The council governing several villages neighbouring Uttoxeter has kept residents waiting for up to 45 minutes to get through when they call the authority by phone.
Fed-up families have faced the mammoth delays trying to contact Staffordshire Moorlands District Council.
Now the authority, which covers Tean and Checkley, has blamed the problem on being "busy" and staff undergoing training. However, community leaders insist the problem has been ongoing for months.
Bob Hart, chairman of Biddulph Valley North Community Association, said: "I do most of my dealing with the council online but there are those people who don't have the internet or would prefer to speak to someone.
"It's very frustrating when you are put on hold and inevitably it is you who is paying for the phone call. The council needs to get its act together and make it more friendly for its customers."
Mary Walker, the district council's head of customer services, partly put the problem down to the ongoing development of its digital services.
She said: "We have had an extremely busy couple of months as we continue to develop and improve our digital services and ensure our staff are trained and able to deal with requests at the first time of asking.
"Consequently, call wait times have been higher than usual at what is always a busy time of year for the council.
"I would like to reassure everyone that we are monitoring call times closely and looking at different ways to make other improvements for our customers including a ring back option, communicating the best times to call and training more staff.
"We'll soon be launching our online customer portal which will enable people who register an account to view and manage all their transactions with the council."
