On hold

It seems that I have been on hold a lot in the last week, and it has been very annoying. First of all, I really do NOT want to listen to what seem to be ads for your services while I am waiting on hold; if anything, it makes me want to steer clear of your company for anything else.

Second, if I have to hear this once more, I think I will scream: We appreciate your business, please hold.  Of course, if you really appreciated my business, you would answer your phone! I know you think you are saving money by hiring fewer people to actually answer your phone, and instead have a recording saying you appreciate my business. But I wonder how much business you have lost because people like me aren’t willing to listen to your BS while waiting for a person to answer the phone?

I know you think your automated system is so cool – but I have rarely been able to find the answer to whatever question I have on an automated system. Instead I have to wait through all the prompts for the automated system and hope that there will finally be a choice to get to a live person. About half the time, there isn’t even an option for a live person.

And then there is what I consider the worst case scenario. There are times when I have been on hold for an obnoxious amount of time (I usually won’t hang on that long, but sometimes I have to get something taken care of), and then I hear a message that says, “We are now closed,” and I am cut off.

If this sounds like your phone system, you have probably already lost me as a customer. I hate to be “one of those people,” but can we please have real people answer our business phones again? At the very least, give people 2 options up front: Press 1 if you want to use the automated system, or Press 2 if you want to talk to a live person.