May 30, 2006
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Patience and the Phone
While I was standing in line at the bank staring at the butt crack of the woman in front of me, I noticed that it was taking longer than usual to get through the line. It took 14 minutes to get through the line. I was annoyed it was taking so long. One of the ladies standing behind me finally decided to leave and she was clearly angry. Now she had to wait less than the 14 minutes that I had to wait and she left. Maybe she was mad because my butt crack was showing.
A little later I saw a report that Americans in general are impatient. Apparently Americans hate to be put on hold while on the phone. A recent poll taken by the associated press indicated that 54% of Americans said “they can wait no more than five minutes on hold before losing their patience. According to the survey “only 7 percent” could wait more than 20 minutes.
I couldn’t help but to think that I would lose my patience after 30 seconds on hold.
How long would it take for you to lose your patience on the phone if you were put on hold?
Comments (201)
not very long at all
This happened to me a couple of weeks ago. I only got to a half hour before they hung up on me.
i was put on hold today and only lasted 20 seconds.. lol
hmmm one elevator song that they play when you are on hold. like that freaking Titanic song!
5thh
like 20 seconds-wen you think about it–i mean really think about it–thats so long
I had asked for the manager because I had applied to work there. After about 5 elevator music songs I decided I was going to hang up because I had to take myself and my little brother to our Tae Kwon Do class, but then they hung up on me instead.
I don’t work there.
oh gosh. probably only a few minutes but i wouldnt hang up id just find something better to do while waiting.
I waited an hour once… but then I got mad when they couldn’t help me.
Depends on what I’m waiting for. But, normally ….1 minute.
if they were playing good music, maybe up to 10 minutes
but if not, i’d just hang up after the first 2 minutes
It would depend on what I was holding for, really.
2 minutes or so and my patience is shot…and i have been on hold for over an hour before…i was steaming…but it was important and the company was jsut trying to make me give up with my complaint I am sure:)
I’m impatient. Not too long.
Oh Danny,
You are something else with these questions….I can wait probably 10 minutes on the hold..provided there is a good song to listen to….Not some advertisement.
Candy
10 minutes
2-3 minutes max. Damn that MTV making us all have attention deficit disorder.
half an hour probably
I have patience
As soon as people ask to put me on hold, I become slightly irritable. I don’t wait more than2 minutes before hanging up. After that, they’ve probably forgotten about you.
i had to all t-mobile due to a prob with my service. i was switched back and forth from two depts. it took about an hour.
Less than a minute.
pretty long. I’d keep myself occupied. I have call waiting.
ive stayed on with microsoft tech support..if ya know wat i mean
2.78 minutes
wow interesting things happen to you while you are at the bank…lol…o god im a very impatient person so i always feel sorry for people on the other line that either put me on hold or finally answer the phone after listening to a stupid message and elevator music for more than 10 minutes…it just seems like a lifetime to me if its more than 10 minutes of waiting not to mention but in my eyes its really shitty service unless something was wrong….i will cuss someone out in a second cause of waiting and if they are rude about serving you after waiting for such a long time.as a phone service person as well..i know this and try to help a customer as soon as possible cause i know how it is….anyways yea…very inpatient person here
Eh I can always find something else to do while on hold. You could put me on hold for hours and I wouldn’t even know. XD
That’s really sad that people can’t wait that long. Americans…always looking for a simple, quick solution. I’ve waited for more than an hour.
Depends how vital it is that I get through – if I’m at my desk multi-tasking, the speakerphone turned low, I can wait forever.
well, it depends who i am trying to reach. if it is a friend or someone i know, i get pissed when i am on hold and usually just say to call me back. now if it is a company and they put me on hold, i get pissed off but i hold on until they talk to me. i really hate DELL for their holding policies!
oh! and i called staples a couple days ago to ask a question and they didnt even tell me that they were going to put me on hold, they just did! i thought that that was so rude.
The second they say “Hold please”, I slam the reciever down.
i was once put on hold for about an hour my friend got a call from her boyfriend and forgot she had me on the other line…now about 3-5 minutes is my max
depends on the person… I’ve waited for like 30 or 45 min. for Ben.
My patience is usually gone after probably 3 minutes or so.
I saw the same segment!!! Well, maybe not the Exact Same but along the same lines. Didnt it say something about older people having less patience as well?
