The Most Hated Telephony Invention - The HOLD button
It’s inevitable (no don’t start laughing tsewei 
), isn’t it? In a widely-connected world of today, we’re bound to experience being put on hold on a telephone call every now and then.
Whether it’s a call to a customer service helpline or even a call to your husband (put you on hold either to speak with his boss, or mistress 
), you might just find yourself being put on hold, often against your will. Nowadays it seems the customer service answering your call will nicely ask for your permission before piping you soothing music that will supposedly calm even the fiercest caller out there. And we’ll obliged to the request, despite the fact that we’ll be telling ourselves deep inside NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! 
And then we’ll be a slave to our phone, plastering the earpiece to our ear listening to whatever crap they want to pipe to us (stop laughing there you lucky bastard with a speakerphone!)…
Of course, often enough before we even get to speak with a customer service rep that would eagerly put you on hold once s/he gets your name (”hello there, who am I speaking to please? Oh hi Mr Au Yong, please hold…”). That’s why I really appreciate any customer service number that picks up a call with a human voice, instead of those pre-recorded drony female voices they call IVR (Interactive Voice Response). Navigating cryptic and maze-like IVR systems these days can easily speed up blood pressure and activate the Tourette Syndrome that’s hidden inside every one of us.
Back to the stupid HOLD button … since I don’t think we’ll ever do away with the HOLD button, we’ll have to figure other ways to make us, the consumers a lil more in control! Then again, if we can ever get rid of the HOLD button, I reckon 95% of the people manning customer service lines will quit, while the remaining 5% stay on coz they’re too lazy to get another job… 
Don’t you find it absolutely frustrating to be put on hold and while you’re in the middle of being enslaved to the phone, you need to get off the phone, perhaps an emergency trip to the toilet, or that you’re late for an appointment? At times like this, I really hate to put down the phone and then at a later time, start over the whole agonizing process of calling up the number, finally getting through, navigating the IVR, getting a new customer service rep listening to your case and putting you on hold! I don’t think so!
So what can we do about the HOLD button? I just thought of this earlier… we should include a feature that we can use to get the attention of that person who put you on hold. There’s no way we should allow them to control the call. We should be able to press a key like 0 or * to get his phone to ring, signalling to him that you need to speak to him ASAP, before you miss that flight, or your bladder giving way!
Yeah, we should rally up and lobby to include this feature in every phone systems that provide a HOLD button feature! Anyone with me? Please?
P/S - Check out this old but funny clip about the Internet Helpdesk
UPDATE @ March 2, 2005 7.58pm:
Just heard a cute sarcastic line from today’s episode of Gilmore Girls…
Cust Rep: Can I put you on hold?
Lorelai: Of course I’ll hold. I thought you’d never ask! 
– another –
Cust Rep: Can I put you on hold?
Lorelai: Well, of course! Holding is one of my great pleasures
ops:
