USA Today Friday
Oct 23, 2026 · 2 hr · 25 segments
Monday - Friday Noon - 2pm
Oct 23, 2026 · 2 hr · 25 segments
Monday - Friday Noon - 2pm
Poll.
Customer service quality getting worse.
i'll drink to that over the past few years marcia sakamaki has reached her limit with customer service between her bank pharmacy and insurance company she is tired of the endless hold times the constant transfers and above all artificial intelligence Sakamaki doesn't call support for simple questions she can easily solve online.
By the time she picks up the phone, her issue requires a human touch, something today's automated systems can't give her.
It is ridiculous, said Sakamaki, who lives in Hawaii.
I call up, they ask for my account number and I give it to them.
Then I get passed to the next level because that AI can't answer my question and I have to give my account number all over again.
Next, they tell me to read an article online.
I read it and the answer isn't there.
It's a familiar nightmare, dialing a support line expecting a quick fix, only to spend 45 minutes shouting representative into the phone while in hold music purgatory.
For many customers, customer support these days feels less like a request for help and more like a psychological endurance test designed to wear them down.
According to a new Harris poll conducted for AT&T, customer service quality continues to slide even as corporations pour millions into AI and digital automations.
Patience is wearing out.
as three out of four Americans say they are willing to wait on hold for 15 minutes or fewer, while nearly one in five draw the line at under five minutes.
According to the AT&T survey of more than 2,000 adults, much of caller's collective exasperation stems from these key points.
Number one, the infinite transfer loop, 60%.
Customers dislike being bounced across multiple agents or departments where each representative claims the issue is, quote, beyond their scope.
Number two, the AI wall at 58%.
Automated chat or phone systems sometimes loop endlessly without offering an option to connect to a live representative.
Number three, at 52%, being ghosted mid-call.
Dropped calls, whether accidental or deliberate, infuriate callers.
Users on Reddit suspect that when a call takes too long or gets too difficult, agents just disconnect or say, Hello, can you hear me? Are you still there? And then they hang up.
And number four, at 47%, shouting at phone trees, yelling representative into the voice prompt is another common frustration.
The phone tree is maddening, especially when the voice asks you to describe in a few words what you need assistance with, one person wrote on Reddit.
All the while, there's some insipid fake clicking noise trying to sound like someone is typing.
Poll.
Customer service quality getting worse.
i'll drink to that over the past few years marcia sakamaki has reached her limit with customer service between her bank pharmacy and insurance company she is tired of the endless hold times the constant transfers and above all artificial intelligence Sakamaki doesn't call support for simple questions she can easily solve online.
By the time she picks up the phone, her issue requires a human touch, something today's automated systems can't give her.
It is ridiculous, said Sakamaki, who lives in Hawaii.
I call up, they ask for my account number and I give it to them.
Then I get passed to the next level because that AI can't answer my question and I have to give my account number all over again.
Next, they tell me to read an article online.
I read it and the answer isn't there.
It's a familiar nightmare, dialing a support line expecting a quick fix, only to spend 45 minutes shouting representative into the phone while in hold music purgatory.
For many customers, customer support these days feels less like a request for help and more like a psychological endurance test designed to wear them down.
According to a new Harris poll conducted for AT&T, customer service quality continues to slide even as corporations pour millions into AI and digital automations.
Patience is wearing out.
as three out of four Americans say they are willing to wait on hold for 15 minutes or fewer, while nearly one in five draw the line at under five minutes.
According to the AT&T survey of more than 2,000 adults, much of caller's collective exasperation stems from these key points.
Number one, the infinite transfer loop, 60%.
Customers dislike being bounced across multiple agents or departments where each representative claims the issue is, quote, beyond their scope.
Number two, the AI wall at 58%.
Automated chat or phone systems sometimes loop endlessly without offering an option to connect to a live representative.
Number three, at 52%, being ghosted mid-call.
Dropped calls, whether accidental or deliberate, infuriate callers.
Users on Reddit suspect that when a call takes too long or gets too difficult, agents just disconnect or say, Hello, can you hear me? Are you still there? And then they hang up.
And number four, at 47%, shouting at phone trees, yelling representative into the voice prompt is another common frustration.
The phone tree is maddening, especially when the voice asks you to describe in a few words what you need assistance with, one person wrote on Reddit.
All the while, there's some insipid fake clicking noise trying to sound like someone is typing.
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