I would totally give the representative attitude if I held on longer than 5 mins. I would tell them waiting 5 mins and 30 secs is way too long, blah blah blah.
It depends on the music, really. But if they made me wait entirely too long, I’d pretend to be having phone sex when they came back on the line.
If I have nothing else to do and have something to occupy my time (su doku, crosswords, tv, music) than 20 minutes would be fine. If I’m in a hurry or bored, 5 minutes would be my limit.
5 minutes
About 20 seconds. if you don’t have a good introduction, that would make me interested enough to stay and listen to the rest, then I will hang up on you.
Beware salesmen…
Hmm… I’m pretty patient, actually. I’ve waited…. A hour before, I believe.
After about a minute or so. If I have to wait more than that I hang up.
like a minute. its so rude when somebody puts you on hold and doesnt come back right away unless its very important which usually its not.
I’m okay with waiting, so long as I can sit down in the kitchen and watch my mother cook.
one time I waited for so long that I got a cramp in either my hand arm, neck or something. It was more than an hour. but I got upset long before that. I think it I got upset about 15 in but that was the first time I’d ever been on hold for more than a few seconds. It was tech support so it out of pure tanacity that I stayed on. A selfish yet practical reason.
i get put on hold at work so often that i have numerous (and very detailed – they are looooong holds) doodles to prove it. i never call my reps unless ihave a pen in hand. it doesn’t bother me much.
depends on the importance…
to get my college loan rates kept the same rate (as opposed to going up about .8%) I held for nearly 2 hours.
i automaticaly hang up if im put on hold
Well, I suppose that would depend on whether I’m calling 911 or not.
I have been known to hang on for 10 minutes or more.
I could wait for a pretty long time, but I wouldn’t just sit there with the phone while there’s no one speaking and waste all that time. I’d probably have the phone on speaker-phone nearby while working on homework or something. Not that I see myself calling somewhere where I’d need to be put on hold, because, at this point, I don’t call many people, and the people I do call are my friends/family :p
God bless you today =)
It depends on the person or company that has me on hold. For a friend I would stay on hold for an hour or so. For a business I would stay on hold for about 20 minutes before growing too impatient.
i work at bally total fitness, and we try to not keep customers on hold for more than twenty seconds. if we haven’t helped them by then, then we tell them that we are still working on their situation before we put them back on hold.
depends…i lose my patience immediately but if it’s a friend i wait 2-3 minutes and then i hang up…if it’s for a company and i have to do it i’ll wait longer i’d say after 20 minutes i might hang up and try again later though, i try and be logical about the fact that i will undoubtly have to wait just as long later and then i will have wasted the first calls waiting time for nothing…that usually keeps me hanging on till someone picks up again.
ha! so true – evry1 always needs to b somewhere yesterday.
First, I don’t go to places like the bank, grocery store, restaurant or clothing store when I’m in a hurry. I would definitely wait a good half hour before getting visibly impatient.
I have waited over an hour for my food at a restaurant before and never once got upset.
i’ve waited an hour and a half
Well I only have a cell phone and I have 4 kids so 10 minutes is all I will wait unless it is realy important and then only then will I wait more than 10 min 30 sec lol
I’ve been put on hold for about 10 minutes. It’s annoying and can be quite frustrating. Usually I put the phone on speaker and sit down and read a book. Then when they pick up and answer, I continue where we left off.
What’s weird is when people go to McDonald’s and get upset when they have to wait 30 seconds for food. What?! Obviously these people have never been to Burger King where it takes about 2 minutes every time I’m there. I usually wander around lol
if I have a book and am in the reading mood, I’ll just stick it on speaker phone and wait it out
I’ve done 30min before, and never again, unless its really important, I mean seriously important, my doctor having me hold while I wait to find out if I were going to die or not, that I would wait for.
it depends on what it was for. . .if i was talking to a friend about something important and they put me on hold for some random reason, i would get impatient quite quickly. if i was trying to get something impotrtant taken care of with some business over the phone, i could probably wait about 15 minutes before getting impatient.
and americans are impatient. at my job, there are times when you simply must wait to be helped. and it drives people batty.
probably about 5-10 minutes… tops… it’s so annoying…
waiting in line, I have about a 5 min tolerance at a store, and yes, I will abandon a cart with food, and leave, though I will put any frozen and refrigerated items back, though I might not if I were mad enough. Depends on how bad my mood, and how much its the stores fault, vs stupid customers in line. Anyhow, I don’t like to wait when I don’t have to, so I don’t.
