October 2, 2008
On Hold
Written by Shana in Jaunty Post
I hate waiting on hold. Hate it! Lately I have been on hold a lot. Since our cable and internet are out, I’ve been paying bills I would normally pay online via the telephone. The average wait time to get through was an hour. And don’t even get me started about how long I waited to talk to a real person at the cable company.
I wonder if companies have reduced their workforce since so may people can get information and pay bills using the internet? All I know is I feel like I spend half of my life on hold. I could have probably written a short story, learned to cook, or mastered the Chinese alphabet instead of sitting and waiting on the phone.
I know I can write a blog during the hold-time. I’ve been on hold the entire time I’m writing this. I’ll probably still be on hold when you read it!
So here’s my question: how long do you wait on hold? Is 20 minutes your limit? 30? 60? I really have to pay this bill, so I’ve been on hold 87 minutes. That’s way over my limit!
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Margo Maguire Says:
It isn’t just the “hold” time, it’s all the time you spend going through the menues. For English press 1? And on from there. And what really burns me is if you finally get through to a human, and then get cut off. And have to start over
Mary M Says:
My patience level maxes out at about 15 minutes. But if it was something that had to be paid, I’d still be on at 87 minutes too. Treat yourself to something nice today!
Devon Ellington Says:
I invoice them for the time kept on hold.
Most of the time, I hang up after 15 minutes, write a letter to the exec office in complaint, Cc’d to the BBB and invoice them for time.
Sometimes, it even shows up as a credit on the bill. At least I’ve made my point.
Only once did I stay on hold for 72 minutes, to fix a cable problem in the middle of something I had to cover remotely for work.
Yes, I billed them.
Fedora Says:
Ooh, grrr! So sorry, Shana! Hope you got through! I despise being on hold, especially since these days with young kids, it’s hard to be on the phone for even a couple minutes, much less 87! But you know the second you hang up, you would have been next! I need to learn to do what Devon does–bill them for wasting my time!
Margo Maguire Says:
My local cable company will do a call-back. If you don’t want to stay on hold, they give you an option (recorded, of course) of being called back at a time of your convenience. You put in your phone number and a time they can call you back - and they do it! I’ve used this service twice and it’s SO worth it!
With computerized systems everywhere these days, I don’t know why more companies don’t do that.
Stacie Mc Says:
I had ordered a computer online and received the wrong one. I spent nearly five hours on the phone to resolve that. I had to explain the problem to several different people but spent most of the time on hold as the shunted me from one department to the next.
Kristan Higgins Says:
I like to talk to the Muzak myself. It just passes the time more quickly. “Oh, you write the songs that make the whole world sing, do you? Well, I write the checks that fund you, pal…”