Fed up with call time lies

If there is one phrase that highlights the problems with companies and the “quest” for higher profits at the expense of their customers is the following.

We are currectly experiencing an unexpectly high amount of calls and your call is important to us. Please wait.

I swear it is as if companies believe we were born yesterday or they just outright don’t care. Every time I call a customer service hotline such as my insurance company I will hear the same old quote “We’re experiencing an unexpectedly high volume of calls” and let us be honest that is a complete load of crap nowadays.

It might just be me but it is like these companies are trying to tell us that some cosmic force out of their control is bombarding them with so many queries that the poor sods can’t keep up with the demand for support or that the company is that shit there are so many problems with them. Let us be honest the whole thing is a load of crap to excuse themselves over their refusal to hire more people. The sad part is they have all of the data at their fingertips to predict demand but they know unless it is insanely vital that would screw them over they don’t need to provide anything useful. Such an example is cancelling insurance – they have little care if you have to wait hours (although distance selling regulation rules do say it is meant to be as easy to cancel as it is to start and they can’t put up any barriers) but if you were going to sign up for the service they would have people lined up waiting for your call.

Companies have long mastered the art of expectation mismanagement and claiming that they are shocked by the volume of calls is the same as a weatherman in England being surprised that it is raining. These companies have the data and ultimately data doesn’t lie – they can analyse call volumes, and they can spot trends but they still act like they are completely blindsided that someone might need some help.

The whole “unexpected call volume” line is simply being used as a get-out-of-jail-free card for their crappy service and it is just a tactic being used so they do not have to employ more people seeing shareholders forbid they spend some of the money they are earning outside of buying back shares and other stuff to keep shareholders happy and pretend that unlimited growth is legit.

This has gotten even worse after the whole COVID-19 days and if there was ever a time for companies to sort themselves out was during lockdown. Lockdown showed that we could work from home and it is something they could have taken advantage of but now companies once again rarely care as employing people will affect their bottom line and holding onto the belief that money is everything.

Here is the thing I don’t know how long it will last and I do think we will see more and more people just stop being crap about companies like this and move over more to Internet-only support … which with some irony the same thing will happen.