Please stay on the line...

...and a service representative will be with you shortly.

Define shortly.

OH, and then there's "your call is important to us..."

Hold. I'm on hold. I've been on hold for 15 minutes now. I have to stay on hold because I need to know if I'm getting a loan to cover this year's tuition.

It's busy season for Student Loans offices everywhere in Canada. One would assume after umpteen dozen years of loan operations the organization might be able to predict and plan for such a spike in phone calls. But yet, here I sit, on hold.