I think I could wait several minutes. I used to file insurance and would have to wait on the phone with Medicaid for thirty minutes just about every time. I wouldn’t wait that long anymore but I probably could for about half that time.
Depends on how much time I have. If I have lots of time to wait around, and I can put in a hands-free headset and do other stuff while waiting, then I don’t mind so much.
DMV, and its a whole other story, they know we are at their mercy, and they exploit that fact to our disadvantage, and there are a lot of stupid people there too, so that does not help.
I’d just put it on speakerphone and go about my business, waiting.
Hi…
uh, I think I would wait about two minutes before putting down the phone and walking away. Shortly after I would remember them rush around to find the phone only to find I am still on hold. This process is repeated several times before I finnally realize that they are never going to take me off hold so I just hang up and save the call for another day.
Nice chattin with ya.
Hmmm…it depends on how important it is
I am capable of lots of patience if it is important enough.
In my younger days I could wait a long while. As a child, I loved to call big corporations.
Are you a coffee drinker, Dan? Do you prefer Coffee Beanery, Starbucks, or Java?
err, this is a major pet peeve with me I hate being put on hold, then switched to 30,000 different people… I’m mad from the first 30 seconds but I usually last about 10 minutes then hang up and try back later
Seven minutes exactly.
I count.
[ariana]
That depends largely on who I am calling and why. I don’t care if my friends put me on hold. I don’t mind waiting if I am trying to get in touch with someone. If I’m calling the power company to report an outage it is annoying after about 2.5 seconds to hear a recording telling me to report it on the INTERNET if I don’t feel like waiting (duh… the power is out…). It’s one of those situational things I guess
need to work on my patience on the phone…i’ve been known to hang up, call back, & say, “i was on hold for a really long time, & got disconnected…” just to remind them that i’m still waiting…it works most of the time.
heh. i was talking to my bf on the phone tonight, and he had a beep, so he put me on hold. it didnt take me too long to realize that i could hang up, and call back and I’D be the one beeping in, then hed get the hint that i wanted to talk. he did, and we talked.
3minutes.
I can only handle being on hold if I am multi-tasking. Then I don’t really feel like I am on hold. I am either folding the laundry, grading papers, or something else…that’s when I choose to make service calls.
What gets me is when telemarketers call and put you on hold. Yesterday, I answered the phone to this: Please hold for the next available representative.
Bwhahaha. Yea, right. :click:
Stupid.
7 minutes only, then time is up!
If I’m at home, online, I’m okay with quite awhile, depending on what info I’m after.
If someone calls me at work then puts me on hold – say the pharmacy, lab, etc – bye, bye.
If I have to hold for pharmacy, lab, doctor’s office, more than 3 minutes I call them back and tell them I was on hold.
I guess it boils down to how important what I’m after is. If it’s worth waiting for, I wait.
5 minutes with family or friends
10 or 15 if it’s a business…. I know they get busy so it doesn’t really bother me
i hang up after 10 mins. can’t stand it.
i hang up right when i’m put on hold.
i dont usually get impatient on the phone…mainly because most of the time, there is music or something playing while i am on hold. lol
Quite a while. Put it on speaker and go do something else… 30 seconds idle, and my mind is gone. Pork Chops.
I don’t need the phone
Depends on how important the call was, and if I had anything to do while I waited…but I’d say, on average, I’d probably be ok for about 10 minutes…
i watch the TV while i’m on hold. so i can stand it a pretty long time
just as long as it’s not like. 30 minutes. i’ll be like. did they forget me?
This is one of the problems with America!
We want everything yesterday! Internet, info, INSTANT! Instant coffee, instant lunch, get your food in 15 minutes or its FREE!
This product doesnt work as well, but if your pay more, it may save you half a second!
I was on hold for THREE HOURS trying to work a bug out with tech support for the PDA the dean for the program I work for bought. THREE HOURS, and at the end?
I got disconnected.
I reset the PDA and flushed a weeks worth of unbacked up appontments.
Its fixed sir! Oh, next time, dont get a windows mobile device, sorry about next week!
Depends on what it’s for.. but usually I start getting tired after 10 minutes of waiting on the phone, especially if I can’t do something else while i’m waiting.
