5 ways customer service makes you crazy

You've listened to the same smooth jazz number for 20 minutes when it's finally interrupted. Time to take the phone off speaker!

But wait, it's just your automated friend returning briefly to say how important your call is to the company, or that you can check the website for info (something you've almost certainly already done).

The elevator music wouldn't be so painful if customers weren't kept on hold for such absurd amounts of time -- and forced to listen to the same "jazzy" rendition on repeat.

Cutting down on wait time isn't impossible.

L.L. Bean takes an average of 12 seconds to connect a caller with a live agent, according to Stella Service, which rates retailers on customer service. Ralph Lauren's (RL) response time is less than 30 seconds, and Stella's most recent survey found the apparel company solved customers' issues 100% of the time over the phone.

NEXT: Customer service rep can't help