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From: brian@ucsd.edu (Brian Kantor)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Music On Hold
Message-ID: <12995@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 4 Oct 90 05:03:58 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 710, Message 2 of 12


One of the local datacomm suppliers that I used to deal with has
instituted "hawk on hold", where I get to listen to a seemingly
endless pitch for whatever it is they're hawking this week whilst
they're trying to track down our salescritter.

I find it incredibly annoying -- when I'm on hold, I usually park the
call on my speakerphone so I don't have to keep the handset up to my
ear, but with the "hawk on hold" crap playing all the time, I can't
really tell when the mechanical salesman ends and the live one begins.

I wonder if that company has figured out why I don't call them for
quotes or other information any more.

I'd also like to know if they have any concept of how much additional
business they've gained from that &*^$^%$ vs how much they've lost by
annoying the hell out of the customers.

Piping a radio station into the hold circuit isn't much better -- like
when I call a particular modem company and get to listen to their
local "easy listening" radio station giving me a chance to win in
their ratings contests, or maybe the traffic report for Frostbite
Falls, Minnesota.  It just thrills the very core of my being to know
that there's a traffic jam on the main freeway of a city 2,000 miles
away, yes indeed!  Even if the station isn't hawking something, it's
virtually certain they're not playing the same kind of music the radio
in my office is.

I've mentioned how annoying music-on-hold and hawk-on-hold is to
salescritters before.  I usually get the old shuck-and-jive "the boss
likes it and I can't do anything about it anyway" as an answer.  My
answer to THAT is to hang up.

Music on hold is bad enough.  This selling schpiel is obscene.

As is said, vote with your feet.  Tell these companies that you won't
deal with them because they have such an unprofessional, nay, CALLOUS
disregard for their customers.


Brian