Not really relevant, but something many of us have probably suffered through in the past: telephone services for providing customer support. There's nothing more frustrating than calling a help-line because you need to ask them a question, and having to wade through over ten minutes of automated messages.

I'm particularly annoyed about one case. Calling the New York State Teacher Certification Hotline is a huge pain in the ass and they are notorious for being difficult to get in touch with. I've been trying to call them for days, and I've memorized all the automated message options I need to choose, but if I didn't it would be over ten minutes just to hear all the options and the like. What's worse is, whenever they claim to be overloaded with calls (which miraculously is almost always), they offer the following message when you elect to speak to a representative: "Please call back at another time. We apologize for any inconvenience. If you don't press '1' now to hear a list of automated options, this call will be disconnected." Even the occasional time you do get through, you can expect at least half an hour on hold. To be honest, rather than all this disconnecting crap, I'd be just as happy to sit on a really long queue while on hold. I'm confident I could out-wait everyone else.