History Main / RidiculouslyLongPhoneHold

* One guy who called Comcast to cancel his service was placed [[http://www.cbsnews.com/news/another-customer-service-flub-for-comcast/ on hold for 3 hours]]. During this time their call centers closed and they left him on hold.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'' episode "He Said, He Said", the cable goes out at the Read house, and Jane calls the company. She's put on hold, and a few scenes later, we cut back to Jane, still in the kitchen on the phone, with a bored, exasperated expression on her face. We never find out if she actually gets through to a person.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}} episode "He Said, He Said", the cable goes out at the Read house, and Jane calls the company. She's put on hold, and a few scenes later, we cut back to Jane, still in the kitchen on the phone, with a bored, exasperated expression on her face. We never find out if she actually gets through to a person.

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[[folder: Jokes]]

[[folder: Literature]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

[[folder: Newspaper Comics ]]

[[folder: Web Original ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* There are various spoof "On hold" messages on YouTube designed to be played to telemarketers when they call. Most of them provide an estimated wait time that's in days or months.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls''. In "Telephonies," the Gangreen Gang makes prank calls to various different Townsville citizens. Lil' Arturo convinces Professor Utonium, he just won a ten-million-dollar sweepstake and asks him to remain on hold, which Professor does for the rest of the episode, despite Arturo hanging up.

* In one ''ComicStrip/Cornered'' comic..

[[quoteright:262:[[ComicStrip/GetFuzzy http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_gz_c040727.png]]]]

* ''ComicStrip/{{Zits}}'' has a story where Jeremy calls a company and is told "please hold while we jack you around from department to department." He declares that it's nice to see some corporate honesty.

[[AC: {{Advertising}}]]

[[AC: LiveActionTV]]

[[AC: NewspaperComics]]

[[AC: WebOriginal]]

[[AC: WesternAnimation]]

[[AC: RealLife]]

* One guy who called Comcast to cancel his service was placed [[http://www.cbsnews.com/news/another-customer-service-flub-for-comcast/ on hold for 3 hours]]. During this time their call centers closed and they left him on hold.

* Advertising/{{Peggy}} of the Discovery Card advertisements was a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WIwxQjvfFI master of this]].

''Peggy''': You're tenacious like bull. I like. Please hold.\\

* ''ComicStrip/GetFuzzy''. Invoked in a 2005 story arc, in which Rob attempts to get in touch with [[BrandX Dull Computer]] customer support. At one point during his call, he's placed on hold for hours -- so many hours, in fact, that he can't make dinner, and has Satchel order pizza for the night. Meanwhile, at Dull Computers, a few customer service reps boast about their personal records of keeping customers on hold, ranging from three hours to five hours, to one guy who ''still'' has a customer on hold as they speak.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tumblr_mzx4qwffdo1tp42tfo1_500_856.png]]

-->'''Customer''': I've been waiting for fifteen minutes for someone to pick up.
-->'''Peggy''': You're tenacious like bull. I like. Please hold.
-->'''Customer''': No, no, no! Peg--!
-->'''Peggy''': (''staring at a bank of ringing phones'') So pretty.

* Advertising/{{Peggy}} of the Discovery Car advertisements was a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WIwxQjvfFI master of this]].

!Examples

[[AC:{{Comics}}]]
* ''NewspaperComics/{{Zits}}'' has a story where Jeremy calls a company and is told "please hold while we jack you around from department to department." He declares that it's nice to see some corporate honesty.
* ''ComicStrip/ShermansLagoon'' has a storyline where Sherman is on hold for days.

* In ''Series/TheSimpsons'' episode where the family goes to Australia, Bart calls a boy in Australia to ask which direction the water in the sink is flowing. The boy has to check with his neighbour who lives many miles away, so he places Bart on hold and spends half the day visiting his neighbor and going back to answer the question. By the time he gets back Bart had already gone to bed and no longer cared about the question at all.

* ''Series/{{Friends}}''. In "The One with the Screamer", Phoebe spends several days on hold (on Monica's phone) with a company she needs to talk to before her phone warranty expires.

* One guy who called Comcast to cancel his service was placed [[http://www.cbsnews.com/news/another-customer-service-flub-for-comcast/ on hold for 3 hours]]. During this time their their call centers closed and they left him on hold.

* Downplayed in an episode of ''Series/TheOfficeUS'' where Dwight and Jim team up to make a sale. Dwight uses the phone at the beginning of the meeting and places it on stand by while Jim pitches the sale. Once Jim finishes, he reveals they've been on hold with customer service with one of the big name companies this entire time. They then call up Kelly (their customer service) to show that Dunder Mifflin has superior service.

* In ''Series/TheSimpsons'' episode where the family goes to Australia, Bart calls a boy in Australia to ask which direction the water in the sink is flowing. The boy has to check with his neighbour who lives many miles away, so he places Bart on hold and spends half the day visiting his neighbor and going back to answer the question.

* One guy who called Comcast to cancel his service was placed [[http://www.cbsnews.com/news/another-customer-service-flub-for-comcast/ on hold for 3 hours]], after which their call centers closed.

* The sideplot of one episode of ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'' concerns Al on the phone with an auto parts store, in one case being one one phone call for days.