This bank has been paying customers who have to wait on hold

There's nothing more irritating than having to wait to speak to customer service--particularly if you're being charged for it.

To highlight its own customer service, and the fact that calls are free and are usually answered in under a minute, the bank ran a campaign in France, via agency Rosapark, in which customers actually got paid for waiting. 

The campaign, which began on September 28, kicked off with a video, seen here, in which it pranked customers at a gas station by telling them they had to pay a "waiting tax" to the cashier when they came to fill up their cars. (The customers were naturally furious, to the extent that it's quite uncomfortable viewing and you almost fear for the actor playing the cashier.) 

The video alerted ING customers to the one-day offer, where they got paid a waiting time of 60 cents a minute if they were kept on hold to the bank. (Rosapark won't reveal how much it paid out, although it says it had a high volume of calls that day.)  Another campaign on Twitter, using the hashtag #PayeTonAttente (Pay Your Wait) handed out rewards to several people who had been kept waiting for other services, like taxis or restaurants, on that day only. 

“Wait time has become as important an issue as money for French people. With this operation, which succeeds in addressing both problems at the same time, ING Direct is showing its unique investment in its clients and bringing the brand’s promise to life,” explains Sacha Lacroix, managing director at Rosapark.