I pit my government's hold music.

So I tried to call Social Security…several times today. And got a busy signal most times and when I didn’t, got…hold music. Not just any hold music. Country music being very specific about the need to embrace Jesus and the depths of my sins. Bollocks. Well never mind the bollocks, but if I have to sit on hold for an hour I’d rather hear the Sex Pistols. But I don’t expect that to happen. Fine. But but the same token I don’t want to listen to that shite. This is my government. Just put on Vivaldi or something.

That’s nothing. The Tricare service provider in my area used to have the service marches as performed by military bands. I support my troops and all, but martial music? I agree with you… bring on the Vivaldi.

Robin

Ugh, yea I work for the Dep. of Education and I genuinely feel bad whenever I have to put anybody on hold because I know I’m subjecting them to some god awful synthetic pop music. A couple of times when my friends have called on my work line and I’ve had to put them on hold they’ll come back with a “wow what have I done to deserve this”

What’s up with the move away from simple classics? Vivaldi, Mozart, there are a number of classical pieces that are relatively short, euphonious and unexceptional. Why do we have to get country, or worse muzak’ed pop pieces?

For that matter, I wonder if the OP would have had as much ire for something like Bach’s “Ode to Joy”?

Nitpick: “Ode to Joy” is the fourth movement from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, with lyrics by Friedrich Schiller.

Robin

Last week I called social services for a client. Something was wrong with the muzak – it sounded like a loud, rusty vacuum.

At one old job, the phone system switches and controls were located in a closet accessible from my office. The music on hold came from a regular table radio, with a connection between the earphone jack and one of the boxes that controlled the phone system.

On my last day at the job, I changed the radio to the local Spanish mariachi/norteno/ranchero/oom-pah station. Called a few weeks later to talk to someone, got placed on hold, and …

“AY AY AY OOMPAH DIOS MIO OOMPAH OOMPAH YO TENGO DOLOR DE CORAZON OOMPAH OOMPAH REALIDAD ES AGONIA HWAH HWAH HWAH!”

Umm…

Errr…

Yanno, I think I could use the edit feature to fix that.

(sheepish grin) Oops. Thanks for the correction.

That reminds me… our office is on the same floor as the Food & Agriculture board, who’s setup is in the janitorial closet just like elmwood described. Last year my co-workers and I set it to Sonic instead of the pansy uber-soft-rock/talk station; I think I’ll check it before I leave, and make sure everything is still working right. :smiley:

That is so fuckin’ awesome! Although… a continuous loop of Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries might be more fun.

There is a reason why I cannot listen to Mozart’s Symphonia Concertante any more, and it’s more than the fact that it’s probably the most annoying piece of music ever written. A software company used it for their hold music on their help line, which had an average hold time of over an hour. The thing is, every two minutes a voice would interrupt the music to inform you that you were, in fact, still on hold. But when the voice stopped, the music would not pick up from where it left off. Nope, it would start over. Every freakin’ time.

I wonder if that sort of torture is compensible under a health and safety claim?