Annoying music, synthetic voices and endless telephone menu options are driving call centre customers up the wall, according to the market analyst Mintel.

It found that nine out of 10 people's experience of call centres had left them feeling angry and frustrated.

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The most common complaint was about being kept on hold with 60% of those questioned saying they were frustrated by having to hang on for long periods of time before being able to speak to someone.

And more than half the callers said they found the music played while they were on hold annoying.

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'Your call is in a queue...'

The automated phone systems were another irritant and more than a third of customers said they disliked the synthetic or automated voice.

But the biggest complaint about the system was that the voice did not always provide an appropriate option.

Also, 30% of callers said they became frustrated when their call was routed through a seemingly endless menu of options.

Mintel said that even when customers got through all the options in busy call centres it was common to have to wait up to 15 minutes to speak to a real person.

'...and will be answered shortly'

"For many consumers, extended time waiting on hold can led them to simply abandon the call.

"Almost a third of callers claim to have hung up while being left in the queue," Mintel said.

The survey of 2,020 adults found that people aged between 25 and 34 were the least tolerant towards call centres with about 35% abandoning calls.

But only 25% of customers aged over 65 abandoned calls.

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