The last thing Kym Illman expected when he answered his mobile was to be placed on hold for over six hours.
The Grand Hyatt Hotel Singapore had returned Mr Illman's call to confirm restaurant reservations and placed the Perth-based businessman on hold while investigating a query about room reservations.
"Ten minutes of classical on hold music later, I began to wonder if she'd forgotten me," Mr Illman told couriermail.com.au.
"At the 30 minute mark I figured she certainly had but since I wasn't paying for the call I decided to keep the line open and seen how long it was before they realised I was suspended in their phone system."
Placing his mobile on his charger, Mr Illman went out to the football and to dinner and when he returned was amazed to find he was still on hold.
After five hours and 30 minutes Mr Illman emailed the hotel advising them he was tiring of being on hold; a short time later the hotel tracked down the call and hung up.
''Total time on hold - six hours, eight minutes and forty-two seconds," he said.
" As owner of Perth-based on hold production company Messages On Hold, I know a thing or two about being on hold, but I challenge anyone to beat six hours plus on hold,'' Mr Illman said.
Mr Illman says he is yet to receive a response to his original enquiry about his reservations.
Grand Hyatt management said it was unaware of the incident but would look into it.
Greg Tingle comment
Now, that's what I call turning a negative into a positive. I'm ex Telstra and Optus, and former Sales and Service Award winner of the month. I've seen the best and worse of the telephony carriers. Grand Hyatt seems to have taken things to the next level. Should we rebrand the offender as The Grand Hangup? Thank goddess for folks like Kym Illman to tip us off on these things. Does Paris Hilton or her grandfather know about this yet?
Media Man Australia Profiles
Kym Illman
Messages On Hold
