Waiting time in a queueing system is usually measured by a period from the epoch when a subscriber enters the system until the service starting epoch. For repeated orders queueing systems it is natural to measure the waiting time by the number of repeated attempts, R, which have to be made by a blocked primary call customer before the call enters service. We study this problem for the M/M/1/1 retrial queue and derive expressions for mean, variance and generating function of R. Limit theorems are stated for heavy- and light-traffic cases.