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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To thinkn that my call will be answered as soon as possible and that 24 minutes is a tad too long now for me to remain a calm human being

30 replies

wotzy · 01/08/2009 12:35

Thomsonfly you w***s...
and I have to keep listening to fat boy slim saying he wants to prise me! Fecker!

OP posts:
aJumpedUpPantryBoy · 01/08/2009 12:50

I feel your pain - yesterday I spent 40 minutes on hold and then the battery on my cordless phone died. My howls of anguish scared the dog.

chegirl · 01/08/2009 12:51

There there. Think nice thoughts, breath deeply and relaaaaaax.

They have you trapped and there aint nothin you can do about it.

The only revenge is to phone back when you dont need them to sort something out and sing to them for half an hour or speak in gobbledy goop and ask them to sort THAT out for you

giraffesCantCatchSwineFlu · 01/08/2009 12:52

put it on speaker phone and drink tea and MN while you wait

Original poster
wotzy · 01/08/2009 13:05

I did use speaker phone and was in such a flap when I heard a voice I couldn't get them back and had to SHOUT at the phone VERY LOUDLY!!!!

Lol - thanks sorted out now.
Did rant but said sorry - all that holding makes me fume.

OP posts:
foofi · 01/08/2009 13:06

YANBU - I would have hung up long ago.

hunniesugarplum · 01/08/2009 13:08

pan pipe music is worse...it supposed to be relaxin

MissSunny · 02/08/2009 23:52

Message withdrawn

alypaly · 03/08/2009 00:00

are there any real people on the end of the phone anymore.

AitchTwoOh · 03/08/2009 00:04

next time, try the next number along... so something like 0845 600 600, do it as a 601. often it just puts you through directly to someone and then, even if they can't help you, they can transfer you to a person who can.

MOST infuriating is the halifax insurance line that asks you for your policy number and when you type it on your phone says 'i'll just key that in for you AND THEN THERE ARE TYPING NOISES!!!'

not only that, when you get through to someone the first thing they ask you for is the policy no again.

alypaly · 03/08/2009 00:15

just press 0 0 0 0 and it takes you thro to a real human being...well thats what i think they are anyway... maybe they are robots too

Drusilla · 03/08/2009 00:37

the Orange woman does the typing noises as well when you set up a new PAYG. Do they really think that we believe a real person is on the end of the phone?

AitchTwoOh · 03/08/2009 00:47

it absolutely makes me want to SPIT.

harleyd · 03/08/2009 00:50

bmi baby drove me totally insane yest
feckin 65p per minute
yeah thanks bmi

MissSunny · 03/08/2009 01:22

Message withdrawn

AitchTwoOh · 03/08/2009 01:42

you don't sound very sunny at all. doesn't your company 'do' customer service at all then?

Notalone · 03/08/2009 10:21

The worse is DELL and just thinking that I need to call then later makes me want to start spitting. Call centre is in India and customer services ask for your service number then transfer you through to technical support who then ask you for your service number and transfer you back to customer service. DP did this last week and must have given his service number at least 15 times each time being passed from pillar to post. No-one was bothered that he had to keep repeating himself over and over again, no-one thought to stay on the line and introduce the call to the person he was being transferred to. They arranged to collect my faulty laptop on Thurs so we wait in most of the day and then they come on Fri when we are out. I now need to call them again to rearrange. AARRGHHHHH

AitchTwoOh · 03/08/2009 10:31

i had some shocking customer service from Dell, so i emailed the indian directors and funnily enought the head of cust services called me and sorted it out.

Notalone · 03/08/2009 10:38

They are a bloody nightmare Aitch aren't they? What happenned with you? Think I may need to take this route too soon if they are as bad as they were last week. Shame because their computers are usually shit hot, shame their service is so shocking

igivein · 03/08/2009 11:04

It's when the recorded message chips in and says 'Thank you for being patient' that I really loose it. I'm usually in the middle of shouting 'I'm not being fucking patient - I don't have any fucking option' when someone picks up.

alypaly · 03/08/2009 11:44

why is it always the 0845 nos that keep u waiting so u have to pay but the freefone ones dont

MissSunny · 03/08/2009 13:14

Message withdrawn

AitchTwoOh · 03/08/2009 13:21

20mins is a DISGRACE. you don't give in any way great customer service if you can't man your lines. this is how absolutely NUTS the world has become. as for 'i don't like people who queue jump'... if you are getting calls from people who cannot bear to be on your phone lines for another 20 mins and are getting desperate, i take it that you are escalating this problem to your superiors? no? just telling your customers off and hanging up? nice.

Notalone · 03/08/2009 13:32

Aitch - in defence of Sunny I can kind of understand what she is getting at. I used to work for a major bank and much of our targets were based on call conversion ratio's. If we got lots of calls from people trying to escape the queue it would impact our sales figures and therefore our money. This job paid crap money and the only way to increase your pay was to hit your targets and the jobs were advertised as such. Also, people who came through to the wrong department were not able to skip the queue anyway. All we could do was transfer them through to the queue itself. The poor people who work for these companies don't make the rules sadly and many companies are cutting costs by cutting staff so it is the more remaining buggers who take the brunt of customer anger. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that if calls are answered quicker the companies would probably have more satisfied customers and therefore higher customer rentention.

However, when I worked for the bank I would always introuduce a customer to anyone I transferred the call to. We would get into masses of trouble for "blind transferring" which is what drove me mad about Dell. Thre is nothing worse than having to repeat yourself numerous times

Notalone · 03/08/2009 13:34

PS - oh and sunny doesn't make up the rules. If she escalated every call through to her superiors she would probably not have a job for much longer. The rules are crap but she doesn't make them. Its not fair to jump on her for this

ilovemydogandmrobama · 03/08/2009 13:44

Called Virgin Media a few months ago. Was on hold for ages, 15 minutes or so, and when someone answered the call, I got: 'the other person has cleared...'

Just had to laugh though.