Time Trial Finds You Guilty

(A long time ago, I used to work as a support person in a tech support department. The software we used would report the data from the phone system about how long someone had been on the phone call. Usually, for us, this was how long they had been on hold. I pick up a call out of the queue and introduce myself, and then this happens.)

Customer: *somewhat yelling* “I’ve been waiting forever on the phone! I’m a paying customer and I shouldn’t have to wait this long. Do you know how long I’ve been waiting?”

(I normally don’t take the bait, but this time since the customer actually asked and I have the data, I decide to respond.)

Me: “Three minutes and forty-five seconds.”

Customer: *pause* “Wait, what?”

Me: “Now, three minutes and fifty-eight seconds.”

Customer: “How do you know that?”

Me: “Because our phone system knows how long it’s been since you called it and reports that information to me.”

Customer: “Oh, well, it feels like a lot longer, and I shouldn’t have to wait so long!”

(The customer was nice for the rest of the call as I resolved their problem, so it ended up working out instead of having to deal with an entitled, grouchy person. But I got a chuckle out of the “it feels like a lot longer” comment.)