We read somewhere over the holidays about this cool site, which provides a list of how to circumvent laborious customer service systems and get a human on the phone quickly at dozens of major retailers, financial services companies and government organizations. (It's called the IVR Cheat Sheet—IVR for "interactive voice response.") The first thing that strikes you—besides the obvious urge to bookmark the site immediately—is the intricacy of some of the “steps to find a human,” as the site calls them. While the Chase Credit Card customer service line simply requires callers to press “0”, at Fidelity NetBenefits callers need to press “1” and then hit the number sign—17 times.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor