Office de la protection du consommateur – Hold time of more than 30 minutes before talking to a receptionist

The complaint

A citizen complained about telephone hold times at the Office de la protection du consommateur (Office).

In April 2011, the citizen tried to reach the Office several times to file a complaint against a merchant. Each time, he got a pre-recorded message informing him that he would be on hold for over 30 minutes, a wait he considered unreasonable.

The investigation

• In its service statement, the Office commits to providing accessible services, including by phone.
• A hold time as long as the one reported by the citizen can compromise accessibility to services.
• According to the Office, the average hold time is 10 minutes because the call centre is small.

The Québec Ombudsman’s conclusions

Since the citizen never managed to talk to an Office receptionist and the Québec Ombudsman considers a 30-minute hold time excessive, it asked the Office de la Protection du Consommateur to contact the citizen so he could get the service requested.

The Office de la Protection du Consommateur agreed to act on the Québec Ombudsman’s request and it contacted the citizen that very day.