30 seconds of silence on the phone and then,

Her: "Thank you, sir. Your payment has been approved. Would you like to take down the confirmation number?"

Still no admission of guilt.

While it was exasperating that they had made a mistake and were persisting in it even after I thought I had cleared it with their reps a month ago, the really annoying part is that they were condescending to me. The supervisor and the rep acted as though they were doing me a favour! They did not really admit to anything being wrong on their end, yet insisted that they were fixing the errors only as a "one-time courtesy." This is the whole attitude that annoys me. That and the fact that the first person you speak to is typically of no help. I think their job is to just stall and see if you go away. If you don't, then they put you on hold for a long time and then come back asking, "Sir, are you still there?"

I have realized that the best way to get something accomplished after a couple of minutes of explaining it to the first rep is to ask to speak to the supervisor. Failing that, ask to speak to their supervisor. Finally you do get to someone who can help and finally will. There was one time, though, when one person said that I couldn't talk to anyone else simply because there was no one above him. I expressed surprise that I was speaking to the CEO of the company and how nice it was that he was personally responding to customer calls! Well, sarcasm worked in that case, and he transferred me to his boss who finally solved the problem.

So, after many years of frustration in dealing with customer service, I finally believe that it is a cleverly designed system - a system to keep people out, where only the persistent ones get their problems resolved. So next time, perhaps ask to speak to the supervisor directly and spare yourself the task of reducing your lifespan trying to explain the problem multiple times.

Oh, and definitely record the conversations. Absolutely. You never know when it might come in handy.