Depends on why I was calling in the first place. If it is to get money, I can wait…….forever?
i lose patience only when i’ve got other things to do, otherwise i’ve been known to wait on the line for 2 hours, yes, two solid hours, i timed it.
this post caught my attention because just maybe three weeks ago, i was listening to the radio and they made the comment that the average person, waits in line, approximately 10 years of his life. Thats alot of waiting!!
I usually read or write or something when I’m on hold. It helps pass the time.
A speaker phone and the TV/Computer, and I am very patient.
um,
i think it would depend on who i was on the phone on hold with.
if it was important,
about 5 minutes tops.
if not,
i could probably wait until they got back.
but i’m just 14.
30 mins… maybe
i’d be doing other things at the same time, of course
2 minutes
i’d say 3-5 minutes for unimportant things, but for something important, probably longer.
i’d say 3-5 minutes for unimportant things, but for something important, probably longer.
It really depends on whether or not I have something to occupy my time while I’m holding. What really chaps my tail are the new phone systems where you have a press a kabillion buttons before you reach a live person. It’s like trying to guess the combination to a safe.
RYC: I got spell check with my premium upgrade! WooT! I still haven’t figured out the whole ‘protected’ thing though. I’m still a newbie.
Thanks for stopping by!
I give them about 5 minutes. Anything longer than that means that they’re such a crappy company that they can’t hire more people to answer their phones, and they’re not worth dealing with.
10 minutes
WOW that is interesting blog material. I don’t wait I hang up! Whe they say will you please hold I respond with a “NO”
My time is more valuable than being put on hold with a phone call. And government stuff like say taxes they will avetually call you with persistance! Nope I hang up.
*LMAO* How ironic, I heard about this study on the radio today!
I can be quite patient in most situations, such as waiting in line at the bank. My record is standing in line for a roller coaster ride at Valleyfair. I stood in line for over an hour for a 3 minute ride. I was so worth it, tho.
This world is so full of selfish people who just can’t accept the fact that the world does not revolve around them. I mean, there are other people that need help, not just me. I can’t stand people who need service ASAP as soon as they walk into a room b/c apparently the whole world revolves around them and they get pissy b/c I didn’t get the memo.
Admitidly I will start to get annoyed around the 20 minute mark but I won’t get all angry, or do that annoying SIGHING, and I won’t just walk off and leave. You sit it out, soon your turn comes, you act courteous to the people helping you b/c I am sure they have had to deal with idiots the entire day, and then you are finished and can leave.
And that’s all I have to say.
Most of the larger companies make enough profit they can hire more people to answer their phones. Pinching pennies on customer services communicates that they really don’t have respect for the people who are keeping them in business.
I don’t really mind how long I’m pute on hold. I can’t stand it when they get back on and act like they never even talked to me. They say who did you want to talk to again. You say so and so or whoever it was. Then they say please hold. Now that really makes me mad. It’s not the waiting, it’s the way they acted.
Actually that just happened today…I had to call a vendor…yes a VENDOR for an order and they placed me on hold. I had people waiting to come into my office and they didnt want to interrupt so they waited with me…finally I just hung up …it was probably all of about 4 minutes. It’s just plain RUDE. The vendor ended up calling me back immediately after I hung up. I don’t wait. But I dont keep others waiting either….If I have to place them on hold I just tell them I will call back with the answer in within the hour. and I keep my word!.
Let me put you on hold for 30min while I think about this…..
Maximum 5 rings and I expect someone to pick up the call.
2 min
The second I’m put on hold.
As silly as “having to wait while put on hold during a phone call” as a measure of determining patience – it’s funny to think about, really. I get really mad after about 10 minutes, but I’ve stayed on hold as long as 30 minutes. But people, nowadays, really don’t think about the means of patience, and the virtue that comes with it, but that they feel they’ve been forgotten about, as well as their time is being wasted, when it could be used to do something else. People get even more impatient when they are on hold to get information about something they feel is of personal importance. For instance, my dad recently had a heart attack, I called the hospital to get an update status on him, it took me being placed on hold 3 times for at least 5 minutes each, then the last time was just to confirm with someone else that I was actually his son, so they could release info to me. It made me aggrivated that I had to wait.
But it may be more annoying when the place you’re waiting at has signs posted as Triple Crowns of speedy service and what not, yet they can’t help you out. My old bank has a 5 minute policy. If you are waiting in line for over 5 minutes, they will deposit $5 in your bank account. While a nice touch, they don’t offer it themselves unless you say something. And some times they’ll argue it.
