An increasingly annoying trend in support lines in the UK (and undoubtedly elsewhere too) is for the company to substitute training and product knowledge with an "expert system" that prompts the guy on the other end of the line. "Ask them to check their dial-up settings; click here, there, choose this, do that. Ask them to re-install windows, just in case. Ask them do they want fries with that? Don't forget to thank the customer for calling."
That way they can pay minimum wage because the tech support guy isn't actually trained, he's just a monkey who can read and doesn't scream back at abusive customers. Chances are there's fifty of them there, and they all last about 2-6 months. When I call tech support, I -=know=- what's wrong; I want a straight answer to a question like "is there a problem with your routers in this area?" Problem is, the answer to that question requires knowledge of the question - it's unlikely to be in the expert system of stock-questions and stock-answers. It'd be on a status page if they had one (annoyingly few people do!). So now both myself and Bruce have resorted to just hanging up and redialling until we find The Tech Support Yoda, who's much like the person writing those fantastic "Porn Store Clerk" entries -- far too clever to be in that job. What you get is:

Me:  Hi! Is there a problem with the routers in the Luton/Hertfordshire
     area?
TS1: Uh.. what exactly is the problem? Is it that you can't connect to a
     particular website?
Me:  No..  I just want a simple answer.  Do you have a status board
     somewhere in your office? Doesn't it say something like
     "beaver.routers.ntlworld.com -- down for maintenance"?
TS1: I .. er.. look, could you just check your internet dial-up
     connection settings?
Me:  Alright, I'm going to hang up now because you're clearly not
     capable of dealing with my problem.

[.. -click- -redial- -repeat three or four times- -finally-]

Me:   Hi! Is there a problem with the routers in the Luton/Hertfordshire
      area?
Yoda: Hmm! Problem there is, yes! Use alternative dialup number, you
      must.  0845 292-9412
Me:   Thank you! Bye!

That's all I want! It's all I ask for! I despair sometimes, I truly do. :)