back to article Airline leaves customer on hold for 15 hours

Australian airline Qantas has denied claims it left a customer on hold … for 15 hours 40 minutes and one second. The claims were made by a customer who has told Fairfax media and news.com.au that he called to confirm a flight and, upon hearing the usual canned messages about what a valued and deeply-loved customer he is, …

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  1. Tank boy
    FAIL

    I call bullshit

    Why on earth would anyone stay on hold for that long? Further, what phone has that kind of battery life? On the other hand, perhaps they were preparing him for the shit service he can expect on the flight.

    1. ChrisC Silver badge

      Re: I call bullshit

      Why would...? Because, as the article says right at the start, he "decided to put that statement to the test".

      What phone...? Any phone which is plugged into its charger.

  2. Allonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    I once spent an hour on hold to Ansett

    Some people might remember them; used to be a Qantas competitor. They went out of business a couple of months later, which in hindsight is maybe why their call centre was so understaffed.

    Less charitably, perhaps airlines Down Under are just bad at this sort of thing. Though things are hardly any better here in Blighty - my all-time on-hold record is something over an hour for BT. Then they cut me off.

  3. PBelc

    Virgin media kept me on for 6 hours

    It would have been longer had I not redialled and found out the call centre closed 40 minutes after I had been put on hold.... I was not amused, how easy would it have been to drop all the queued calls when they left the office!!!

    Epson had me on hold for over 9 hours on their printer support line to which I wasn't best pleased about.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sorry, but what idiot STAYS on hold for that long?

    Derpy derp.

  5. Kubla Cant
    Pirate

    Revert to snail-mail

    One of the things that companies like about call centres and email correspondence is that it's so much cheaper for them than handling paper correspondence.

    So whenever an organisation proves hard to deal with on the phone, I resurrect my inner Luddite and start to send them letters. Obviously it's not suitable for anything time-critical, and there's a cost penalty, but in these days of electronic computing equipment it's wonderfully easy to send the same letter, with minor variations such as "I am disappointed not to have received a reply to my letter of the 3rd inst, of which a copy is enclosed...", and to address it to the Managing Director. Even if it doesn't get a result, it's nice to imagine the trouble and inconvenience caused to a company that thinks it runs a paperless office.

    It's also fun to be able to say to somebody on the phone "If you read the letter I sent you last May..." in the hope of sending them scurrying round looking for it. A letter is a ball in the opposition's court.

  6. G Murphy
    Mushroom

    BT

    Once put me through to a department that had closed. But I was still listening to their hold music and canned messages. Eventually used the mobile to call another BT number who confirmed that indeed the department I was on hold to had closed. That was after 45 minutes. At my expense.

  7. Kapt Roger
    Unhappy

    Sky

    I once had the misfortune to have to call Sky, after an hour of being in the "queue", I rang them from our second line (this was before we had mobiles), I was lucky to get straight through to someone, I then asked them how I had managed to get through to them when I was still in a queue from an hour before on my other line - the reply was it was a different queue.......I never really understood that one.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wow!

    That makes my personal record of 4 hours 7 minutes on hold (in a single call) with BT Total Broadband look positively speedy.

    I didn't waste the time, I built four bookcases and a cupboard whilst waiting, then used the hour or so left over to find another ISP.

  9. Lockwood

    TRWTF is not getting bored and hanging up

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Useless public sector ...

    privatize them and let them work to the demanding standards of the private sector.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    OK that is excess

    Way longer than I had with local health center that has one hour calling time for appointment reservations at noon. Called a bit advance in order to be one of 1st ones in the queue (it was flu season). I ended the call 2 hours later.

    Later I made a complaitn and according to city it never happened. Right.

  12. Kubla Cant

    Music for sore ears

    Once upon a time, it used to be possible to ring Microsoft for Windows support. Naturally, this involved hold times of geological proportions.

    Unfortunately their hold music was a Jean-Michel Jarre track that consisted mostly of breathy whistlings and rushing-air sounds. It sounded pretty much the same as noise on a disconnected line, with the result that I'd jam the phone harder against my ear to try to tell if I was still on hold. I blame Microsoft for the big red ears I have these days.

  13. tin 2
    FAIL

    @Lee Dowling - totally spot on!

    I have no idea why it hasn't clicked with any of these companies that having someone on the end of the phone fully trained, bothered what people are phoning for, and having all the possible systems at their disposal for getting a result is much cheaper than filling call centres full of clueless, powerless morons, and pissing the customers off both waiting for them and dealing with the buffoonery once they get through.

    I've had experiences much the same as yours with BT, Sky, O2, Orange (who unbelievably told me they "didn't have the time" to deal with an overcharge!), Talkmobile, Fujifilm (who's callcentre closed while I was holding) and loads more that I probably should be glad I forgot about.

    To go on another slant, I have worked closely with callcentre "system admins" on a number of occasions (but never as one). The lack of thought into the design never ceases to amaze. It seems the simplicity of administration of such systems - or should I say the perceived simplicity - fosters the idea that anyone can write a callhandling script. They actually get really complicated really fast - particularly in a multiskill environment. Try telling a caller to one line what caller number they are when there could be a call to a higher priority line any second. That's probably the main reason why most callcentres don't do it. People get told they're called number 2, then suddenly they're caller number 5.

    The main problems I keep coming across are (1 - mentioned several times above) what happens when a call centre closes while you're in the queue. The easy answer is that the lines close but the agents don't go home until all the calls are answered. Of course all the agents are on strict fixed hours and are treated like disposable shit, so go home immediately. and (2) Monitoring. Nobody usually has a clue what's going on in the callcentre, wallboards if they're present are usually based on the known, rather than the exception - e.g. some caller being punted off to some unmanned queue somewhere for 16 hours, and reporting tools are pretty much universally a work of fiction, even in the rare cases they are configured correctly. Tiger billing, Cisco webview for examples just punt out a load of stats that really do mean sod all. Management love them though...

  14. Antony King

    fear factor

    I must say that my one and only Qantas was also the one and only flight that I've been truly scared on - and I've been up in a 6 seat single engined cessna in the southern alps during 'interesting' weather.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    - 40 C

    There was a short movie that apeared on TV here in Canada of a lady calling a govermant office.

    Freezing cold , Phone booth on side of road, running out of change, getting told to call anouther time,

    I personaly spent 2 hours on hold to talk to Govermant person. Luckaly I was at home so when I had to use the shitter there was one near by. The sound of the flush seemed to get them to respond to the call right smartley..

    It apeares the monitoring there holds lines. :)

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