Either ways, it’s definitely not a black and white scenario, but nothing really is.
I’ll wait maybe 2 minutes while doing something else, unless they have some kind of crappy hold-music, in which case I’ll take the phone to my stereo, blast rock music, and leave it there.
An (un)healthy obsession with butt cracks, eh?
I once waited half an hour.
It depends, when I’m sitting down or standing up. I can go on for hours in certain situations and at times less than 5, but Im pretty patient while I mentally grunt.
Depends who it is. If they make me wait twenty minutes, though, screw them!
Being someone who is on the other end a good portion of the time I feel bad for people having to wait. But SERIOUSLY, it is not MY personal fault. So try not and lose your cool to the poor innoscent soul on the other end until they personally do something stupid
With that being said, I would be able to wait if I didn’t keep hearing “your call is important to us. the next available Customer Service Representative would be happy to assist you. Please remain on the line and the calls will be answered in sequence. for more information, please visit us at www. _______.com” I can deal with the website address once, but not every 2.52 minutes.
depends, usually 2-3 minutes. I wait longer than that though and if I have houseowrk to do, I don’t mind too bad.
IMPATIENT? AMERICANS? MORE THEN THREE-QUARTERS OF THE PRODUCTS ON THE MARKET NOW BOAST IT IS FASTER AND MORE CONVENIENT THEN ITS COMPETEDORS. CONSUMERISM IN THIS COUNRTY IS GEARED TO FUEL AMERICAS DESIRE TO DO EVERYTHING LIGHTNING FAST. IF WE WERENT, WOULD MCDONALD’S BE SO POPULAR. CRAPPY FOOD, HORRIBLE FOR UR HEALTH. YEAH BUT ITS FAST.
PERSONALLY IT DEPENDS. IF THEY GOT THAT CHEESY 70S PORNO MUSIC ON WHEN IM ON HOLD. . . I COULD WAIT 20 MINUTES. IF ITS ELEVATOR MUSIC. . .PERHAPS 4 SECONDS. I TRY TO BE PATIENT THOUGH.
impatience is a disease but at the same time making a person wait on the phone more than necessary is ridiculous. i’d say 15-20 minutes depending on how important the call is…
my longest on hold record is 30 minutes, with a boyfriend.
it depends on the person who wanted me to wait.
not long I confess…
About 5 seconds! At 15 I would hang up! If not at 10!
10 I think.
I guess it would depend on what sort of day it had been, but I’d be upset just because of the charges incurred while you’re on hold.
~Caroline~
A long time. I usually just put it on speakerphone and go about my business until I hear a voice in such situations.
I dunno,I can be pretty patient when I want. My best friend, Sandi, one time said hang on, while we were on the phone. After an hour, I hung up. Literally, it was just under an hour. If I sat down on my computer, or dribbled a soccer ball on my knee, I could probably wait longer. Although, I do have to say, I’m irish, I have a red headed temper. It would depend on what kind of day it has been, and what kind of mood I am in. If they took over an hour though, I would hang up, call back, and complain.
Tori
It depends on what I am holding for. I could wait as long as it takes if I needed something. I can always go occupy myself with something else while I am on hold.
I’m pretty patient, so I could wait a long time. I’d probably just put it on speaker, and then go off to go do soemthing else while I wait. Possibly including playing music over the terrible hold music or advertising on the phone.
be patient people. . . sometimes there are a heck of a lot of people calling, only one person to answer the phone and put calls through to other people who can sometimes already be on the phone or helping another person. really. there are worse things in life than being on hold for a little bit.
usually about a minute.
or less.
probly an hour if i have somethaing else to do. if ii have nothaing then about 10 mins. yea takes alot to annoy me.
!~nicole~!
My issue w/ being on hold, is that we only use our cell phones, no land line, so being on hold wastes my precious shared minutes. I hang up after about 20 seconds.
20 min if the girl is hot.
2 min otherwise.
not that long… i mean what the heck….. waiting forver to get to the front of the line…..
it depends… when i am at work, and if it is important, i have waited up to 20 minutes on hold, but i have plenty of things that can be done simultaneously… if i am at work and it is not important, i time out at 10 minutes…
if i am at home or on my cell, it depends on if it is toll free > if it is toll free and important, i will just carry the phone around and do what i have to do until i get a result, but 15 minutes is about my limit at home, unless it’s concert tix, then i have waited 2 hours… lol
and if it is not toll free and i am at home… 2 minutes TOPS
Maybe a min or two. After that I would just hang up. But I think Americans are prone to be impatient, so customer service needs to step up.
