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

[wotzy]

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

it's completely fair to jump on some pollyanna who thinks that 20 minutes is great customer service and who likes to deliver a little lecture about queue-jumping, if she's not also delivering that lecture upwards.

i've worked shit jobs with conversion targets, i liked helping people to beat the crappy regime i worked under.

But sometimes there are very good reasons for long queues - I work for a Govt department and every so often our queues go bonkers. ATM this is due to high levels of absence as swine flu has hit our office.

We do our best to answer the phones and take names/numbers to call back when it is quieter, but sometimes there is no alternative to holding in the queue!

We're also unable to transfer between depts - e.g. I often have callers who need to speak to someone about JSA, but can't get through so they ring the Pension Service and ask us to transfer them. I can't - it's a different office in a different part of the country! So back in the queue they go - no way round it.

We do apologise to people who've been kept waiting but unfortunately there is sometimes no avoiding it - esp if you are ringing at 9am on a Monday morning!

Ooooh HSBC seriously need to sort out their on-hold music! It makes me so cross! It's not what it is that's the problem, but the quality . It just sounds so rubbish and fuzzy and keeps cutting out, so I think my phone is playing up, or that I've been cut off. I hadn't used HSBC phone banking for years so was really shocked when I had to call them the other week and found it was exactly the same rubbish!

And the one that really gets me is when I am queuing on the phone for the GP's reception, and every few minutes I get told "Your call is important to us..." Bet it's not as important as it is to me when I've got a sickly 2yo needing to see a doctor urgently!

Just re-read, as I been away.

Where I work, good customer service means calls need to be picked up and answered within 5 rings (we also have a freephone number). To be put on hold at 10p per min for longer than 10 mins (mine took 35 mins) - is far too long for anyone to remain calm.

Would it put me off using this company again. Yes.

Infact next time I book with anyone I will check to see how I would need to contact them first, as part of the service before I buy.