Call centre wait times, how long is too long?

FloppyPoppy

FloppyPoppy

FloppyPoppy

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So I’m currently on hold as I write this, I am phoning my insurance company to make a payment.

The call was picked up immediately and I was swiftly transferred to the finance department. However I am still sitting waiting for the finance department to pick up 40 minutes into the call, il give 2 of those to the initial part of the call.

I can’t imagine how bad service like this is for customer retention. Especially in an era of easy online/app payment methods.

How long would you spend waiting before giving up? And what do you think is reasonable?

Edit : sorry if my spelling is bad, I’m dumb.
 
mikedigitales said:
I wouldn't have made it to 40 minutes to be honest
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I hear that, unfortunately it’s more of a necessity than anything else.

For transparency on my call I missed a payment yesterday despite having the money present for it for some reason came back. I don’t want to run the risk of having to pay extra for being late on it for reasons beyond my control.
 
I'm needing to call ebay CS. Thank goodness they have a call back service.

It's very frustrating when companies don't have a queue number.
At least then you can make a decision to stay on or not
 
Screenshot / take a photo of the number and duration waited, email that to them and ask them why you have to wait over an hour to give them your money.

The reason companies get away with this is because we allow it.
 
Got to an hour and ten minutes and hung up, called back and told them how long I’d been on hold and that I wanted to speak to a supervisor.

I got put through and somebody answered within two minutes and I managed to cadge a 40% discount for this month due to how poor their service was.

Still not acceptable way to be treating customers however.
 
Diddums said:
Screenshot / take a photo of the number and duration waited, email that to them and ask them why you have to wait over an hour to give them your money.

The reason companies get away with this is because we allow it.
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I think I will be doing this anyway despite now being resolved it’s worth raising it officially via their complaints department.
 
Personally hafter that long I would have hung up and sent an email explaining the situation and that it they wish payment they can ring you back. If at any point theres issues refere to the email saying you supplied them with plenty of notice
 
harry5522 said:
Got to an hour and ten minutes and hung up, called back and told them how long I’d been on hold and that I wanted to speak to a supervisor.

I got put through and somebody answered within two minutes and I managed to cadge a 40% discount for this month due to how poor their service was.

Still not acceptable way to be treating customers however.
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Discount will only be worth it until you realise you've paid £40 for the call.
 
30 minutes them am out, kills my phone charge also so they can screw themselves after 30 min.

You can try a online attack approach but even that is hit and miss most of the time.
 
stuie said:
Personally hafter that long I would have hung up and sent an email explaining the situation and that it they wish payment they can ring you back. If at any point theres issues refere to the email saying you supplied them with plenty of notice
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Doubt that'll hold up if you have an accident and your insurance is invalidated due to non payment
 
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Would probably wait for 20-30 mins if i really needed to.

I tend to phone via VoIP/Skype for business, so would just dial it and have my headset on whilst working and waiting for someone to pick up.
 
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