Being left hanging on the telephone has joined the pet Italian gripe of being forced to wait in line for hours at public offices.
Italians are kept hanging on the phone more than callers in other countries, a consumer rights' body said on Thursday.The average Italian spends six and a half minutes a day trying to get through to ministries, public offices, hospitals and private firms, Adusbef said. Adusbef is an organisation dedicated to protecting the rights of consumers with regards to financial services.
That amounts to a sizeable forty minutes a week - and often the wait is in vain.
In its survey of calls to 92 offices, Adusbef found that seven out of ten are put on hold with music playing over the line. Verdi, Vivaldi and Mozart appear to be firms' favourites.
Holding the line is considered "acceptable" if it doesn't last more than 30-40 seconds, respondents said.But some are put on hold for 13 times that - and the caller is often cut off.It was impossible to get through to eight offices because the number was always engaged.
Another gripe was allegedly freephone calls which customers subsequently found they had to pay for. The worst offender in the survey was a Rome health office which kept callers waiting almost ten minutes.This was followed by a national tax office with five
minutes and the Rome office for fines with four.
