 
CUBS_FAN
Next Year Again..
join:2005-04-28
Chicago, IL | Old school She must of had a wired telephone.. Imagine her switching from handset to handset when the batteries were dieing | |
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en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA
 ·RoadRunner Cable
 ·DSL EXTREME
| Re: Old school Possibly. I know when I've had to call a few customer (dis)service numbers (Airlines, TWC tech support, AT&T tech support, etc.), I use speakerphone, and let it play muzak until either.
a) Call drops (at least 25% of the time)
b) I get through
Many service items needed can not be handled online.
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Canada = Hollywood North | |
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Anonymous_
Anonymous
Premium
join:2004-06-21
127.0.0.1
clubs:
·RoadRunner Cable
·Time Warner Cable
 ·Time Warner VOIP
1 edit | Re: Old school said by en102  :Possibly. I know when I've had to call a few customer (dis)service numbers (Airlines, TWC tech support, AT&T tech support, etc.), I use speakerphone, and let it play muzak until either. a) Call drops (at least 25% of the time) b) I get through Many service items needed can not be handled online. i found a number for Time Warner Cable that will let you get to them in less then 1 min
bypassing the queue | |
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| | | hottboiinnc
ME
join:2003-10-15
Cleveland, OH | Re: Old school me too. It's called 611 | |
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SimpleSolution
@comcast.net | Wow, just hang up the phone and try the call again.
Who would have the time to wait for 8 hours on hold?
weird story! | |
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KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK
·AT&T Yahoo
·AT&T DSL Service
·Cox HSI
·AT&T Southwest
| Re: Why sit on hold for 8 hours? said by Nightfall :2. She is a moron for waiting on hold that long. Well, on the surface... but think about it.
Let's say you just put the phone on speaker and went about your day, and just watched how long. Once it got to some ludicrous amount of time on hold, you then can post about it, either online, or even in local media, Newspaper, TV news, whatever..... You get some attention, and BOOM the company is tripping all over itself to get your problem fixed to your satisfaction for PR purposes.... so actually, this could turn out to be pretty clever...
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"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini
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Nightfall
My Goal Is To Deny Yours
Premium,MVM
join:2001-08-03
Grand Rapids, MI
·AT&T Midwest
 ·Site5.com
·Comcast
| Re: Why sit on hold for 8 hours? said by KrK :said by Nightfall :2. She is a moron for waiting on hold that long. Well, on the surface... but think about it. Let's say you just put the phone on speaker and went about your day, and just watched how long. Once it got to some ludicrous amount of time on hold, you then can post about it, either online, or even in local media, Newspaper, TV news, whatever..... You get some attention, and BOOM the company is tripping all over itself to get your problem fixed to your satisfaction for PR purposes.... so actually, this could turn out to be pretty clever... I suppose if you have nothing else to do with that 8 hours. All to report a glitch that happens to .01 percent of the caller base. A glitch that the company says that their phone system provider is within the SLA at 99.9% call completion.
Of course, the company is going to say it was a fluke or a glitch. Trying to explain that the SLA of their phone system is 99.9% and here are the figures for that, oh and two calls out of 200,000 that we got in the last month hit that glitch. The general public won't understand or care. | |
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| | | quatrix
Premium
join:2005-02-11
Davie, FL | Re: Why sit on hold for 8 hours? 99.9 + .01 = 99.91 | |
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JSRoman
Premium
join:2005-03-10
Callahan, FL |  Dumbass
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»www.seabee.navy.mil | |
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SLD
Premium
join:2002-04-17 | OED defines idiot as someone that uses Merriam-Webster as a dictionary. | |
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SLD
Premium
join:2002-04-17 | Re: Dumbass LOL...maybe I'm just snobby about the English language. | |
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operagost
join:1999-08-02
Spring City, PA | Re: Dumbass I'm not even snobby enough to understand why that particular dictionary is allegedly inferior. | |
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ydoucare
join:2003-03-12
Rensselaer, IN
2 edits | ... The real issue here is not with RCN, but the fact that some idiot sat for 8 hours on hold. Why does she even CARE? She says she took a nap and went to a party, so the call obviously wasn't all that important to her. | |
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MyITGuy
@rocassociates.com
| Re: 800 number In the grand scheme of things, that's a drop in the bucket.
