Please Hold....

Oh, those words I hate to hear.  Nothing makes me want to hang up more than when a customer says "Please Hold."  Honestly, you've just called me - why the hell are you going to ask me to hold?  I called to order something the other day and the idiot on the phone kept putting me on hold.  I finally hung up, and when he called back he wanted to know how we got disconnected and I said "You kept putting me on hold, obviously you have something else you need to do."  I finally asked the guy that called today if he wanted to order, or if he was too busy.  He got offended and said "What do you mean?"  So I said "well, every time I ask you a question - I get put on hold.  Either you're under-prepared for this simple phone conversation or you're preoccupied."  I think he took it pretty well - all things considered.  Perhaps I should have been a little nicer than that, but it got the message across.  He didn't put me on hold again anyway.

The hold feature works different for call centers - that's what we do to put customers in their place.  Really, all we're doing is muting the phone and laughing at what you say.  However, it does let you know who is in charge right off.  I hope everyone's Monday is going well.