On Hold Advertising

[TromboneAl]

I'm on hold right now. I've been on hold for about 10 minutes. It wouldn't be that bad except that:

Every 20 seconds or so, there is an advertisement (the same one) inserted into the hold music. "Did you know that you can save blah blah blah...."

I hate this -- it makes it almost impossible to get any work done (if you can call this work) while on hold. I guess this is a pet peeve. I think anyone who designs these things should be made to try to work while waiting on hold and listening to these things.

 

[cube_rat]

I think it's intrusive and obnoxious. It's like "on hold" spam. I really don't think it's an effective marketing tool at all.

 

[JPatrick]

Even worse, when I call the cable dudes concerning an outage they are running on hold commercials about how reliable they are and encouraging you to change your phone to cable.

Same crapola with Scottrade- - Call because the website is screwed  and you get the pitch about the lightning fast trades.  When they answer they say it is only me, ah,  but while I've been on hold I've checked the web and have found lots of others screaming.  Really?? I'm the only one?

 

[justin]

I hate the "we're experiencing extremely high call volumes, but we'd like to assure you your call will be answered shortly" messages that come on every 30 seconds. I'd rather let the "on hold" music play for the 10-20 minutes while I work, instead of thinking I've got a live person on the other end every 30 seconds, which interrupts my concentration.

 

[Mr._johngalt]

I hate the "we're experiencing extremely high call volumes, but we'd like to assure you your call will be answered shortly" messages that come on every 30 seconds.  I'd rather let the "on hold" music play for the 10-20 minutes while I work, instead of thinking I've got a live person on the other end every 30 seconds, which interrupts my concentration. 

Yeah, me too. And sometimes the music is really good and then
a "live person" comes on. It's annoying.

JG

 

[MJ]

In one of the other threads, I describe my Etrade "groundhog day" experience. Briefly continuing my phone experience, when I finally got transfered to the banking dept (I assume) I was on hold for 45 minutes. Luckily I was at home on the internet and watching TV. I finally hung up. There was more but that is for another time. They were having a real black hole phone day and I got sucked in.

MJ