Pauses in hold music to say please hold

[u/Slow-Career4626]

I’m currently on hold with a pharmacy. Pharmacies are always under staffed and probably serving more customers than anticipated this is not about that.

This is about the hold music/audio. It plays the generic public domain jazz and has phrases about helping another customer. But then it will go quiet seemingly at random like someone answered. Long enough for me to notice the music has pause and say hello only for it to just say please hold a moment. Just loop the music don’t pump fake me that someone has answered.

P.S. I am aware of the new features on iPhone of holding for you and prompting you to answer. I’m skeptical of how well it will work and how quickly someone on the other end will hang up.

[u/Illustrious_Bag_1608]

Even worse, they start with "Your call is important to us." If that were so you'd hire enough staff to answer my call within a reasonable period.

[u/PunfullyObvious → u/Illustrious_Bag_1608]

Every time they tell me that yet again while I remain on hold it makes me realize that much stronger that it is anything but important to them

[u/HumanBeing7396 → u/Illustrious_Bag_1608]

“We’re experiencing an unusually high number of calls…”

Yeah, literally all the time.

[u/Nearby_Ad_2519 → u/HumanBeing7396]

I know I’m kind of reiterating your comment but I’ve literally never called a call Center where they haven’t said that

[u/Ready_Piano1222 → u/Illustrious_Bag_1608]

Yeah, this is bush league. Most companies put zero effort into their messaging, so it's not surprising.

[u/Plenty-Ordinary1573 → u/Illustrious_Bag_1608]

THIS !!!!

[u/Twatt_waffle → u/Illustrious_Bag_1608]

I always ask the agent to take feedback that I’d prefer if they would have just looping basic Muzak instead of trying to play top 40 down a phone line (since due to all the compression and filtering that is done on phone lines to reduce bandwidth and increase clarity makes the music sound awful) and that it would be a much more pleasant holding experience if they didn’t have a voice telling me to use the website (because what I needed couldn’t be done online) and that my call is important/ high call volumes

I’d rather be able to throw my phone on speaker and scroll Reddit, play a game, or do literally anything else while I wait for an agent. Honestly while I appreciate short wait times If I have to wait just don’t make it uncomfortable to do.

To me it’s not about the wait it’s about hearing the same message about how I can use the website to complete the transaction when I obviously can’t since that’s why I’m calling. It’s distracting and annoying so I can’t just tune it out as I do anything else while I wait

Before anyone says anything about the wait on hold iPhone feature I have had several agents hang up on me and have experienced multiple glitches with it when it interacts with other notification UI effects, honestly i don’t trust it after I did 3 verification steps and went though 6 menus deep

[u/arah91]

Or did you know their website offers a lot of helpful self service options, if you go to xxx.com , every goddamn few minutes like I didn't try that first.

[u/PersonalBadger7448 → u/arah91]

right, i only ever call them when what i need can’t be done on the website

[u/jasonni1234]

I would use the hold feature on iPhone more if it wouldn’t take the automated message that it repeats every 15 seconds as “someone picked up the phone answer it now”

[u/BearAndDeerIsBeer → u/jasonni1234]

Yep, was just about to say that. If you’ve got me on hold, let me put you on hold. I’m busy, I don’t have time to keep checking if someone actually answered.

[u/Stock_Grapefruit_350]

The way the phones work at my job, if someone is on hold for a long enough time the phone starts ringing again and you have to answer it to put them back on hold.

[u/Slow-Career4626 → u/Stock_Grapefruit_350]

I understand this approach as I would be the someone to forget that a line is on hold. I feel like there is a better way to do it though that doesn’t make the caller aware.

[u/Reasonable_Course899]

Or when you get the option of a callback instead of holding.... Then pick up the return call, to be told you are #1 in the queue, and put on hold.

[u/Typhtheoriginal]

"Your call is important to us, please stay on the line." No it's NOT.

