Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: On Hold With Technicolor

This is topic On Hold With Technicolor in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Michael Putlack (Member # 6523) on 03-07-2013, 08:00 PM:

What's the longest you've ever been on hold with Technicolor? I'm at 15 minutes now... :/

Sub-question: How miserable is that stupid guitar riff song that they use for their hold music!?

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-07-2013, 08:41 PM:

Never more than a few seconds.... Must be the time of day? Day of week too probably.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 03-07-2013, 08:47 PM:

I have waited on hold with Technicolor for well over 40 minutes a few times.

The "music" they keep repeating is exactly the same track that Fed Ex uses. (I've waited on hold with them for well over an hour.)

Posted by John Roddy (Member # 7348) on 03-07-2013, 09:03 PM:

I think my record stands at 25 minutes before I gave up and tried again later. Generally speaking, they're pretty fast. I'm usually only on hold for a few seconds before they answer. But if you call them on a busy Thursday night or something, they never have enough people.

Also, I've only heard piano sonatas and stuff in their hold music. That, and the same type of stuff I hear on the Weather Channel during the local weather updates. It's all pretty bland and tasteless though. Just once, I'd like to call and hear hardcore death metal or something. I know that will never happen, but it would be pretty funny if it ever did. [Big Grin]

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 03-07-2013, 10:18 PM:

40 minutes was my record trying to find out where the other half of a print was sent to...

Posted by Edward Havens (Member # 4715) on 03-08-2013, 06:36 AM:

I haven't called Technicolor in years. If there's a problem, I send them an email and it's usually resolved right away. Like tonight. We were missing a trailer that should have been on our Thingest. I dropped them a line, politely asking if there was an ETA on its delivery, as I was required to have this trailer in front of our pre-premieres of Oz, the first of which was in less than 90mins at that point, and it was resolved (with a phone call from them verifying I could ingest it) within half an hour.

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 03-08-2013, 09:24 AM:

I don't have the patience to hold more than 5 mins, but have tried back multiple times in an hour. It seems to have gotten worse this year, I wonder if they are cutting back on staff.

And the only reason I can think of for that horrible hold music is to discourage us from holding.

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 03-08-2013, 10:53 AM:

The holding patterns that I dislike most are the ones that keep saying "Thank you for holding - your call will be answered shortly" every two minutes or so. If it just plays music then you can put the phone down and wait until you hear someone talking to pick it up again. But when it keeps talking like that, you have to keep listening to it.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-08-2013, 11:14 AM:

quote: Martin McCaffery
And the only reason I can think of for that horrible hold music is to discourage us from holding.

The reason for the crappy hold music is to avoid paying a copyright fee for using "real" music. And the reason why they don't just use silence is that then people will think their connection is lost.

What I don't understand is, why don't the phone manufacturers (or whoever creates those hold recordings) create a nice five or ten minute piece of music? Or maybe a dozen different little 30-second tunes? It couldn't cost THAT much.

If I could have my own preference I'd like to hear the news, or something useful like that while I'm on hold.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 03-08-2013, 12:59 PM:

Why not just pipe in some local radio station?

It doesn't have to be rock and roll. It could be a classical station... Something!

Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 03-08-2013, 01:21 PM:

One outfit that I have to call occasionally plays pow wow music when you're on hold. Which is different, but not inappropriate considering what the company does.

I can take pow wow music a lot more than rap, which just grates on my ears. I really like "native rock", like Keith Secola & The Wild Band Of Indians and Black Rain

Posted by James Westbrook (Member # 3690) on 03-08-2013, 01:43 PM:

In the 90s, when I would be on hold with our concessions supplier out of DFW, the hold music would be The Oasis, an FM station.
Around the same time, the Lubbock cable provider started up the digital music channels. They advised subscribers that these could NOT be used for "on hold" music, though store owners could pipe the music into their stores.

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 03-08-2013, 01:44 PM:

quote: Randy Stankey
Why not just pipe in some local radio station?

Well, with 24 hour call centers there may not be anything "local". Piping in anything would require paying fees. I'm sure whatever Muzak changed their name to has a service.

I've been on hold where they've had local talk radio piped in. Now that can be excruciating (and a really bad business choice).

As we have to hit so many buttons (no with Tech, but in general), they should let us choose our own hold music (Press 1 for Mowtown, for Classic..)

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-08-2013, 02:03 PM:

quote: Randy Stankey
Why not just pipe in some local radio station?

If you're a little mom-n-pop kind of place you can probably do that, but a big company like Technicolor would probably be flirting with disaster doing that. It's the same reason you can't be playing the radio in a movie theater without the ASCAP or BMI people crawling into your wallet.

Posted by Emma Tomiak (Member # 1862) on 03-09-2013, 04:19 PM:

There have been many times I've sat on hold with Technicolor until the hold service boots me off and tells me to call back later.

FYI, last time I was on hold with Deluxe, their hold music was the "Garden State" soundtrack.