Please Hold
So I got two calls today where I picked up the phone and heard the automated voice: "Please hold for an operator ...".
Excuse me? You called me. But by making the call this way they can save a bit of the operator's time. Check that, they can make the minimum wage caller be on a call with a person that much longer in their shift, and thus save the company a few more pennies rather than hire one more minimum-wage worker to do the work they want done.
SO, I stupidly stay on the line. Then the automated message changed a bit: "We're sorry, operators are all busy at this time. We will call again ...".
And then the message cut out and a real person was on the line -- the cal didn't quite have enough time to timeout. Unfortunately for the operator, who I lit into for their company having the nerve to call me and then make me wait, and then just about to try it for another cycle. I told him he could make a note on any records they have and tell his supervisor that I refuse to deal with this system any longer. Not that they care.
It just reinforced some rules that I should have been adhering to, but had slipped back a bit, allowing for a minor benefit of the doubt. Or, having rushed to the phone, felt I needed to pick it up anyway.
1. If the caller ID doesn't give a name or a number I recognize, the call is going to the answering machine. If they won't talk to the machine, then whatever they want isn't worth my time either.
2. If I pick up the phone and they ask me to hold, forget it. It's an immediate hangup. If they want to talk to me but it's not worth it to them to have a real person ready on the other end when I pick up, again it's not worth my time.
OK, enough of that rant. I've been reasonably productive today. Got Legends together finally, got the dishes done (mostly, at this point), the laundry done (again, mostly, at this point). A bit of other cleaning. Got the Halloween decorations boxed up to go into the attic tomorrow, including getting one of the glass pumpkin stakes fixed (the glass dome came loose from the stake).
Tomorrow, Menards is supposed to deliver the new doors we ordered for the front entrance and the door to the garage from the house. The delivery is supposed to be between noon and 6pm. Depending on when the actual delivery is done, I may get the doors installed as well.
Excuse me? You called me. But by making the call this way they can save a bit of the operator's time. Check that, they can make the minimum wage caller be on a call with a person that much longer in their shift, and thus save the company a few more pennies rather than hire one more minimum-wage worker to do the work they want done.
SO, I stupidly stay on the line. Then the automated message changed a bit: "We're sorry, operators are all busy at this time. We will call again ...".
And then the message cut out and a real person was on the line -- the cal didn't quite have enough time to timeout. Unfortunately for the operator, who I lit into for their company having the nerve to call me and then make me wait, and then just about to try it for another cycle. I told him he could make a note on any records they have and tell his supervisor that I refuse to deal with this system any longer. Not that they care.
It just reinforced some rules that I should have been adhering to, but had slipped back a bit, allowing for a minor benefit of the doubt. Or, having rushed to the phone, felt I needed to pick it up anyway.
1. If the caller ID doesn't give a name or a number I recognize, the call is going to the answering machine. If they won't talk to the machine, then whatever they want isn't worth my time either.
2. If I pick up the phone and they ask me to hold, forget it. It's an immediate hangup. If they want to talk to me but it's not worth it to them to have a real person ready on the other end when I pick up, again it's not worth my time.
OK, enough of that rant. I've been reasonably productive today. Got Legends together finally, got the dishes done (mostly, at this point), the laundry done (again, mostly, at this point). A bit of other cleaning. Got the Halloween decorations boxed up to go into the attic tomorrow, including getting one of the glass pumpkin stakes fixed (the glass dome came loose from the stake).
Tomorrow, Menards is supposed to deliver the new doors we ordered for the front entrance and the door to the garage from the house. The delivery is supposed to be between noon and 6pm. Depending on when the actual delivery is done, I may get the doors installed as well.
posted by TT at
11/04/2006 09:49:00 PM
1 Comments:
Exactly the same approach here to incoming calls. Since our phone number is unlisted we generally should know anyone calling us or else it's someone or something doing a random number crawl.
By
Mike Norton, at 11/05/2006 10:21 AM
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