isetts.com

The company VoodooVox is making good money by turning the "musak" call waiting experience into an advertising/revenue opportunity.

Description of what they do from their website:

"At a higher level, the VoodooVox In-Call Network functions just like traditional online banner networks. The primary differences being that rather than integrating into web sites, our publishers are high-call volume companies; and rather than inserting banners into web sites, we insert audio spots directly into the call streams of our publishers. That’s why we say phone calls are the new page views.

But the reality is that phone calls are far better than page views. In-Call Media is delivered directly into the ear of an intended audience, so there is no waste. And given the precise targeting of In-Call Media, we also deliver an engaged audience. In 2006 the overall click through rate for the In-Call Network was 12%, and 2007 year-to-date results are tracking at the same level. "

Once a company makes money by making you wait, of course they will make you wait just for that purpose.

I don't see much recourse a disgruntled consumer would have. You could bitch at the hourly worker that eventually gets your call, lots of good that will do.

Someone will have to invent a device that mutes the advertising until the call is picked up. You'll have to do some advertising to get awareness of your product, hmmm... now where to advertise? I guess the VoodooVox network would target the ideal market.