It really depends on who I am talking to…but generally…I give about 1-2 minutes, and if they’re not back by then they can just call me back. But I also…HATE to put someone on hold.
I’m a pretty good when it comes to waiting on hold. I usually just find something else to do in the mean time. But, when it comes to grocery store lines, I am not so good. I am notorious for picking the wrong line. Yesterday was a fine example. The line I was in got done twice as quick as the one I ended up being in. I read a book not so long ago that helped me with my patience issue, among other things. It’s called The Life You’ve Always Wanted by John Ortberg. It’s one of the best books I’ve ever read. Yay for good books.
usually it takes between 5 and 10 minutes.
i’m impatient, but i think i could manage 25 minutes. i wouldn’t hang up, i’d just find something to do while waiting.
Five minutes. Six, tops.
“staring at the butt crack of the woman in front of me…Maybe she was mad because my butt crack was showing.” Why all this butt crackery? Does your bank make you all bend over in supplication?
I will wait for a maximum of 1-2mins on the phone. Then it’s ca-lick! or sa-lam!
Patience is a virtue…
Hey t.c., I’ve got a question for you and perhaps for your readers. I am curious to know if you read all the answers you receive each time and which ones you respond to. I am also curious to know how many of your readers actually take the time to read all the answers and why. Personally, I do not read all the answers, but I will read one to three pages of answers to questions that interest me (like the weird body part blog).
I am very impatient when it comes to waiting on the phone. I guess I feel like I’ve got more important things to do with my life than listen to crappy muzack while being reminded periodically by a robot that my call is important.
depends on who i’m on hold with. if it’s one of my friends, i’ll just hang up — they’ll call back. with my boyfriend, i’ll wait about a minute, as if he calls me it’s something important. family i’ll tell to call me later. however when i’mi on hold with a company, i’ll stay on hold because it doesn’t matter when you call, you’ll still be on hold.
Not too long I always try to hit 0 a few time which often sends you to a real person (as apose to a fake one) anyways thank God for speaker phone so I can do other things. And yes I hate that stupid music – way to drive you crazy.
well it depends on who’s putting me on hold. if it’s someone i really want to talk to, i can wait all day. but if it’s something not really important, then probably about 10 or 15 minutes
If I was staring at some woman’s buttcrack, I could wait all day.
a few minutes is understandable. if someone’s mom calls the person you are talking to, or you are waiting to talk to someone at a buiseness, then patience is a virtue. but putting someone on hold for more than five to ten minutes, for any reason, is just plain rude.
I usually put the call on speaker and start doing other stuff. I’m very impatient.
I work in hotel reservations and I’ll let you in on a little secret – when someone puts you on hold, they’re usually trying to help you get what you want. It’s probably best to wait as long as it takes. Because the people on either end of the line would like to be on the phone for as little time as possible, let me assure you. They’re working their hardest.
ya.. around 5 min. If any longer I think they have forgotten about me.
Christina
I think I could go for a while… I’m easily entertained and I could just start singing and I could do that all day!
Now waiting on the phone with the IRS.. is another story.. It takes a good 20 min just to have someone say.. May I put you on hold” then you have to wait around 5-10 min after that.
this xanga is for the forum my friend and I made. The forum is for teenagers and has topics over everything. Its new, we just made it and we need some more members. come at least look before you blow the thought off.
http://z7.invisionfree.com/Mixed_and_Matched
I’ve stayed on hold for over 30minutes.. usually i just doodle or something
by the way, the 1st line of this post is the best thing I’ve read all day
My manager once told me that there was a study done showing that when an American has been on hold on the phone for only 2 minutes, they believe it has been over 5. Kinda weird if you ask me.
Patience Dan, patience!
93426508356 minutes.
I`m talented.
Haha, it’d depend on how well I knew the person who put me on hold. If it’s a telemarketer, I usually give them at most 5 minutes. Why? Because.. They’re wasting time. If you call about business, talk about business. Don’t put someone on hold. If they didn’t want to buy the product but were being nice in waiting for the person to extend the deal and talk a litle bit, it’s rude to be put on hold, you know? YOU’RE calling me wanting to do business. Not me calling you. If you call someone for business, discuss such when you call. If you have to put someone on hold, wait until your done doing whatever to call, so they don’t have to wait, you know?
