What's the longest time you've waited on hold

[RoyKent]

Just hung up on Lloyd's after two hours and 34 seconds. Someone is attempting to use my card on Ryanair flights.

Lloyds are normally exceptionally fast at answering their phones!

I've waited 90 minutes to speak to my GP before.

Not even the GP, just the surgery...!

Over 2 hours with Barclays. Can you stop your card online or through App.

Card is frozen but its my debit card so can't leave it frozen indefinitely as I need to use it. Wondering if it would be easier just to report it lost on the app.

Gosh, you win, OP! I was about to say that I waited an hour on hold for Barclays only to be cut off exactly at the hour mark, so it was obvious they'd done it on purpose.

Just do it through the app. Quick and easy

Two hours 20 minutes to the child maintenance ‘service’ and I might as well have not bothered

1 hr 5 mins to santander

Not sure, but hours rather than minutes for an international flight change!

I hope you get your card sorted. Maybe try as soon as you get up tomorrow?! At least you've been able to freeze it!

1hour 40 mins for AA Insurance re an issue with a no fault claim. They did a good job with the claim but I'll be checking to see if my insurer has a "live chat" or ringback facility in future as I think it was probably about 3 hours on hold altogether to answer various questions they had!

DG was 3hrs 55 in the phone to 02 for his mum once. How he didn’t just lose the will the live I’ll never know. And they didn’t sort out his mums contract that day either!

Last summer, over 5 hours trying to change an international flight. We couldn't believe it when someone answered the phone!

3 hours and then the line cut you off automatically. Did this 3 times. Then 40 minutes on the 4th try and finally got through. Then had to call back the next week but started the call just as the lines opened so only waited about 20 minutes. So in total about 13 hours... Needed to rearrange my honeymoon due to covid!

My partner walked out on us when my kids where little
I tried to contact the the csa to make a claim-I’d ring,stay on hold,they’d cut me off,so I’d try again,be on hold,get cut off
so I’d say 23 years and never did last long enough to set the claim up

tax credits-some fucker told them I was claiming and had a man living with me-untrue
3 hours and 7 minutes on hold and they must have looked into it but I never heard another thing from them so I guess they didn’t find anything

i had a problem with my boiler once-my landlord refused to deal with it-in total I spent 13 and a half hours on hold to then over 3 weeks
only to be told the landlord was the only one who could deal with them

Cancel it and order a new one on the app. Mine came within 2 days but they updated my Google pay instantly so I could continue paying for stuff in shops until it came through.

2.5h with the passport office. When they finally answered, they said to wait for 10 weeks since it says on the website they started looking at the application. Not 10 weeks since they received my documents! No comment....

All of these are appalling. You win the thread!

For bank fraud (like in the OP's situation), I would have gone into the branch. This is what I did when I discovered that someone was using my "card" to withdraw €uros, where at the time I haven't been abroad for over 4 years. I found out by checking my statement online.

Went in-store and got my card cancelled then was issued with a new card a few days later. The fraud team investigated as well and reimbursed the €250 + €50 amounts that were taken out, plus the €3 ATM fees.

The bank was Santander.

Back to the OP's original query, longest I was on hold was 80 minutes to NTL when setting up a broadband account for the first time in 2002. There was nowhere where I could do it in-store (although I was aware that some towns did have NTL shops), so phone was my only option.

I won't wait longer than about 40 minutes I ring off. Too tiresome.

I normally have it on loudspeaker and go about my day

It's a recurring theme in this country these days so you have no choice if you need shit done. Every company, whether privately or publicly owned is a nightmare to get through to on the phone. GP surgeries, pharmacies, energy companies, banks....

Sometimes just finding a number to call is near impossible - it's often hidden on the website to discourage you from trying to call.

It's one of the things that shows how low productivity is in this country. If there's so few vacancies why do most companies not have anyone available to answer phones?

Then they have the audacity to ask you to complete a survey