Fields of gold

The only truly wasted parts of my day are those spent on hold, waiting to speak to customer service. You'd think, at the very least, that there would be numerous alternatives to this phone-queuing. You would be absolutely right because you are aware of the internet. You may have even sent an Instant Message at some point! Barring any of that potential experience, though, I'm sure there are better phone-based alternatives. Could I just have a call back when a human is willing and able to speak to me rather than having to wait while the entire Sting catalog floats through my senses at 8 kHz?

On a directly related note, I learned today that some Cisco call-processing software had some pretty nice default hold music. It had some kind of mention in This American Life a few weeks back. I didn't hear that episode but the little tune is preferable to, er, just about anything else. It makes me nostalgic for all that great mid-90's tracker music. Even kinda terrible MODs would be just fine.