Ever feel like hold music is designed to make you more insane?
12On hold for over 20 minutes – sounds like a bugle playing… No human contact yet. Lots of tones, like I am pressing buttons, but I am nowhere near the phone. Either they are trying to put me to sleep or make me more insane!!! All because an item I purchased 2 days ago is 40% off – price match policy says call for discount if price falls within 14 days. I am contemplating whether my sanity is worth the price difference!!!
(Slightly in their defense, they reported that there were higher than normal call volumes!) Why can’t they be like Meh and give an email for support?
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At 30 minutes, they disconnected me!!!
It would be unlikely for mere music and a frustratingly long wait ending in a disconnection to make me more insane. Not impossible, but unlikely.
It could be that their phone customer support experience is part, possibly a large part, of the reason they offer the price match policy. (“Plus, you could offer a price match policy and then make your phone support so annoying and frustrating that people give up before you have to give them the discount. No, Fred, you can easily make it so that you almost never actually give people their money back. The price match policy isn’t going to cost you much if anything at all,” said John, the evil marketing consultant.)
ok… so I won… their math was sooooooooo bad that I got the item almost for free!! I know ethically and morally I am wrong to let them refund so much, but I couldn’t explain the math to the person on the phone, nor should I have to!!
@mikibell Their math failure is not your problem. I’m hoping it made your hold time more worthwhile.
@mikibell I’ve always wanted to seek revenge on companies with inept customer service and I congratulate you in accomplishing this feat. I salute you:
On the phone with Apria’s national call center for 40 minutes including transfers. If I weren’t insane when I began listening to 4 bars of staticky shrill music repeated interminably at high volume, I was by the end. The kicker? Their customer service is clueless.
/giphy more insane
/giphy more insane
/giphy insane music
I approach all those interactions with barely controlled aggression. It helps me feel I tried.
It gets worse when you hear the hold music somewhere else- Pioneer Women uses the same track as one of the standard AT&T hold tracks (which I don’t hear a lot, but I used to).
The banner picture is of Muhammad Ali for this thread - that’s
/giphy random
This is worth the listen (12 minutes)
Ignore the video above here is the song embeded below that plays here:
@thismyusername I genuinely love that hold music; I mellow out and patiently wait whenever that track is looped. It reminds me of the great background music in the original Deus Ex and System Shock 2–very pleasantly cyberpunk-y.
@goldenthorn it is quite good… check out THIS ARTICLE for an interesting bit of info on it… (Act one is about the music)
@thismyusername I had no idea that hold music was popular. There’s a vendor I have to call often that uses it, but it’s interrupted every thirty seconds about how “all operators are busy”, or “my call is very important to them”, or, “did you know that you can access our website?” I thought it was honestly a short loop made for the vendor because I just keep hearing the same part, and not the rest of the song.
My favorite is when they put a commercial, for the same shit you are calling about, right in the middle of the hold music, and for a second you get your hopes up because you hear someone talking but nope, still on hold.
I hate the ones that tell you hoe important your call is to them every thirty seconds.
/giphy customer service
“higher than usual call volume” annoucements are the case 24/7 at many call centers. All it means is that they don’t wish to hire or pay employees.
And the off-shore call centers are worthless for anything non-routine.
Worst ever was American Express once. They had a 17 second loop of what I ultimately concluded was a very poorly played solo violin cover of the Rolling Stones’ Satisfaction. After 5 minutes, I resolved to cancel my card. After 10, I decided to Lodge a complaint. After 15, I realized I was going to be a total jerk to the unfortunate soul who answered. After that, I decided to just hang up.
@simplersimon So, what you are saying is… The hold music worked perfectly for American Express!
@curtise Almost, if I hadn’t found a way to cancel the card online.
I prefer music to the recorded “helpful” tips about checking their website for support issues. Don’t be fooled! When you check the website for anything beyond common sense issues, it tells you to call support!
I hate our hold music at work, so if I need someone to wait I ask them to hold, leave the mic on, and whistle “The Girl from Ipanema” while I’m doing whatever I need to do.
@DaveInSoCal I like that!
@Barney
/youtube girl from ipanema
@DaveInSoCal Would you get a load of that hairdo?
/image beehive hairdo
I think it requires a structural engineer & a building permit