The automated voice at the end of the 1300 number extolling how “all of our operators are busy” and because “your call is important to us, you have been placed in a queue.”

But for small businesses, waiting is measured in dollars.

Business operators are counting the cost of every minute spent on hold, being transferred to another department, or the phone line dropping out and having to start again.

David Haggarty First National manager Michael Haggarty said 1300 numbers were an oncost to small businesses because employees spent so much time on the phone and unable to do other tasks.

He suggested the solution was that if your call was not answered within a specified time, there should be another automated message for callers to leave their details for a return call. The return call would then cost the big business.

“First you get a recorded message that this call will be monitored for training purposes, then you get a menu. It can be three quarters of an hour or 30 minutes later when you get to speak to someone,” he said.

“And at whose cost is this?

“Big business is imposing their own costs on to other businesses.

“The argument is small business can’t afford the time to have somebody waiting on the telephone.”

The real estate office encounters the issue twice a day through telephoning Telstra, Hunter Water and EnergyAustralia and banks.

“It has a multiplyer affect that means the employee is behind in their work,” Mr Haggarty said.

“If we keep on going down this path of 1300 numbers and small business efficiency dropping off because of it, small businesses will be driven to despair.”

Maitland Business Chamber president Jennifer Nichols said a return call service attached to 1300 numbers should be mandatory.

The certainty of a return call then became a customer service issue.

Ms Nichols said the automated system was particularly pertinent because many small businesses had only one or two phone lines.

“So that means a phone line is down, and what happens if someone comes in (in a retail situation) and needs to use EFTPOS?” she said. “You’ve got to hang up, and then the process starts again.”

When the Mercury contacted Telstra on a 1300 number designated especially for journalists to get comment, this writer got to a voice message from a media officer who promised to return the call.

When the Mercury went to press last night, the reporter was still waiting.