To incensed at the length of time organisations keep us waiting before answering the phone or replying on line

[Tremblingmadness]

Having spent four hours waiting to speak to HMRC today I am tearing my hair out.

I have an urgent payment query caused by an issue in their system. I attempted to resolve it with their AI offering, but the bot couldn’t understand.

There have followed three phone calls, all cut off at about the 1 hour stage. I am currently on the fourth.

Why, why, why? Just why?

My issue won’t go away, it has to be answered, so why do they believe it will help the situation by making me waste a large part of the day listening to them telling me how important my call is, while playing me the most irritating jingle.

Last week it was my Insurance Company, two weeks ago the AA.

I just don’t get what the point is. These organisations have to respond eventually, their AI is not fit for purpose, so why not resource sufficiently to do so in a timely manner.

AIBU to want someone to answer the phone within a few rings and what is the point of keeping us all sitting in a queue and having to ring back numerous times to get a resolution.

Octopus - trying to peak to someone for WEEKS - pleasant voice tells me
’all our agents are busy atm but here is some music we hope you will like -
Frank Ifield “I remember yewwwww” on a loop - this is to ensure I/we ring
off in horror and despair.

Nothing new. It's been a long time since you could phone a large company and just get through.

They need more staff I guess.

OMG! I’ve wasted hours of my life on webchat and the phone to talk talk. I still don’t have a landline! I complained and got a big discount on my new contract. Still don’t have a landline!

I read the title of your op and came on here to say l spent ages trying to get through to HMRC!! They are the worst for this.

"Higher call volumes than usual" is less irritating than "Due to COVID-19..." recorded excuses. Covid was 3 years ago.

If you log on to your Octopus account, go to personal details and communication preferences, you should be able to choose from a selection of songs they offer, or indeed, blessed silence.

I'm not sure how well the tie of selected hold music to account to phone number works in practice, however.

But one of the reasons for the difficulties is that this 'brave new world of employee friendly working from home has resulted in a lot of shirkiing, not joined up working practices.

MN seems overwhelmingly in favour of work/life balance, family friendly organisations - still think it is the new, improved world of work?

HMRC used to have good customer service. You could call your tax office and the phone would be answered within 3 rings by someone who could actually deal with your query.

In 2015 it closed 137 regional offices and layed of thousands of staff.

In 2021 Brexit meant that thousands of companies that previously did not have to deal with import duty and border VAT issues now have to, massively increasing HMRC’s workload.

So there’s your answer, they’ve had to cope with a huge increase in workload, while being cut to the bone.

Same as all other public services.

I feel your pain! I hate them. Must have rung 20 times since November to tell them that my Smart Meter’s not working, at least an hour per call. Every time promised a call back that never happened.

Only yesterday someone told me that I have to wait for a letter from them to tell me my Smart Meter’s not working and then I have to phone them to arrange for someone to come and look at it. Can’t I do that now? No, have to quote a code on the letter. When will I get this letter? Could be a few months 😳😳. They insisted I had the bastard Smart Meter in the first place!!

They’re incompetent and now I owe them money but that’s not their fault 😡😡

Sorry for rant! I needed that.

All these people saying it's the fault of the people who won't use the website. Companies managed to staff call centres before we were all online, so they can manage to staff them more easily now as lots of stuff is done online. They just choose not to.

You're right. Since Covid, companies have been absolutely shit at providing any sort of service, and they're still blaming Covid for providing a poor service!!!

And the ever infuriating ‘we are currently experiencing higher than normal call volumes so it may take a little longer than normal to answer your call’

None of us are stupid…This IS your call wait time. Don’t try and hide behind Covid that was like four years ago to disguise your incompetence. You’re just rubbish.

🙄 😡 😤

This. And I agree PP, it is enough to raise your blood pressure. I don't know how people who work full time and have to use their lunch hour for these types of queries manage to function these days. And as for elderly folk - nobody gives a shit about them. My mum sometimes ends up in tears trying hard to be independent and use her iPad to do things online.

I think our worst wait times are about 15 mins and people get really cross about that. It's a mentally draining job
Today I did 177 calls and feel like I've been through a wringer! You finish work and don't want to speak to anyone

Would say a lot of people ring first thing Monday morning then get angry there's a queue - it's definitely our busiest time.
Saturdays are quiet for us and 3-4pm always seems quiet too so might be worth trying companies then. Or while coronation street/football/big events are on

My exDP used to love enjoy a fight. He once sued British Gas for wasting his time (they kept coming to read the meter and he was in a new build, electric only premises) He won. Maybe we should start charging these piss taking companies for our precious time, too.

"Sorry. All our operators are busy. Your call is important to us ..."

Not THAT fucking important, eh?

Grrr.

A gift voucher for porn 🤣

To be honest, I'm not that thrilled by companies that 'kindly' allow you to choose your own hold music. How do they have the audacity to try to sell that as a positive thing?

My choice of 'music' is actually spoken word: the sound of a human person answering my questions properly and actually resolving my issues.

I also hate it when you get through to somebody abroad, who doesn't have English as a first language, a very strong accent coupled with the low quality international line connection and just has a rigorous script to follow. If they deliberately design things to frustrate you and make you hate their company/organisation and feel completely unvalued as a customer or client, they have greatly succeeded.

I think thats what frustrates me @BuffaloDance2000

It is clear my time is not important. I was trying to work during the four hours I waited, but not only was my phone tied up, but I was listening to the same musac / message over and over again. That just added to the frustration.

The trouble is that with HMRC you can’t just vote with your feet. I was paying money due on the 31st Jan (thank goodness I didn’t leave it till the last day) and they had managed to mess up the allocation. If I hadn’t rung a previous Tax Year would have been overpaid, but the one I was trying to pay, underpaid. That would have resulted in an interest assessment.

They totally admitted the issue and said I wasn’t alone in having it, but that still doesn’t give me back the wasted hours.

You are trying to contact HMRC during what is quite literally, their busiest period of the year for having to deal with queries

I'm going guess that like most of the rest of the population you've left your tax return for April 2023 to the last minute to submit?

Perhaps next year do it in May instead of waiting 9 months........

The more removes you are from the organisation you are dealing with, the less likely your problem is going to be resolved. Face to face and in person is the most satisfactory. Then a telephone conversation with the person who actually makes decisions. Anything else, whether call centre or bot, it's hit and miss. And since the growth in remote working added yet another remove, any response is slower.

Thank you !

Im on PAYG and just cant afford to sit waiting for my GP surgery to answer the phone.

@ruby1957 good point! And yes generally Mumsnetters are all for the " working from home" malarkey when it suits them but when you're on hold because Theresa is picking little Timmy up from school/walking the dog/unloading the dishwasher it's not so cool.

Perhaps HMRC should resource their call centre in line with wholly predictable peaks and troughs in demand and also not make errors that necessitate a follow-up call in the first place.