Hello? Anybody there?

Our phone system at work is broken right now-not a good thing for a national hotline that people rely on. Over the past few weeks (actually since the beginning of summer), the powers that be have been trying new things and we little people suffer the consequences. Lately we have been operating on emergency mode at least once every few days. Basically what this means is instead of the calls going to each person in an order determined by the person that has been free to take a call the longest, ALL phones in the call center ring every time a caller comes in. Imagine, if you will, appproximately 30-40 phones ringing at once, while even while you are on the phone. Also, when in emergency mode, there can only be 3 incoming calls (which then need to be transferred away asap), so during busy times, lots of calls are missed or dropped.

Tonight the ultimate happened. The phones stopped ringing entirely for almost 30 minutes. During the busiest time of night. We had nothing to do but sit and wait. The phones came back up, but the system was only limping along at partial strength.

Makes you wonder where the callers (owners and vets) go/who they contact if we're not available....