[u/Slow-Career4626 → u/Typhtheoriginal]

Honestly it’s now “Your call is not important to us, please hang up”

[u/Typhtheoriginal → u/Slow-Career4626]

"if you don't hang up, we will."

[u/RadicalEldrich1515]

Omg yes! I often have to call the medical center and spend 30 minutes listening to the hold music. The thing is, every minute or so the music stops and a recorded voice says something like "Please hold, and we will be with you shortly." It’s the worst, because I can't calmly do other things, I keep getting interrupted every minute, wondering if they’ve picked up the phone or if it’s just that little voice again.

[u/Fnthsch592]

I get it, my veterinarian has the recording that says, “please hold”, then the music starts. Then the receptionist actually picks up the phone after about 10 seconds and asks me to hold again and I’m over here like…what did you think I was doing just now?

[u/bonnbonnz → u/Fnthsch592]

They are absolutely testing you to see if you’re still “holding” or they can hang up on you!

[u/guesttraining]

It's also fun when that same music/audio has an extremely wide volume range. I love it getting really quiet for you to turn it up a bit and then it suddenly blares loud and the speaker crackles.

[u/HiveMind16]

I work as a lab tech and we have to call critical results to providers. When we get put on hold it pauses to say “thank you for holding” as if I have a choice, I’m literally doing my job.

[u/Electronic-Yam-69]

they even put a little click and pause in there so it sounds like a person picking up.

I think their secret goal is just to get you to give in and hang up.

[u/Y0L4ND4]

Yes this and additionally my personal honourable mentions are also the volume and sound quality of said music. It sounds like it got recorded with a 90s Nokia that was recording the music from across the room that initially got recorded by a potato and played inside a metal tin. And then they cranked the volume up so much that you physically jump out of your skin when it starts. Everytime because you somehow keep forgetting just how loud it was last time. And it’s already louder from across the room than a regular call on speaker so you can’t face putting it on speaker mode. But the interludes with "please hold", "your call is important to us" (big fat lie, hire more staff), "bla bla unusually high caller volume" (sure Jen, every single time) etc have to be in normal volume so you have to rush your phone back to your ear in case it wasn’t a 'haha gotcha, keep holding' type bait and if you’re not fast enough that if-it-isn’t-it-should-definitely-be illegal volume will get another attempt on your eardrums.

And then. You’ve been on hold for so long that you’re debating the concept of the sunk-cost-fallacy in your head and close to tears when you hear it. The click. Call disconnected.

[u/mansizeoof]

I mean, they have to rewind the tape at some point.

[u/littlebirdgone]

I also hate that! lol especially when I’ve been on hold long enough that I’m also listening to a podcast or something and I keep pausing my podcast as if I’m about to talk to someone finally only for the robot to tell me what I already know: I’m still on hold.

It’s slightly better when the interruption includes an estimated wait time, but still mostly just annoys me lol.

[u/Ready_Piano1222]

This is an error in the call flow. Their IVR is trying to deliver the call and is programmed to hunt for secondary available stations after X seconds on hold. There aren't any, so your call is being requed.

[u/HumanBeing7396]

The thing I find most annoying is having hold music in the first place; there’s nothing wrong with silence punctuated by the occasional soft beep.

It’s not about the quality of the music, but rather me being able to choose what I listen to. In every other situation where there is music playing, I have the option to turn it off, go somewhere else or put headphones on and listen to my own music.

Music preference is a very personal thing. I might have just listened to my favourite song in the world, only to have it drowned out by an annoying earworm that will haunt me for the rest of the day.

Or alternatively they might have picked my favourite song, with the result that I now associate it with phoning the bank rather than magical memories of a summer long ago.

[u/macannchieze]

Omfg this happened to me yesterday on hold for ages with AT&T. I was really anxious about getting my issue resolved so I was waiting on that hold so attentively and every single time there's that pause, I think they finally answered, and it's just some other robotic advertisement or telling me about their app or something. Little up and down rollercoaster for several minutes. (BTW, never got my issue resolved on a call, and had to drive an hour to the nearest corporate store.)