General Chat

:-D :-D :-D :-D@ maggie That made me howl :-D :-D :-D

If I didn't feel so sorry for the people who answered the phones, and I wasn't so desperate to contact them, I'd be tempted to say, when the phone was eventually answered 'Your replying is important to me, this household is grateful for your eventual response' - and then put the phone down.

What annoys me most is being told every three minutes that my call is important to them.

If that's the case then why can't they bl**dy answer it?

I usually get rid of the abuse by replying to the 'bot' telling me I'm 10th in the queue :-D

annoys me when they threaten you that they wont tolerate abuse or violence, before you have even got a word in!!

Remember the times when you were put on hold? My friend had a high pitch whistle and let rip after 5 minutes of waiting, they soon answered. ;-)

I agree and at 13p a minute (BT) holding on can be very expensive. Having said that, our local hospital has a system where the extension number for the dept. is on every letter and ringing them is a doddle as they always answer immediately.

Another tip which often works - OH had to ring DVLA last week and every time he tried the message told him to try again later. So I looked to see when they were open for calls and he rang at 1 minute to 8am, when the voice said he was in a short queue and to hold on!! Success! He had to wait about 10 minutes and then spoke to a very helpful person without needing to be transferred. :-)

The irritating run-through of 'if you want to do X,Y,Z, have you tried using our website?' Well, I don't want to do any of those, why do you think I'm phoning? But, of course, 'your call is important to us' :-P

Strange that gp surgeries are experiencing 'higher than usual demand' so much these days and spookily, I'm always number two in the queue. They must be have a good long chat with number one. My backside :-| :-| :-|

Menus annoy me, what happened to extension numbers being available? So we jump through these hoops, we're kept hanging on, then our call is picked up by someone either with a hard to understand accent or they have good English vocabulary but not familiar with the usage. Not their fault but why not employ people who can comfortably deal with callers in their own country/language, wherever and whatever that may be???

I agree Maggie, with people out of work, why cant these companies employ more people?

I too think it is unacceptable to be kept waiting 50 minutes in a queue only to get through and then be told, I have to tf you elsewhere grrrr :-P :-P

And when you are given contact numbers for oncology and oncology appointments etc etc it’s always bee answer phone and you can’t speak to anyone even though they give their hours of work

Seems they all don’t want to answer the phone

Sooo true!

I have to admit I feel sorry for the admin, and those who have to answer the phones - especially when we're told by 'bot voice' that calls are being recorded
People (like me) sometimes take advantage of this recording, and after apologising to the admin, ask why the 'hierarchy' aren't employing more people.

But then they would have to speak to people and do something. ;-)

that whenever you phone a huge corporation/firm, from water companies, banks, etc they're ALWAYS experiencing higher call volumes than normal?

Why don't these huge firms use their huge profits to employ more staff?