Er, I worked for a Royal Bank Of Scotland call centre, where the queue at just one of many local, regional centres could be up to 300 at any one time. If a system went down - and there were two running side-by-side to prevent down time - CSOs offered callbacks, especially if there was a chance you would get a 'sale' from it.
Of course, it is not the CSO's fault - they have a line to deliver, but if no orders can be placed, why not put an answering machine message? Hey, why not upgrade the system so that customers aren't left having to redial on repeat every 4 seconds in order to get through in the first place! Tesco have experienced product launches before; they are not a new company, they are the UK's largest retail outlet, and account for an unhealthy amount of the UK's grocery, entertainment and electronics market. They should have been much better prepared, and, if they knew the system went down one day, they should have a back-up in place for the next. In my experience as a CSO, there was never a time when a system outage was more than half an hour, and certainly never a time when it occurred two days running.
