Perhaps cell phone companies are the worst offenders, but I'd say not by much. I think it's just the horrible state of customer service in general. I can't remember the last time I had good customer service. I'm always polite and put up with it - as I think it's just counter productive to piss off the only hand that can dispense the crumb (I know, not something anyone would predict by my comment style). But it's ironic to hear that we're a "service" economy. I guess we're just missing the adjective "poor".

Still, the upside is that we can get tremendous increases in satisfaction by doing hardly nothing at all. Which speaks well for the economy. All we have to do is unlock the ability to do even a modicum of service and people will flock to the companies that offer it.

Which makes me wonder why someone doesn't try it, as economics would seem to indicate this is a good competition plan. Maybe there's something inherent in humans that makes it impossible to provide good service and so there's simply no way to capitalize on the dearth of service in any of the competitors.

Maybe we can outsource this to aliens whenever we meet them - assuming they're not worse at it than we are. . .

Cell phone companies are not nearly as bad as any billing office at a hospital. Oh man are they awful, and the fact that so many insurance companies have varying rules on coverage and copays makes it much worse.

Granted, I should say billing company, as many hospitals are outsourcing their billing, but that does not translate into a more pleasurable experience.

Speaking as the guy on the other end of the phone, I wrote a post about this at www.sortapundit.com if you want to take a look. Or, if you would prefer the short version - yes, you're pretty much screwed. Have a nice day and thanks for choosing AT&T.