You have a problem. You need help. You call the number. "Press 1 for billing. Press 2 for technical support. Press 3 for..." You press 3. "Please enter your account number." You enter it. "Your estimated wait time is 47 minutes." You wait. The call drops. You start over.

Getting help from a company has become a skill. Navigating phone trees, escaping chatbot loops, and finding hidden contact options require persistence and technique. What should be simple has become an endurance test.

You're not bad at getting help. Getting help has been deliberately made difficult. The frustration you feel is the system working as designed.

The Problem People Keep Running Into

Companies have built barriers between customers and help. Phone trees are designed to route you away from humans. Chatbots answer questions you didn't ask. "Help" sections suggest solutions that don't solve your problem. The system deflects before it assists. Each barrier is intentional.

When you do reach a person, they often can't help. The first tier reads from scripts. Escalation requires convincing someone you've already tried the basics. Authority to actually fix problems exists several levels deep, behind additional holds and transfers. Getting to someone who can help is its own obstacle course.

The time required is enormous. What should take a five-minute call takes an hour. Across a lifetime of customer service interactions, the time lost adds up to weeks. That time is stolen from you and has no value to the company.

When you finally get resolution, you often wonder if the problem could have been solved in the first minute with someone empowered to help. The hour of transfers and holds was just theater.

How Modern Systems Created This

Difficult support is designed, not accidental:

Support is a cost center. Every customer service interaction costs money. Reducing contacts improves margins. The barriers you encounter are working exactly as intended: preventing expensive human contact. Your frustration saves them money.

Automation handles easy cases. Self-service and chatbots resolve simple issues cheaply. But they also filter out people with complex problems who need human help. The system optimizes for the company, not the customer. Easy problems get solved; hard problems get deflected.

Attrition is a strategy. Some customers give up. If barriers make 30% of people abandon their support request, that's 30% fewer costly interactions. The frustration you feel is a feature, not a bug. Your giving up is their success.

Metrics favor speed over resolution. Call centers are measured on call duration, not on whether problems get fixed. Representatives are incentivized to end calls quickly, not to solve problems thoroughly. A fast failure counts better than a slow success.

Scripts replace judgment. Representatives aren't empowered to think creatively about your situation. They follow procedures. If your problem doesn't fit the script, you'll be transferred or told there's nothing they can do.

Why It Keeps Getting Worse

AI chatbots add new layers of deflection. They seem conversational but understand less than they appear to. Breaking through to human support requires specific phrases or persistence the chatbot is designed to discourage. The bot's job is to prevent your job of getting help.

Companies that prioritize growth over service face no competitive penalty. When everyone has equally bad support, there's no advantage to being better. Customers have nowhere to go. The race to the bottom has already happened.

Support has become a differentiator only at premium price points. Basic services get automated mazes. Premium tiers get humans. The right to actual help is now a luxury feature. Good service costs extra.

And outsourcing has created disconnects. Representatives may lack context about your situation, access to fix your problem, or authority to make exceptions. The person you reach can't necessarily help, even when they want to. They're limited by systems they don't control.

Contact information gets hidden. Phone numbers disappear from websites. Email addresses don't exist. The contact form goes into a void. Finding how to reach a company has become detective work.

How People Cope Today

Persistent people learn techniques. Saying "representative" repeatedly. Using callback options. Trying social media channels where public complaints get faster response. These workarounds exist because the main channels are designed to fail. The workaround becomes the real method.

Some turn to communities. Forums where other customers share solutions, workarounds, and the magic phrases that bypass phone trees. Collective knowledge substitutes for official support. Other customers become the real help desk.

Others pay for the premium experience. Higher-tier services with actual support become worth the cost simply because they include human beings who can help. You pay more to be treated as a person.

Social media shaming sometimes works. A public complaint gets attention that a private one never would. Companies protect their reputation even when they won't protect their customers. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, but only if enough people are watching.

Impossible customer support reflects a business decision to externalize the cost of problems onto customers. Your time is less valuable to the company than their support costs. Until that equation changes, whether through regulation, competition, or consumer revolt, reaching help will remain a challenge. The system is working exactly as intended, just not for you.