actually, it is. let me explain.
Let’s simplify and say that there are peak hours and low hours. 100 people call during a peak hour, and 25 during a low hour. The chance of calling during a peak hour is 80%, since you are four times as likely to be one of the 100 rather than one of the 25.
The same effect means that you are almost always on planes and trains that are very full, even though every now and then they ride almost empty. Fewer people get to experience empty train rides by definition.
Of course this effect falls apart when your usage patterns differ from everybody else’s. If everybody takes the train at rush hour, you might ride an empty one at noon. Or, if you call the hotline while everybody else is sleeping, you might have a better chance.
But yeah companies also just lie to make themselves look better lol
owenfromcanada@lemmy.world 6 months ago
It depends on their window.
If they include call volume data back to the Neolithic period in their calculations, then yes, call volumes are higher than average (the average being 0.001 calls per century, rounding up).
Pretty sure that’s how they do the math.
hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 months ago
Or just let’s assume the phones are open 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. The average call volume would be drastically lower than during business hours
then_three_more@lemmy.world 6 months ago
They’d just need to include the call volume for when they’re closed. Open 9-5 but take the average over a whole 24 hour day.
Mirodir@discuss.tchncs.de 6 months ago
It’s even simpler. A strictly increasing series will always have element n be higher than the average between any element<n and element n.
Or in other words, if the number of calls is increasing every day, it will always be above average no matter the window used. If you use slightly larger windows you can even have some local decreases and have it still be true, as long as the overall trend is increasing (which you’ve demonstrated the extreme case of).
dan@upvote.au 6 months ago
It’s even simpler. They just lie about and always say it’s higher than average.