Thanks to all who have commented. I will try again when I have time to wait out the infinite hold, and I may try that "Complex" number. I do understand about the need for the IVR to do the right thing for the company's needs, it just bugs the hell out of me that it keeps trying to send me to a sales dude when I'm trying to reach support people. I'm prepared for coping with call centre helpdesk people, if only I can get through to them. I know I sent them enough information to track the user when I emailed them, but what I don't know is whether anyone is paying any attention to the email. A response with a trouble ticket number would be nice, but even an auto-responder would let me know for sure that the mail got through. In the absence of a bounce, I would expect at least an auto-response. Mark Foster wrote:

Noone you talk to over the telephone is going to give you real time support on a virus infection issue.

Of course not. All I want them to do is log a trouble ticket and send it to someone who can (a) understand it, and (b) do something about it.

Their security team do deal with all valid emails to abuse@ even if they don't acknowledge them directly. Also please bear in mind that nomatter what ISP is involved, all customers need time to be warned, and get fixed, before theyll have their accounts nuked. Its a tough call to take someone off the internet when their only hope is software that needs to be downloaded _from_ the internet...

Sure. But someone who is sufficiently Internet-enabled to have Jetstream probably either has a clue or knows somebody who does, and I would hope that they just need to to be told about it.

Disclaimer: I don't represent Xtra or Telecom or anyone else except yours truly. This is based on my experiences as an Xtra customer and someone who has reported virus to Xtra Abuse Team many times!

Accepted.

PS: The 'Dial 0' trick is a cop out. With a company as big as Xtra, you can't realistically expect them to leave a Dial 0 option in there _and then_ expect to keep call durations down - you wont get the answer you want from a receptionist, will you?

No, but if the IVR doesn't provide appropriate options, I expect a receptionist to be able to put me through to somebody appropriate. They're supposed to know who does what in their organisation.

If their support staff are busy, theyre busy. Sit on hold, try again later, or email them. (And hope that they realise their Queues are busy (and they will, theres enough software there tracking their Queue stats) and modify staffing levels as a result (also standard callcentre practise.)

I hope I don't have to keep waiting while they go out and hire more staff. That'd be a pretty long call! :-) (The batteries in my phone woulf go flat) Thanks again. Lesley.