Robots

I spent a significant amount of time on the phone with publishing companies today for my job, and "on the phone" means listening to holding music and stupid automated robots.

On one particular call I sat there on hold for about 15 straight minutes (I was also the only worker on the floor of the bookstore during that time... it was fairly slow for awhile) and the singing German choir on the other end was periodically interrupted so that some mechanical woman could say, "We know your time is valuable. Please stay on the line and the next available customer service representative will be with you shortly."

I think these companies should be honest. I'd like a publisher much more if the automated voice said what they really meant: "We know your time is valuable, but we obviously don't care that much, and we'll make you wait for as long as it takes for one of our reps to get back from their coffee-and-a-donut break. Keep your shirt on."