Don’t know why I haven’t seen this site before, but I just fell over I Hate Holding and I think I’ve found the stop-gap measure we need until companies realise they need to be more open and make themselves available the way we want, not the way that’s convenient for them.

The site was first released over 18 months ago (though it’s still in  Beta) but it’s new to me, so I want to give it a boost. Before anyone starts flooding the comments (that would be a nice change, actually…) with stuff about other sites that solve this problem overseas, the point of I Hate Holding is that finally Australian specific info is available.

Founder, Sean Riley, Explains the rationale for the site

The idea for iHateHolding came to me during one the many moments of frustration-during-phone-prompt-navigation that myself, and no doubt countless others have painfully endured over the years.   I’m usually a patient guy, but this sort of crud makes my blood boil.

iHateHolding.com is a free, user edited web site that anyone can edit and add to at any time, without restriction. It allows users to add shortcuts to phone numbers that will allow the caller to speak with a real person quicker and easier than listening to countless prompts.

The site only has numbers for about 40 companies at the moment, but that covers most of the usual “please hold” suspects like Banks, Airlines and Telco’s - so it’s a good start. Hopefully in the near future more numbers will be added and finally we’ll be able to get some of our valuable time back

Check it out.