LFR average wait times and actual wait times

[Deleted]

My warrior reached 460 a few moments ago, so I started to queue for LFR (after proper preparations of course). my first queue at first read 39 minutes, to which I thought "I can go heat myself a sausage roll, that takes 2 minutes tops". I go downstairs, heat the sausage roll using a microwave, nothing else and go back upstairs. so I get back to my computer and... "You have been removed from the queue because you did not accept the invitation". I thought 39 minutes was a bit high, so I just chalked it up to bad luck. I eat my roll and queue again. 11 minutes wait. since this is more realistic, I thought it was accurate, so I thought "hey, I can go fold the towels removed from the dryer before I started, takes 5 minutes". again, I come back upstairs after 5 minutes, and again "you have been removed from the queue because you did not accept the invitation". so the 3rd queue is now underway as I type this, at first it showed 2 minutes, but at this stage, i've been in the queue for 22 minutes and we still need both tanks, 5 healers and a DPS, so it'll likely take another 5.

I don't mind waiting for my queue. I don't mind missing my queue because I wasn't at my computer when it popped. What I DO mind, however, is missing my queue because the predicted waiting time is wildly different from the actual waiting time. I mean, if the computer says the queue takes 15 minutes, I'm not going to sit at my computer for 15 minutes waiting for it to pop. There's a household to be taken care of, there's appetite to be sated, thirst to be quenched. When I see "wait time: 15 minutes", I assume I can leave my computer for 10 minutes and still be back in time to accept. to expect players to spend the entire queue time behind their desk when most of them have things to do is foolish thinking.

what do you think about this?

[Creotor]

Don't trust the queue time. Even file transfer timers are wildly inaccurate quite often (at least in Windows), what would you expect of a living, breathing organism that is LFR.

Edit: polishing.

[Smeeh]

The timer isn't an indication of how long it WILL take, but how long it MIGHT take. Could be more, could be less.

[Deleted]

You complain because the game can't predict the future? Makes sense

[Gamidroon]

As your title suggest, it's AVERAGE wait time.

[ComputerNerd]

Average wait times are based on previously formed groups, which can vary considerably based on the ratios present, and whether people drop out of the queue.
There have been cases of "queue boosting" where someone will group with a "healer" or "tank" and then have that person drop group.
Recently a fix was introduced to kick them both if the "booster" left too soon, but they can still do after I think a single boss without consequence.
That then pulls another one out of what is an under-represented pool and impacts on queues for others.

[Deleted]

I agree that it is a bit annoying, however I don't see what one could do to fix it.