Am I going for the world record on hold to BT?

[MutteringDarkly]

Or at 43 minutes am I still in the amateur stage?

Amateur. I once waited over an hour and when it finally connected the person listened to my problem and promptly hung up

Are we only counting BT? I once spent 4 hours on hold to Dell.

You are not even in the foothills, Muttering, I conceived, gestated and delivered triplets whilst ‘hanging on’ to British Gas ( or similar- insert wankers of your choice). Allegedly my call was important to them...

Calling about tax codes MUST have the longest average wait. When I was a student my job insisted on giving me some random code every month so I often spent whole days on the phone trying to get through to someone.
Halfords is pretty awful as well. In March I spent over 2 hours in the queue 3 times.

Sorry, sorry only just got off the phone...

Oh ok not really but it felt like it. Agh. Mind you, if we are opening this up to all telephone "services" I agree, there are many others who deserve a dishonourable mention:

Sainsbury's - masters of the five minute recorded message then cutting you off
HMRC - enough said
Talk talk - still scarred