Now, if it’s the hospital or a friend, I’m usually a little more patient. With friends, it depends on what we were talking about when they decided to put me on hold, and how long the go on hold for. Haha.
Sorry I couldn’t give a summed up answer. n.n; hehe
<3 through Christ,
Heather
It depends if the background music is any good.
I depends on who was putting me on hold. If it was a friend I really wanted to talk to probably 10min before going to speaker phone and doing something else. During the 10 min I would probably put the phone down and put it to my ear about every 20 seconds. If it is important I can call back.
2-3 minutes max. Damn that MTV making us all have attention deficit disorder.
Posted 5/30/2006 at 9:31 PM by U2MOM
One minute. I have ADD and I don’t even watch MTV.
Maybe around 3 minutes.
I doubt I’d make it to 10 minutes.
My motto is “wait actively.” So, even if you were to put me on hold, I’d still be running around doing whatever have you.
On the other hand, I dare say that the whole waiting issue isn’t the only reason people hate being put on hold. Personally, I get sick of listening to whatever they have playing for the “hold” message. Sometimes it’s some add. Other times it’s really lame music. Sometimes it’s jsut too loud and gives me a headache.
As you can see, I’ve been put on hold a lot. It’s good times, man.
Surprisingly long, unless I’m in a hurry. I don’t think I’ve ever had to wait more than 20 minutes. It’s just the elevator music they play that I hate.
I don’t have a job, so I can wait allllll daaaayyyyyy.
i would wait for 10 mins … then i’d slam the phone down, leave it off the hook and go sulk in another room.
about a minute
If it was important, I could do it for 20 minutes. but otherwise, about 2 minutes.
stefan
my dad was on hold just a few minutes ago. wow, this is super-relevant. so funny.
About 5 seconds. I am the queen of impatience.
But then again, I could turn on some music and I’d forget I was on hold and then they’d come back and be all pissed because I wouldn’t be there.
That’s happened before.
And by the way, that whole first paragraph made me laugh so hard.
Esp. the first and last sentences.
5 minutes at the most…I have too much to do.
Gosh, I hate waiting and it seems like that’s all I do. I wait for the kids, I wait for the day to be over, I wait on the phone, I wait for my food, maybe I should do something. Maybe waiting is my spiritual discipline. I’ll wait for an answer.
I was put on hold once with my phone company, I stayed on for 30 minutes before the came back on and said they couldnt help me, to call back later. The later time I called, I stayed on for another 45 minutes. I think I might be considered a patient person.
i love it and i am pagent. i love pagents and i am popular
pagentlikegal
2 minutes
about 20 seconds and what’s funy i’m mexican!
Five minutes tops unless it’s really important. Then I put it on speakerphone and go about doing something else and wait it out. Unless of course I’m paying for the call. That’s a whole different story. Geesh, I didn’t realize I put so much thought into this.
So like when are you going to invite us all to your compound to drink some Kool-Aid and enter the space vessels?
cool xanga
I absolutely hate waiting on hold. I am extremely impatient, especially if I’m on hold for something ridiculously silly. My boyfriend, on the other hand, is absolutely the most patient person I have ever met, and I admire him for that. I can wait on hold for a maximum of 10 minutes, provided I am doing something else at the same time that keeps me occupied.
I’ve been on hold for a little over an hour before someone picked up. I was calling the cable company. XD But I know my father’s waited hours on hold before. We must have the patience of saints!
2 minutes and 2 seconds then I’d scream in the phone and hang up.
what tha hell is this supposed to be who ever made this needs to get hit in the head wit a ax
hell no i dont want no damn coffie
i like your picture
> Depends on the place I’m calling. Usually 5 to 10 minutes.
Peace
I would say 5 minutes. I would call back, though simply because I work in Customer Service for a department store and know that sometimes people forget things.
i used to count to to 30 but ive become more lenient. 45 seconds at the most.
2 minutes
i lose my patience once they say “please hold”
7 min.’s
Weeeelll….Last week Best Buy put me on hold for about 10 minutes. I finally hung up and called back but they didn’t pick up. Screw Best Buy.
i start to get pissed after about 20 seconds
10 minutes
2.6 seconds