By now, in this day and age, where toddlers play with cell phones, everyone has gotten used to this: being put on hold for long periods of time or being transferred from one operator to the other and ending up with no answer. It has occurred to me many times. Unfortunately, this happens even in cases of emergency!
As far as our schools and institutions are concerned, I always hesitate to call. I know it will take awhile until I can actually talk to a person, so I choose to walk to the place instead (that way I can get some exercise too). It simply should not be this way! This week, for example, I had my backpack stolen from my work office on campus. As soon as I realized it, two minutes later, not knowing what else to do, I called campus security. The first thing I heard on the other end of the line was, “can you please hold?” After waiting for awhile, the call dropped! The second time I called, I was able to tell them what had happened, and the security did show up. Next, I called the bank to block my account, and by the time I reached a real person and gave them my information, the call dropped, so I had to start all over again!
A reasonable explanation might be that many of these places are short of staff, but what does that do to the customer, or the person who is put on hold after calling 911?