I've had good and bad experiences over the years. In one case I was on a first name basis with the whole support team and we would recognize each other on sight at conferences. And there have the script crews that first insist that I connect this, disconnect that, reboot everything, then they will discuss my issue -- that probably needs to be bumped up a level.

I have had some very good experiences. In one case I called a TV manufacturer's support line asking a very specific question about RS-232 support. The phone person didn't have the answer, but said she would ask the factory. About two weeks later I got a return call instructing me to remove jumper xxx and install jumper yyy.

I had a running issue with my DSL. I moved to another apartment about 90 feet from the original location and asked to have my service moved. I could reach out the window and touch the old phone line, but I struggled for about six weeks with no service. Excuses were: "that job is done", " reboot ... ", "service not available in your area", "we don't support your computer", and on and on. I finally called the regional office and asked for help. They were very polite and in about an hour a very competent person called, we quickly established that we both knew what we were doing, and he gave me a phone number that did not go through the switchboard. When I used the number they recognized me by name. After a few hours they called back and informed me that there was an issue in their central office rack and it would require a couple days to schedule the replacement. Two days later I was back online.