No it isn't. If it was you wouldn't have me on hold for 20 frickin minutes while your one customer service rep paints their nails or whatever the hell they are doing.

You just lost a large account, congrats.

It's a problem of efficiency. Most important thing to any company is their share price. To increase their share price they have to cut cost. I see it every day. Less humans, more automation (You were dealing with an IVR). Offshoring our jobs and the thing that gets me H1B Visas. That was implemented to attain talent you couldn't find in the US. instead it's being used as a loophole to bring Indians into the country and take our jobs from us. It's bullshit. I'll take a smaller annual % increase in my 401k compared to this bullshit.

My tolerance for hold time ceases at the 3 minute mark.
After that, when they finally answer I ask:
"Do you find that keeping people on hold until their bleached bones are discovered holding the phone enhances the customer service experience"?
There is often a lot of stuttering responses after that.
And the winner for me in the category of rot on hold until you are too senile to recall why you called is:
Spectrum Cable

My hearing aids do not play nicely with the telephone. I do have a fighting chance when I'm in the car, where the telephone audio is routed through the car's radio amplifier and speaker system, but outside of that environment I probably average 30% comprehension, especially with female voices since my hearing loss is worse at higher frequencies.

Because of that, I place most of my "calls" through the relay system: I make an internet connection with a relay operator who acts as the middle man. The relay operator speaks with and listens to the party on the other end, and the operator types back and forth to me. With this set-up, hold time is no longer the major annoyance that it used to be. I can stick the relay session in a window in one corner of my screen while I'm on hold, and go about my business with the computer for bookkeeping, ordering supplies for the business, email, SIGforum, or what ever, while I'm on hold.

I cancelled my account with them yesterday. They tried to call me today to see how they could change my mind and win the business back. I put them on hold for 20 minutes then hung up. Childish? Yes, but I am crabby today and I enjoyed it.

One of the managers just called me to have a meeting. Not only did they put me on hold forever, they delivered a day late with no explanation.

I was just having this discussion this morning with my son. He was on the phone with either the telephone or cable company and they were playing their insane, horrible, music. It set me a wondering. Where do they find music so bad? Must have a special department that works on that and keeps it up to date? After a bit of listening I could barely tell that the music they were trying to play was "Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.....but with a latin rhythm!

As usual, the quality of the recording could not have been any worse and they must have been processing it through the world's worst audio equipment.
We have annual awards for nearly everything else. How about an award for the worlds worst telephone answering machine hold music?

Back when I could actually hear, and used a real telephone, I thought that it would be a great idea if all the people on "hold" could be connected together while on hold. Sort of a chat room type thing. Way better than listening to whatever passes for music.

One exception that I found back then, of course I can't remember the company, but I do remember listening to Beethoven's Sixth Symphony (the "Pastoral") while on hold. Nowhere near as painful as most.

quote:

Back when I could actually hear, and used a real telephone, I thought that it would be a great idea if all the people on "hold" could be connected together while on hold. Sort of a chat room type thing. Way better than listening to whatever passes for music.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
We used to do something similar years ago. The Greyhound bus station phone number was always busy and you somehow were able to talk to random others {hopefully female} who also called the number. Of course you had to talk between the busy signal beeping. The goal was to snag girls telephone numbers. Not as good as Tinder. LOL

V-Tail, I have profound hearing loss. Without my hearing aids, I can stand at the sink, turn on the faucet and not hear the running water.

My hearing aids connect wirelessly to my iPhone. I can now clearly hear a phone call. It is wonderful.

There are loop devices you can get that use Bluetooth to connect to your cell phone and then the t-coil in your hearing aids.

“ your call is very important to us, please continue to hold.”

quote:

Originally posted by mas4363:

V-Tail, I have profound hearing loss. Without my hearing aids, I can stand at the sink, turn on the faucet and not hear the running water.

My hearing aids connect wirelessly to my iPhone. I can now clearly hear a phone call. It is wonderful.

There are loop devices you can get that use Bluetooth to connect to your cell phone and then the t-coil in your hearing aids.

I too, have an iPhone. I have a dongle that I can wear around my neck. It is a bridge between the phone and my hearing aids.

It plays the audio of the phone into my ears at a volume level that is fine. Problem is, I hear mostly unintelligible sounds at a good volume level. I do not hear words that make any sense, I mostly hear "Glumph brack snorffle glorp." But it is a fairly loud "Glumph brack snorffle glorp."

quote:

”Your call is very important to us....”

The phone company has professional audio to the office. That feed is wired to the switch, if the customer paid for it. Some customers have their own audio equipment. Quality does not have to be bad. The the call intercept recordings, "the number you have dialed has been disconnected" etc,were on cassette. Most were misplaced or lost. No one CARES at these companies and I doubt they have anyone left trained to address or identify this.

quote:

Originally posted by Lord Vaalic:
No it isn't. If it was you wouldn't have me on hold for 20 frickin minutes while your one customer service rep paints their nails or whatever the hell they are doing.

Even more frustrating is to listen to this for 20 minutes, and then get disconnected.

quote:

Originally posted by henryaz:

quote:

Originally posted by Lord Vaalic:
No it isn't. If it was you wouldn't have me on hold for 20 frickin minutes while your one customer service rep paints their nails or whatever the hell they are doing.

Even more frustrating is to listen to this for 20 minutes, and then get disconnected.

Or being connected to a "technician" who can't help you and being transferred to yet another hold queue.

I love listening to their hold message for 20 mins even after punching in all of my account numbers, ssn, zip code, etc and then once a real “human” answers getting to reverify all of the account numbers, birthdays, mother’s maiden name, blood type AGAIN. I always lose it at that point.

The WORST offender of this IME is Ally Bank. Wells Fargo was also pretty horrid before I got fed up with them and closed my accounts.

I do hate that entering numbers and then being asked the same shit all over again when the human picks up the phone. Why bother ?

Right up there with “The check is in the mail” and “I’ll still respect you in the morning.”

quote:

Originally posted by SBrooks:
I do hate that entering numbers and then being asked the same shit all over again when the human picks up the phone. Why bother ?

Comcast is notorious for this. I hate them as well as Kaiser Permanente insurance.

Jim

Not phone related... but I just worked my way though American Airlines web site to ask a question... took five minutes to input all the stuff they wanted to know about me before I could ask my question.... all that info they already have.... then I get the basic auto reply email and it says they will answer my question in 5-10 days... but it could take longer....

they actually have executives that think this is acceptable customer service?