"We’re currently experiencing a higher than normal call volumes"
I’ve noticed that it’s really popular to say “we’re currently experiencing a higher than normal call volume” before a company drops you on hold.
I’ve called into many different tech support lines for various reasons and I seem to get this more often than not. Recent offenders include Rogers, Apple and CIBC.
What’s the deal? When I call these companies more than once at different times in the day over several days, I get the impression that they don’t have enough staff and they are just trying to placate me. They’re trying to make it seem like it’s my fault that me and my user brethren all broken our phones at the same time.
I would feel much better if they said “there are currently 100 people on hold and 25 reps”. At least then I’d know that there is more than 2 reps handling the call volume.
Boy do I agree on this one. Our government makes lots of stupid laws and puts its nose where it does not belong on a regular basis, but I’d like to see a law that says phone support organizations can’t make the claim of higher than normal call volumes unless they can back it up with actual call data that they post online. They would have to establish a baseline volume for time of day and day of week and only when they exceeded that volume by some agreed upon percentage could they make the claim. Nothing like a little enforced honesty
December 19th, 2007 at 11:12 am