I hate recorded messages. I think they are the largest breach of good customer service that the business community has ever forced upon us. When I call my bank or other business looking for a solution to a problem or just needing some information, I want to speak to a live person. Instead, I usually get the standard recording of "Your call will be answered in the order of which it was received." While I wait, I usually am deluged with ads of the company's great products or services interspersed with elevator music.

Usually, you will be handled in different ways, depending on the company you call. Some will give you a choice of options to solve your problem. Many times the options offered have nothing to do with why you are calling. If you are lucky, one of the options will be to hold the line for a live operator. That sounds pretty good except you could probably eat a full meal by the time someone gets to you. But, fear not, as you wait, a recorded voice will always be there to tell you periodically how important your call is to them. It's so important that they don't care if you are on hold for 20 minutes.

My Internet provider has a similarly frustrating procedure if you call about slow or disconnected service. Its customer service guys have always been great, but the company has tried to reduce your calls to a live person by having you repeat your problem to a robot voice. After hearing her say, "I'm sorry, I didn't hear your answer" a few times, you are ready to scream. Fortunately, I have figured a way to get past the robot and luckily I don't have to call them much anyway.

In the 1930s it was said that in the future, mechanization would take over a lot of jobs. Well, it has happened, but I don't think it has helped us much with customer service. Sometime I would like to take the attitude of the frustrated newsman Howard Beale from the movie "Network" and shout, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" Unfortunately, I AM GOING to take it some more because in this era there is no choice. It is a bottom line decision by companies to operate this way and we can take it or leave it.