Website battles phone systems

Paul English of Arlington is launching gethuman.com today, stepping up his campaign against companies with automated voice response systems that make it difficult for customers to reach a human representative.

The new website will not only feature English's ''cheat sheet" for getting around the automated systems, which drew national attention last year, but also consumer rankings of companies, a customer service blog by English, and even ''gethuman" hats, shirts, and Teddy bears.

English said the website will be free and the merchandise will be sold at cost. English, cofounder of the travel search engine Kayak.com, has also enlisted volunteers to help edit the cheat sheet, which gives dialing instructions on how to reach a human on the customer-service lines of more than 200 companies.

''We want to change the face of customer service in the US," the gethuman website says. ''We want our calls answered promptly by humans who are friendly and knowledgeable, who are easy to understand, and who handle our calls without transferring us again and again."

Some companies have criticized English for urging consumers to sidestep time-saving automated systems. English said the systems have their place, but too often they are an obstruction to people who need to talk to a person, particularly those with hearing or speech problems.

English said about 1 million people a month have been visiting his personal website to check the cheat sheet. He said he hopes to tap that same customer base on gethuman.com to compile ratings of how companies treat customers calling by phone. He plans to issue lists of the US companies with the best and worst customer service.

Bruce Mohl can be reached at mohl@globe.com.