Holding for 2.5 hours

Published: 19 May, 2011

• THE council’s inefficient telephone system must have been named “Contact Camden” with a nod to irony.

I called at the beginning of the week, and I appeared to be on a continual loop where I kept having to select a choice from the main menu without ever being put through to the appropriate department.

I have called on and off all week, at various times, and I am now on hold again and have been for the past 40 minutes. 

There is no indication of my position in the queue or how long I am likely to be on hold – this is despite the fact that I have called first thing in the morning which, according to the recording, is meant to be a “less busy time”.

As a result of this poor service I have spent a total of 2.5 hours on hold this week – when all I want to know are the opening hours of the Town Hall (apparently this information isn’t important enough to have on their website) and chase up some food recycling bins (which I have now been requesting for three weeks and has resulted in three weeks’ worth of food waste not being recycled).  

I have tried emailing, but emails appear to disappear into the ether with no acknowledge­ment of receipt ever being made so I am left with no alternative but to waste my time listening to hold music.

The service they are providing for residents of Camden is beyond appalling.

NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED