrak trusts Julie to do real work like a real human agent maybe I'll give her another try. For now Julie's no better than if it was "put your kid on the phone day" at the reservations center. She's cute, cheerful, and completely unable handle any but the most basic of tasks. No thanks Julie, I'd rather speak to an adult so we can get some real work done.



> In handling roughly five million calls, or about a quarter of Amtrak's annual call volume Julie has saved the perennially strained railroad more than $13 million that it would have cost for humans to handle calls. Amtrak officials would not say how much Julie cost.


If Amtrak refuses to even tell us how much Julie cost then how can we know how much she saved or lost Amtrak? I wonder what sort of criteria they used to determine how many people Julie "handled?" For instance, does it include people who simply hung up on her?


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