8 Hours x 60 minutes = 480 Minutes
480 Minutes * 25 cents per minutes = $120
That type of cost won't cause a flinch for anyone who operates a call center.
For comparison, we operate a small call center of approximately 30 FTE's and our phone bill ranges from 7-8K a month. | |
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| | JoelC707
join:2002-07-09
Tucson, AZ
clubs:
| Re: 800 number I was going to post the same thing actually but I just did the math too and found it wouldn't have mattered. I suspect 25 cents a minute was just a high estimation on your part, if not you should look at switching carriers. I just pinged our carrier for another 800 number two weeks ago and they quoted me .069 per minute which at 480 minutes totals a whopping $33.12. | |
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battleop
join:2005-09-28
00000 | They are probably paying 2 to 5 cents a minute. | |
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Rob
In Deo speramus, God Bless the USA
Premium
join:2001-08-25
Kendall, FL | Taking advantage.. She held for 8 hours in hope that afterwards she'll get 1-2-3-4-5-6 months free service for the problems.
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CheckSite.us | YourIP.US | |
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en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
·DSL EXTREME
| Re: Taking advantage.. It works if you have time to kill, and a good speakerphone.
Let the muzak play, and go about your daily work until you hear someone on the other end. 8 hours is a little excessive though. Worst I've waited (impatiently) was ~90 minutes.
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Canada = Hollywood North | |
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ninjatutle
Premium
join:2006-01-02
San Ramon, CA
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
1 edit | Someone, please smack this broad on the head For the sake of humanity.
She called in already looking for trouble. When someone didn't answer her right away and treat her as an elite customer that she thinks she is, she put the phone down and took a nap.
Who is to say an operator didn't answer her call and didn't see anyone on the line so they put her back on the queue?
Its customers like this that ruins it for everyone else. No good two bit devil customers.
Where does the Consumirist find these bottom of the barrel type? Is the Consumirist the site where all these maggots dispatch from? I hope the lady does visit this site.... | |
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SLD
Premium
join:2002-04-17
1 edit | Re: Someone, please smack this broad on the head I bet she uses P2P too!
Ruining it for everyone!!! | |
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ninjatutle
Premium
join:2006-01-02
San Ramon, CA | Re: Someone, please smack this broad on the head Maybe she was. On top of it, it wasn't even her service to start with. It was a boyfriends.
Talk of sidebusters... | |
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Maggs
Premium
join:2002-11-29
Woodside, NY | 25 Mins That's all I'd wait, then hang up. She's just bitching to the Consumerist.
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NIL ILLEGITIMUS CARBORUNDUM! | |
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DaveNJ
No Fear
join:1999-09-01
New Jersey | Re: 25 Mins i have the 30mins threshold. But i usually redial an hour later, this increases there abandoned call count, and makes there management look worse. Sometimes i do this a couple of times. | |
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moonpuppy
join:2000-08-21
Glen Burnie, MD
·Verizon Online DSL
| Two things to mention #1 User might be used to long wait times which has happened before on other services.
#2 I got disconencted from Comcast trying to report an issue when they said hold times were too long, call back later.  | |
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guerst
@mindspring.com | Re: Two things to mention "hang up and switch isps"
like its going to be any different on another isp... | |
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fatmanskinny
Premium
join:2004-01-04
Wandering | Re: Check the forums... Agreed. I get the best technical support from DSLReports. Dang it, send some of that support money to the DSLR community.
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God saved me from myself! Thank you, Lord, in the Name of Jesus! | |
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MalibuMaxx
join:2007-02-06
Chesterton, IN | Sue For lost wages,
Lost time with family,
carpel tunnel syndrome,
mental trauma,
anything you can think of...
doh... | |
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jester121
join:2003-08-09
Lake Zurich, IL | One thing for sure -- She's clearly not a Viatalk customer -- even on their unlimited plan they cut you off after 4 hours.  | |
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Turbocpe
Premium
join:2001-12-22
IA
| 2 hours hold time with Mediacom Longest I've held in a phone queue goes to Mediacom with slightly over 2 hours. This happened not once, not twice, but a few times. And that was not some glitch issue, but rather, their real hold times at once.
