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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.