@Laggard (Laggard) posted a new topic, subject "Longest you've been on hold?". It read:

   On hold Friday for 45 minutes waiting for an IRS agent.

Then @DigitalC (DigitalC) said

    Around four hours with the DMV.

To which @Idle_Thoughts (Idle Thoughts) replied

    2-3 hours waiting to speak with someone who worked at an airport, if I remember correctly (a live person, not a recording)

So @NotDeadYet (NotDeadYet) replied

    Laggard:
    
    > On hold Friday for 45 minutes waiting for an IRS agent.
    
    Boy, you got into the express line!
    
    When the current Florida governor came into office he made good on promises he made to cut government spending. He did it in part by laying off state workers. One office particularly hard hit was the “FastPass” division of the DOT (?). Their website went down and I was on hold for 3+ hours and never did get to speak to a live human being. The recording kept telling me to go to the website. My FastPass wasn't working because it was originally assigned to a different vehicle. Not a big deal because I discovered the problem at the airport parking garage.
    
    A few days later I tried again. Went to the website, it was working but I couldn't “fix” my particular problem online. Instead of the 1-800 number, I searched for the local Tallahassee number. Was only on hold for 30 minutes and resolved the issue thanks to a very considerate woman on the other end of the line. After the process was complete, I mentioned the long hold and website issues. She told me 1/3 of the workforce had been layed off, including the 1 person who kept the website up and running.
    
    I'm all for efficient government, but this is one of those departments that actually pays for itself in savings to the state. :smack:

After which, @Fluke54 (Fluke54) added

    90 minutes with Comcast. I had no internet!
    
    Turned out no one in my area had it, so I basically spent 90 minutes on hold for nothing:(. The pre recorded voice instructed me to go to www.comcast.com if I was having issues. Well, if I could have done that, I would not have been calling, now would I?

So @Labtrash (Labtrash) replied

    DigitalC:
    
    > Around four hours with the DMV.
    
    Every time I've ever been in a MA DMV office, there has been a phone ringing.
    
    My guess is no one's ever ***BEEN ***on hold, since no has ever answered that phone 
    
    My longest wait was appx 50 minutes with Kmart. I called the service desk while driving up (on Bluetooth), and was summarily placed on hold. No answer while I drove the 45 minutes to the store, parked, walked in, went to the service counter, and asked the clerk to pick up the line that was on hold so I could speak to someone.

@epbrown01 (epbrown01) replied

    I was on hold with IBM tech support for about 6 hours once, back in the 1990s. It got to the point where I hung in there simply to see how long it would be. Turned out they were on the east coast, there'd been record snowfall, so they had about 10% of the usual staff trying to bail out the Titanic with a spoon.

To which @Leaffan (Leaffan) replied

    One hour and fifty-three minutes with my satellite TV provider, and then I hung up and went to bed. I called back a few days later and got through after an hour and 15 minutes.
    
    “We are experiencing a higher than usual amount of calls.”
    
    “All our representatives are busy serving other customers.”
    
    “Your call is very important to us.”
    
    “Please stay on the line and a customer representative will be with you shortly.”
    
    “The current wait time is over 3 minutes.”

To which @Johnny_Bravo (Johnny Bravo) replied

    Spent a bit more than two hours on hold sitting in the hallway of the local school administration building while I was trying to process a payment on fingerprinting (or possibly something else relating to beginning my teaching career, but I think fingerprinting). Eventually one of the ladies came back from her lunch break or whatever and showed me a computer around the corner where I processed my payment in about 45 seconds. :m8b7c:f320:99b9:690f:4595:cd17:293a:c069smack:

@chizzuk (chizzuk) replied

    45 minutes with Verizon FiOS because of choppy channels. Which was about three times as long as the service appointment the following day where the tech showed up, replaced the ONT, and left.
    
    The weirdest one was Delta Airlines. Only 25 minutes on hold, but it was 25 minutes listening to a recorded looping diatribe complaining about high fuel prices and how that was why they needed such high ticket prices. Seemed like a really good way to ensure that your customers were really bitchy by the time they finally got to speak to someone, since they'd been waiting forever while being reminded exactly how much they were shelling out for the privilege.

So @Asimovian (Asimovian) replied

    58 minutes, also with the IRS, oddly enough. It was an incident where they mistakenly believed I owed them slightly over $100,000 – it was worth staying on hold for.

After which, @OldGuy (OldGuy) added

    Something like 23 hours. I called Comcast one day from the office and was placed on hold. Since I had a speaker phone I just left the phone on speaker and went about my work. It had been about 2 hours when I went to lunch. I just decided to leave the line open. I came back. Still hold music. I went to teach classes all afternoon. Still on hold at 5:00 when I got back so I left the line open overnight. It never was answered. I hung up the next morning.
    
    Now it's possible someone answered in one of my absences, but I'd think they'd then have disconnected when I didn't respond.

So @seal_cleaner (seal_cleaner) replied

    IRS here, too, about and hour. I just put the phone on speaker and kept working. I was calling about money that was owed that they appeared to know nothing about…am I fool, or an idiot?

So @Battle_Pope (Battle Pope) replied

    90 min to EA support. Called using Skype from Australia to the US so all I used was part of my pre-paid data rather than paying a bucket-load for an international call.

To which @Grrr (Grrr!) replied

    I was on hold with Comcast for two hours. I had them on speaker phone. When some one finally answered, I went to take the phone off of speaker to regular but instead, I hung up on them. :smack8b7c:f320:99b9:690f:4595:cd17:293a:c069mad:

So @China_Guy (China Guy) replied

    I spent a few hours waiting for the INS once. I was calling from Hong Kong to fix my wife's green card. They answered, were quite polite, explained the computer system was done and I needed to call back.
    
    Good thing it was via an access number from my then employer (Lehman Brothers if that makes you feel any better about them going bankrupt).
    
    Gah, I don't know how many hours I spent at ungodly hours trying to match up with US timezones to get a live person that could help.

@DummyGladHands (DummyGladHands) replied

    If there's any chance I will be on eterna-hold, I make the call from work, on speaker, which I don't fjones@example.com. Longest time was about 50 min. to the State tax office.
    
    And BTW, why the hell do they always say “Your call is important to us.” Obviously it's not!!!

To which @Projammer (Projammer) replied

    Around three hours at work waiting on tech support with a vendor. Just put it on speaker phone while I worked on other tasks. Then when they answered we spent another two hours on the problem.


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