I think there used to be a standard recorded message that stated calls are taken in the order they are received and to not hang up. | |
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SilverSurfer
join:2007-08-19
| Makes Sense to Me It's interesting how most commenters protect RCN and instead of placing blame where it should firmly go, blame the customer, and, otherwise completely miss the entire point. A few things to keep in mind, however:
(1) Sure, 8 hours wait time is going to be trotted out as a "glitch." What else can the company possibly say? A story about a "glitch" is the best possible spin on incompetency.
(2) Sure, it's dumb to spend 8 hours waiting in a queue for customer service. But if you have the time and want to make a point...where's the harm?
Worst case scenario: The customer goes to The Consumerist, and now, RCN has to save face and rectify the problem or else face a PR nightmare. Works for me. More power to the consumer. | |
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See 7 replies to this post |
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ronniehunt
@rr.com | ... its great this guy jason that works for rcn is trying to fix the issue. he seems to be helpful on the rcn forum. too bad he is the only one at rcn trying to make the customer happy as the rest of the company doesnt give a hoots. | |
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| rtfm8
join:2005-07-09
Washington, DC
·Verizon Online DSL
·Atlantech Online, ..
·AT&T DSL Service
| Lost in Queue [Hi Jason]
I was dealing with {then called} Ameritech on a manner 7+ years ago. Every time I called, I had to play the same game with the queue, being told I was in the wrong queue, and they'd transfer me but no, I could not call the right queue directly... and I could wait again.
One time, no one picked up, nor did I get told every minute how important my call was, and wouldn't I like to order more services etc. Instead, I got hold music.
So I put it on hold. This was ISDN, with an ISDN 7505 set. It had 4 call appearances per line [Think call-waiting done right.] so I was out nothing. I could and did take other calls, in and out, while it sat there in red on that button.
I was sure it would be gone in the morning. Nope. The next day? Nope. It was FOUR days later that I came back and saw it had disconnected.
Hey, my call was very important to them; just check their 800# bill to see HOW important.
I know Jason personally and find him an honorable man. He would not be happy with PO'ing a customer, or paying for a pointless call. He like all of us has to suffer the indignities of modern phone systems, but he can fight back. Betcha the vendor was NOT happy to hear from him....
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operagost
join:1999-08-02
Spring City, PA | Re: Lost in Queue Tell Jason to use better grammar and spelling when representing the company on a public forum. | |
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detth
Onemhz On Aim
join:2000-10-06
Astoria, NY
| not a glitch I don't believe it was a glitch.
i used to work for a call center, run by a very large company who others outsourced too.
We used the term 'purgatory' when putting customers on endless hold. Calls would come into the queue, then you can either pick up the call and immediately transfer back into the queue, or place them on hold - we had the same music for all occasions. On the calling end it was virtually impossible to detect this.
It was done quite often. | |
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ifarrell
join:2000-08-10
Willow Spring, NC
·Vonage
| Re: not a glitch said by detth :I don't believe it was a glitch. i used to work for a call center, run by a very large company who others outsourced too. We used the term 'purgatory' when putting customers on endless hold. Calls would come into the queue, then you can either pick up the call and immediately transfer back into the queue, or place them on hold - we had the same music for all occasions. On the calling end it was virtually impossible to detect this. It was done quite often. Yep, been in that situation with Vonage.
You can sometimes hear them pick up and put you straight back on hold again.
That happened twice (once on hold for over an hour before hanging up and the second time over two hours before hanging up) and caused me to cancel Vonage the first time around about 6 years ago. | |
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TreeClimber
@centurytel.net
|  PhoneTree Work-arounds
gethuman.com
For the RCN workaround...
»gethuman.com/gethuman_list.asp?f···6=Search
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Customer Service Number
800-746-4726
Press 1; at prompt press 3; at prompt press 2; at prompt press 4.
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RCN User Spends 8 Hours In Phone Queue Purgatory
