They Want You To Hang Up

In my past life, I worked on the first voice mail systems invented by AT&T. These things were big, expensive, and had limited capability. But like most things, improvements started happening quickly, and it wasn't long until the original voice mail system was transformed into the automated answering systems we have learned to hate over the years.

What brings this to mind is my phone call to the federal government about a "survivor package" I'm to ask for concerning my mothers passing. When you call, you get that nice lady telling you who you reached, and then you get to hear what I assume is the same thing in spanish (I think) telling you to hit some number for that language choice.

You then are presented with 3 choices, one if you know your parties extension, another choice for what I'm trying to do, and still another choice saying "for all other calls". So I hit my number and am told "all representatives are busy", it will be approximately 15 minutes.

15 minutes on hold, listening to some horrific music on that gets interrupted intermittently telling me all reps are still busy and that calls are answered in the order in which they are received.

It's been 20 minutes now, and still no rep, but I'm still in queue I think as the intermittent voice keeps telling me all reps are still busy and my call will yadda yadda yadda.

I figure they want me to hang up.

Oh... just got answered, learned a previous government employee had given us incorrect directions about calling, we didn't need to call, and to have a nice day.

I should have hung up sooner.