I've mostly found the humans pretty helpful actually, at least at the places I've called. What drives me nuts with most phone support is that it makes you spend 20 minutes wading through a phone tree offering the same automated options as the website. If I'm calling, it's always for some weird thing that isn't handled automatically, if I wanted to do one of the easily automated things, I would have already done it on the website.
I'm willing to bet there are huge sections of the population who will insist on talking to a real person, no matter how mundane or trivially automated their request. The 20 minute hazing ritual exists to deter them, not you. The more of a pain in the ass it is, the lower the call volume they have to deal with.
