911 Operator Puts Caller on Hold for 3 Hours

Disaster struck Monday when a newly trained 911 operator left a caller on hold for 3 hours. Mary Genera had recently started her job with the 911 call center after ten years of experience working customer service lines at Mediacom Cable and Sprint.

"I never would have expected this from Mary," commented Mary's supervisor Mark Sampson, "we put her through all the necessary training, and she was expected to understand that 911 calls have required time responses that are different from customer service lines."

The call came in at 9:04 p.m. from 25 year-old single mom Trish Ryan. Ryan noticed that someone was breaking into her neighbor's home around 9:00 p.m. and she immediately called 911.

"My neighbors have been on vacation, and someone took advantage of the situation by breaking in," stated Ryan, "I thought I would stop the break in from occurring by calling 911, but apparently I was wrong. Thank God no one was in danger, or they probably would have died."

Mary Genera was the operator who answered Ryan's call. She offered excellent customer service skills by greeting Ryan and even asking how her night was going, but after this point the call took a downward turn.

"When she asked me if she could place me on hold, I really didn't know what to say," said Ryan, "I mean...it's 911. Why the heck would you place someone on hold?"

Although Ryan failed to respond to Genera's request to put her on hold, Genera did so anyway, before Ryan even had a chance to respond.

"It was very weird being placed on hold," Ryan said, "you can tell it's not a usual thing for 911 operators to place someone on hold. There wasn't any elevator music or anything. I wasn't sure if I was on hold or if she had just hung up, but there was no dial-tone, so I tried to wait."

While on hold, co-workers report that Genera took a short lunch break, went to the bathroom, and browsed through the latest edition of People magazine, checking up on the latest Britney news.

"I had no idea that she had placed her call on hold, or I would have done something," stated co-worker Angela Brown, "it's just not something I would ever question because it's never happened before."

Ryan waited for three hours before Mary returned to the phone.

"By the time she returned to the line, the break in was over and the people had taken off with my neighbor's television, stereo and some silverware and personal stuff," Ryan said, "I did manage to take down the license plate while I was waiting, and I got some digital pictures of the people who did it. I also made myself a sandwich and caught the latest episode of Wife Swap while I was waiting. It was a pretty good episode."

After Ryan told Genera that there was no point in sending an ambulance to the site, Ryan requested that Genera send police officers to her house so she could file a report, and Genera ended the call.

"She asked me if there was anything else she could help me with and then asked me if I would like to take a customer satisfaction survey." Ryan said, "I asked her if there was an option of giving someone a -99 on a ten point scale and she said she would check while she put me on hold. Then I hung up."

Genera's supervisor, Mark Sampson, has already begun changing the call center's training policies. "Admittedly, we have nothing in our training which instructs employees to not place callers on hold," stated Sampson, "we just figured anyone who wasn't a total moron would know that. But apparently, we have to implement this into our training."

Ryan's neighbors, Marie and Charles Greene, have not yet returned from vacation. Ryan has requested that Genera be fired. Genera has requested a formal hearing before termination.

(Please note that the characters and facts in this article are pure fiction and intended for humor only).