LONG Wait Times when calling Support

[jkhanson]

Has anyone ever gotten frustrated when calling for support from anywhere?

Today I received a phone call from "CitiCard."  I am always leary when I get a call FROM someone saying they are my credit card company.  I prefer to hang up from that caller and then I call my credit card company myself.

Today I was on hold - 40 minutes - between getting disconnected and redialing etc .....grrrrgh... such a waste of my time.  I know they are very busy and it is expected that there will be a wait time.....but, when I was all done, it was good news and the lady and I got a laugh out of it.

[countrygirl12]

Yes. More than once. It is ridiculous that wait times are over an hour.  Do not talk to anyone who says they are from your credit card company. Most likely they are not.

[metsrock69]

I really think these companies are using the pandemic as an excuse to keep you on hold forever. I was on hold for 35 minutes to home depot for no reason . it does not take long on any given day to answer a few questions and move on to the next customer.

[UGetPaid]

I just posted this observation to my Facebook account on May 21st:


"Am I the only one who starts to question the sincerity of the pre-recorded line "Your call is important to us" after hearing it for the 750th time while being on hold for over 45 minutes; and then gets extremely agitated when someone finally answers and they interrupt my joyful head bobbing to the really upbeat jazzy music loop they have been feeding me for that entire wait time? I'd long ago forgotten what questions I even wanted to ask and I am tempted to call back again tomorrow just to get my fix of their hold music."

[braggin]

Yes, I have been on hold for as much as 2 hours before. I usually just set my mind to not letting it get to me and put the phone on speaker so I can do something else while waiting.

[countrygirl12]

I really think these companies are using the pandemic as an excuse to keep you on hold forever. I was on hold for 35 minutes to home depot for no reason . it does not take long on any given day to answer a few questions and move on to the next customer.

There is a reason. The number of people working has been drastically reduced. Thus it takes longer to get to each person who is calling.  You also have about 10 times the number of calls coming in.  SO you take 10 times the number of calls coming in and 1/10 of the usual number of people answering calls - it stands to reason it will take longer to get to each person.

[darkxtsuna]

Yup, It pains so much when it happens and I really need it done as fast a possible.

[tjshorty]

I don't know how many times I had to hang up because the wait was just to long.

[dreamyxo]

Seems like it's better now but when lockdown stated it was so bad.  I even tried online chat option and no one was ever available.  I thought everyone was working from home.

[surveygrabber]

Whenever I need support through phone calls, sometimes wait times are longer than expected.

[lywb2168]

Yes, we cut the land line, since we all use cell phones now no need to have it there, also cut Cable, don't need it, I have an Over the Air Antenna for local channels and I use my firestick for Netflix, Hulu, pltuotv, Mobdro, etc, so saving ourselve over $200 on bill.  Asked Verizon to just Upgrade the Internet, they told me that they need to send a Technician to do Upgrade on their Outside connection! that was 3 weeks ago and I am still waiting, when I check my account I get this message "We are minimizing installations for the safety of our customers and employees during the COVID-19 crisis. We will contact you when we are able to schedule an appointment."  Seriously they don't even need to come inside their box is outside of the house.

Also, my husband applied for Unemployment and got a letter from the Department saying that he was not entitled to it, we could not understand why, so tried emailing everyday and calling for 2 1/2 weeks without any luck, not even to get on hold, it just said, all agents are attending other customers call back later.  Then finally one day my husband got a hold pls. message, and we held for 6 1/2 hours to talk to an agent and solve his problem, I know they are overwhelmed but damn.

Capital One was the same thing, took me 2 weeks to talk to someone regarding my auto payment.  I really believe that some of these companies are just taking advantage of the situation.

[ktheodos]

Yes, certain places have been overwhelmed and perhaps understaffed, though hopefully that is starting to change....I see it in restaurants/fast-food places too sometimes...people are really impatient sometimes when their food isn't ready in like 2 minutes

[makeblessed]

I agree, we had an issue with our cable and I stayed on the phone for an hour; they had recording that said due to covid-19 they are operating with limited staff and wait time may be longer then usual, they did give option to have a call back which I finally took after waiting so long; but even on the call back I still had a little wait but at least the tech was able to talk me through the issue and we got the cable back up and working.

[calendria]

 

Thousands of jobs like these were outsourced to China, India and Africa...sooooo
when you are on hold they are short staffed and probably redirect you to another operator..

We need to bring these jobs back to the USA!!

[aflyingmonkey]

Yes... just a couple weeks ago I was on waiting on hold to Home Depot for almost 1 hour.  I received blinds that were severely damaged & I had to wait as long as it took for them to answer to arrange an exchange & UPS pick-up. 

I was thinking even with social distancing or whatever was the issue, couldn't people be doing call centers from their home?  There really is no reason for lack of staffing.