Dear editor:

Are you happy when you receive a message like this when calling for necessary home services: "All agents are currently busy assisting other customers. Please continue to hold and your call will be answered in the order it was received."

If you're like me, you will continue doing other chores while waiting for a live agent to handle your inquiry. The problem is by the time a live person answers your call either you may have forgotten why you were waiting or what you were calling about.

And chances are you will be speaking to someone in a call centre in another country and there may be a language barrier.

Then there's the elevator music you were subjected to while you were on hold. If you are one of the "lucky" ones the next sound you hear is dial tone.

The call has been disconnected, so no more repetitive parts of a tune that you will never get out of your head until you try calling again for this problem or another.

Then, after days of hearing these terrible tunes, you get to speak to Bob or Mary in some far-off land and explain that your toilet has leaked 20 gallons of water into the drainage system and now you are forced to take out another loan on your home to pay the water bill.

They seem to be very sorry for your heating problem, until you once again tell them it is a plumbing problem and they say they only look after furnaces.

He apologizes that he cannot help and transfers you to the correct department. Now the wait continues for another 30 minutes.

Angelica now comes on the line without an ounce of energy or interest in your service needs. When you explain what your call is about she puts you on hold and returns sometime later – and asks you how she may help you.

In total frustration and the realization that the entire afternoon has gone by, it’s time for dinner so you put the phone on the cradle to recharge for another day of frustrating phone calls.

It isn’t just one company that puts you through this horror show of ineptitude and non-caring disservice. The majority of service companies have adopted this model.

Some, like the heating and plumbing company with the name "care" in its name, should be renamed because they really don’t care about their customers. If they did they would hire more people to handle customer needs and they would ensure there is no language barrier.

Let’s bring work back to Canada and stop the corporate greed that has caused a multitude of problems for customers who pay hard-earned dollars for a total lack of service.

Tom Thornton

NOTL