An absurdity of the information age, and an extremely annoying one, is that the advance of information technology has rendered that handy old ploy for getting information from someone - calling them and asking for it - well nigh impossible. Fortunately, I'm not the only person who gets upset about this - the gethuman "free website is run by volunteers and is powered by over one million consumers who demand high quality phone support from the companies that they use." The gethuman database lists nearly 400 provides effective tips on how to break through the automatic phone systems to get to a real live human.