"Can You Please Hold?"

As I was working at the counter of the pro shop at the golf course, two customers walked in and needed me to process their transactions. Just then, the phone rang.  The other two staff people were in a meeting, so I answered the phone while trying to process the transaction of the first customer.  The person on the phone wanted to schedule tee-times.  Then the second phone line into the golf course rang.  I knew that I could only speak on one phone line at a time, so I answered the second line with the golf course name and said, "Can you please hold for a moment?" expecting the normal "Sure," or "OK" that I will usually hear when I have to answer the phone in similar circumstances.  Instead, I heard, "Well, this is [the electric company]*, so I prefer not." Well, since I was not the person who would have to speak with them, I said so, and had to put them on hold anyway.

Ironic, isn't it?  Maybe next time I call [the electric company]* and someone asks me (of course, only after navigating the seemingly endless numbers of recorded prompts in order to actually speak to a real person) if I can hold, I should say, "Well this is one of your customers, so I prefer not."

* text in brackets replaces the name of the actual electric company