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  • On hold

    One night I was working in the back room of the hotel I worked at doing the food and beverage audit and I answer the phone.

    A guest is calling and when I answer she tells me to hold on one minute.

    My gut reaction was to tell a coworker "great, I answered the phone and the guest put me on hold."

    Apparently she overheard me because she got really mad at me.

    Can't say I blame her for being mad - but really why did you call the front desk if you were not ready to say what you had to say?

  • #2
    That's incredibly rude on that guest's part x.x While ya obviously can't do this to a guest, my usual response to a "Please hold" incoming call is just to hang up. If the call is important, they can call me back once they're ready to talk.
    "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
    "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
    "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
    "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
    "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
    "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
    Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
    "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

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    • #3
      You may be the first person in history to receive a call only to be asked by a person, rather than a machine, to please hold.
      To right the countless wrongs of our days... We shine this light of true redemption, that this place may become as paradise...Oh, what a wonderful world such would be...

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      • #4
        Incoming caller putting the person who answers on hold? That's definitely rude, implying that their time is more important than yours (typical call of that nature has "VIP" getting their secretary to place the call, and only take up their time once the called party is actually on the line). If it were someone TRULY important (the Pope, the Prime Minister of Canada, the Governor General of Canada, the Queen of the British Commonwealth, etc.), I'd hold. For lesser people (Mayor of Toronto, or any high-level person not in the "chain of command" for the jurisdiction where I live - including a foreign Head of State), I'd hang up. In terms of importance, I'd consider the Premier of Ontario to be a borderline case - might hold, might hang up.

        Of course, since I'm not likely to receive a call from even the Mayor, anyone pulling that stunt is asking for a hang-up.

        Note: The reason I listed offices, rather than names, is that I'm talking about WHOEVER holds that particular office either now or at some undefined point in the future, rather than the specific individual who currently holds any one of those offices.
        Last edited by wolfie; 03-30-2015, 01:21 PM. Reason: clarification
        Any fool can piss on the floor. It takes a talented SC to shit on the ceiling.

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        • #5
          I've actually done that before, but only because I realized Little Bit was getting into the bathroom trash can at the same moment the other person picked up the phone. I feel that was a valid reason to ask them to hold on a moment.
          The fact that jellyfish have survived for 650 million years despite not having brains gives hope to many people.

          You would have to be incredibly dense for the world to revolve around you.

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          • #6
            People have done that to me when calling the bookstore. I give them ten seconds and then hang up. I have more important things to do than wait on a maybe-customer, I could be helping a definite customer instead.
            https://www.facebook.com/authorpatriciacorrell/

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            • #7
              Quoth Mr Hero View Post
              You may be the first person in history to receive a call only to be asked by a person, rather than a machine, to please hold.
              Nope, afraid not. I've had it happen a number of times. If it's a business calling me and they want to put me on hold right away, I just hang up. Individuals, I will usually give a small amount of leeway.
              "If your day is filled with firefighting, you need to start taking the matches away from the toddlers…” - HM

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              • #8
                Where I work, my customers are our retail locations. I had (he's since left the company) a fellow that would call multiple times a day to place orders. It never failed, 8 out of 10 calls, he would wait until I answered and then say, "Hold on, Luna. I'll be right with you." Bossman got tired of us 2 gals being tied up on hold with his calls so many times, we were given explicit instructions to hang up on him if he didn't start an order right off. I only had to hang up on him twice before he got the picture.

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                • #9
                  This has happened to me at work a number of times, and usually the gut feeling I get is that the customer is being an asshole of the "I had to wait on hold, so now I'm putting YOU on hold!" variety. I'll wait, but if the "calls waiting" light is on, I will hang up if they don't come back on the line pretty darn quick. If, on the other hand, they actually tell me something like, "Oh, I'm sorry, the doorbell just rang and I'm waiting for a delivery", or I hear a kid screaming in the background, I'll cut them some slack.
                  Last edited by MoonCat; 04-01-2015, 02:20 AM.
                  When you start at zero, everything's progress.

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                  • #10
                    In the case of a secretary/PA calling for their boss, they could always go "Hi, this is ___'s office, he asked me to give you a ring. Would it be OK if I put you on Hold for just a moment while I get ___ on the line?"
                    "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
                    "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
                    "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
                    "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
                    "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
                    "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
                    Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
                    "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

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                    • #11
                      Never

                      Quoth Mr Hero View Post
                      You may be the first person in history to receive a call only to be asked by a person, rather than a machine, to please hold.
                      I never stay on hold if it clearly is a machine call. If it is important they can always leave a message.

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                      • #12
                        I've hung up on "on hold" calls both at the wholesale club and at The Client's IT Service Desk. If I pick up the phone and hear hold music, I immediately hang up. I'll cut someone a little slack if they go, "Whoops, hold on a sec," and put me on hold. But if it goes up above five minutes waiting-- or if I see I've got calls waiting in the queue, and you're not back in two minutes-- I will hang up.
                        PWNADE(TM) - Serve up a glass today! | PWNZER - An act of pwnage so awesome, it's like the victim got hit by a tank.

                        There are only Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse because I choose to walk!

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                        • #13
                          At the repair center, if I was put on hold by a caller before I could even give my spiel, I hung up. Usually, it was a robo-dial for some scam or sales person. If it wasn't on the all important line, I couldn't afford to wait. There was usually only two of us in the office and one of us was often dealing with either a customer at the counter or a tech over the radio.
                          If I make no sense, I apologize. I'm constantly interrupted by an actual toddler.

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                          • #14
                            At work, if I'm calling one of our support companies then I occasionally have to get them to hold on answer as I also have to keep the window running; luckily, they're mostly used to it but sometimes I get a new person who is confused as to why I can't immediately drop everything at my end once I get through their hold queue.

                            Personal call wise, I would only ask someone the other end to wait if I had an emergent issue occur just as the call connected; if I can see it happening before they've answered I'll just hang up. If they call me & ask me to hold, and I don't know them, then they can go fish.
                            This was one of those times where my mouth says "have a nice day" but my brain says "go step on a Lego". - RegisterAce
                            I can't make something magically appear to fulfill all your hopes and dreams. Believe me, if I could I'd be the first person I'd help. - Trixie

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                            • #15
                              I've had to ask somebody to hold the second they answered in the past, but it was one of those situations where I made a call, waited on hold for about 45 minutes, then all hell broke loose with the kids. I didn't want to hang up and redial and have to wait all over again. The rep on the other end, who could more than likely hear the screaming toddler in the background, understood, waited the 30 seconds I needed to deal with the kid, then we got back to the business of the phone call.
                              At the conclusion of an Irish wedding, the priest said "Everybody please hug the person who has made your life worth living. The bartender was nearly crushed to death.

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