Fonolo lets iPhone users skip corporate phone hell

The iPhone is an amazing device. But iPhone users realize it’s a little less amazing once they stop answering their mail, tweeting and posting to Facebook, and use it as a phone. Add to that the furstration of dealing with a large corporate call centre dedicated to keeping you as far away from actual service and contact with a human being, and you’ve got a real problem in th epalm of your hand.

Fonolo, an app for the iPhone and iPod Touch based on the popular website, aims to rid users of these frustrations by letting them cut around the usual phone maze and get straight to a CSR. By listing the entire phone tree, Fonolo empowers users to get around unfriendly menus, and the app also remembers your history so you don’t have to navigate around menus if you call back. A cursory search of the app revelaed Rogers (my nemesis) as well as informing me that the company is “currently offline” (no surprise there.)

Besides the “stick it to the man” aspect of the app, I also like the fact that it operates over wifi, saving users from onerous cell charges. I don’t have a landline, and previously I would hop on Skype for what was sure to be a long wait for service. I’ve tried to keep my interactions with giant firms over the phone to a minimum, but sometimes you simply have to talk to a human, and in those cases, Fonolo looks like it will keep you from smashing things and going berserk before you get to said human.