[Jeff Higgins]

I have had the same dealings with insurance companies in particular, but others in general. I am beginning to understand that insurance companies really do not want to answer their phones.

By the nature of my work, I am on the phone a lot calling various manufacturers, from mom and pop size machine shops to some very large businesses. I'm usually looking for specs on whatever widget it is they manufacture so I can decide if it will be useful in whatever it is I'm designing. My prospects of doing business with them go down every time I have to "press "x" for "y".

I have actually left messages with some, after navigating their automated answering labrynth, just to let them know they lost my business because of it. The sooner I get to talk to a real person the greater their chances of perhaps selling us up to tens of thousands of dollars worth of stuff.

It's always great to get the callback from an eager sales rep after leaving that kind of message. Most of the time, if they have what I need, they get big props for calling in a timely manner. Next question is always that if I have more questions, do I get a direct line to the guy? If not, and I have to call back and get into the automated system again, we're done.