When will we get rid of the rubbish on phone calls?

They are ALWAYS “experiencing high call volumes”.

I have held on for 50 minutes before only to be cut off once I was put through.

Yes, especially "Your call is important to us"! Really? Answer it then!!

The last three calls of this type that I have made have gone through all the rigmarole of ‘huge increase in calls/ exceptionally long waiting times” etc, gave me details of the website etc, then put me straight through to an adviser.

However, aside from this I have also experienced the problems faced by ExDancer and tickingbird. All these situations are frustrating. I do applaud those who have the choice “for anything else use option 7,356” because 9 times out of 10, the problem I need to resolve is not listed in the other 7,355 options.

Oh Yes! I agree. What a pain it is having to listen to all that stuff. It's time they reduced it. Or got rid of it altogether.

It's the same the world over. I was recently on a tour bus in Canada, and the guy doing the commentary said as we passed the impressive tax revenue buildings "4000 people work there and not one of them knows how to answer the phone! Kept me on hold for over an hour" It was greeted with laughter accompanied by knowing nods.

Even worse is being given your 5 options, selecting the most appropriate, being offered another set of options, again picking one, to find yourself sent back to the beginning again!