i want to not hear that i can use the website yo resolve my issue because i am only calling because the website is unusable trash
VMware?
I dislike most of the music and if you tell me how much you care you lie to me. If you cared so much you would have employed enough people to answer the phone immediately.
Your call is important to us. Not more important than the 15 people in line in front of you, or our regularly scheduled breaks, but certainly no less important than the 20 people who called after you.
Something I can zone out of, and no talking, so when someone does finally answer it’ll get my attention again. If you can’t/won’t staff your call centres appropriately the least you can do is let me do other things while I wait.
Also this thread reminded of this:
a scream that increases in volume the closer i am to the front of the queue
Imagine using the Sonic underwater nearly drowning music when you’re the next person in line.
I despise the music just because they always play it at the highest possible volume. I have to turn it down to the lowest point in my telephone, to be able to endure it at all. Then when a human voice appears, I hardly hear it.
Right?? Once the hold music starts, I set my phone to speaker at a low volume just so I can hear it playing while I place it on my desk. Then someone finally picks up and I don’t notice they’re already talking.
My favourite is the barely in range radio station. Besides that, who in the blue fuck tried to play music through an audio channel that is severely bandwidth restricted and filtered for voice, music over the phone has never ever worked well.
I like when they tell me to press whatever number and they’ll call me back when it’s my turn
Do those ever work? I’ve tried them a few times but always have to try again the next day when it never happens
I’ve never had it not work for me. I rarely call to phone lines nowadays, but a few I have over the years that offered the service, they always called me back.
I’ve had reasonable luck with Alaska Airlines the two times I’ve tried it, and Fedex once, I think.
Those would be great if they’d tell you what number they’re going to call from.
Personally I prefer the default “waiting for someone to pick up”-sound so that I know the call is still active. And if it takes more than a minute, maybe a voice confirming “yeah, this is taking a while” with my position in the queue. Do not:
- Whoever recorded the voice made the right kind of noise to make it sound like someone is answering
- Update me with queue position unless the queue position has actually changed.
That way I can do whatever while waiting, including listening to music of my choice.
My least preferred option is a voice telling me how important my call is, how much they love me, and how they will do anything they can to get to me as fast as possible except from hiring more people to pick up the phone.
Also, did Cisco change their default on-hold music for the first time in decades? I wrote this while on hold at them to have a support ticket resolved.
how they will do anything they can to get to me as fast as possible except from hiring more people
Aww yeah, story of late stage capitalism
I’d like to hear a never ending stream of dad jokes interspersed with “you are number $x in the queue, your estimated wait time is $y”
Some kind of non-irritating sound or music without voices to confirm the call hasn’t been disconnected in case I zone out or switch to another task.
My favourite is being on hold for disability benefits when one of my symptoms is sound sensitivity which makes it hard to listen to music and they play shitty music really loud. And then intersperse it with messages that sound like somebody answering the phone but it’s just a message to say that I’m on hold (which is useful because I couldn’t tell that from the hold music and the fact I wasn’t talking to somebody) and that the call volume is unusually high and definitely not like this every day on purpose as a cynical ploy to disincentive people for applying for benefits because you can’t apply online where I live. And then they answer and you have a conversation, the whole point of which is to get them to send you a form to fill in online, but the call cuts out half way through and they don’t call you back so you have to go through the whole thing again but you can’t because the first wait has used up all your spoons for the day. I’m not angry, why d’you ask?
Maybe just the occasional beep would be fine.
You are currently Caller #5 waiting to speak with a representative. Thank you for your patience…
You are currently Caller #2 waiting to speak with a representative. Thank you for your patience…
3 customers just threw away their phones rather than listen to that.
I’m OK with those, as long as there’s a reasonable delay between the updates. It let’s me know if I can do chores such as shopping and laundry while I wait, or I have to sit glued to my screen.
Nothing is the worst option as you don’t know if anything is actually happening.
The voice interrupts are annoying as hell more so when trying to direct you away from the call to the web platform that just told me to call because its too complex.
Music or radio is fine. As long as its not Opus No.1 or terrible chip tune.
The best hold music I heared was 2009ish IBM hold music, light jazz with no voice interrupts.I spent some time on the VA’s phone lines while caring for my dad, and kind of grew to like Opus No. 1. There are far worse default options out there. More importantly, I prefer the necessary interruption to let me know I’m still on hold and they’re going to come back to me not be every 20 seconds, and not be at a volume twice as loud as everything else.
I really hate nothing at all. I’ve been hung up on before and didn’t realize it for a minute until I looked at my phone. Why don’t smartphones have that old disconnect sound that landlines would do? Maybe some do.
Also not a fan of the piped in radio music that apparently is being picked up under a bridge, so it’s a faded volume and keeps going in and out. Usually the music isn’t bad, but can we tune it in better?
Anything but complete silence. I get unnecessarily anxious and worry I’ve been disconnected and will have to start all over.
Nothing, that way I can listen to my own stuff while I wait.
I don’t much care about the type of music.
There’s this one place I have to queue every now and then that uses some old technology that produces an audible click every time the audio loop starts over, and every time I think somebody picked up.
That sucks.
I’d prefer something that works even when I put the phone aside - so it can be loud, but on the same level as the speaker who then later picks up - and gives me clear markers that either I’m still on hold or that somebody picked up.
The audio/music has to have a continuity to it so that you notice immediately when it ends. Whatever artificial voice speaks to me must not sound like an actual human just picked up.
Unlikely it will ever make it to the people creating these things, but this is my constructive criticism.
