I recently heard about a cool new web-based service called Fonolo that helps you bypass the endless phone trees many companies require you to navigate when calling customer service. It will do much of the menu navigation for you and then call you when you get to the right spot. The short video below explains it better than I can and the Fonolo website does an even better job.
As great as this concept is, it is sad that anyone would need it. Companies who truly care about their customers would have their phones ring directly to a live person or a simple menu that says "Press 1 for a live person or 2 for automated self-service." Anything else may be more efficient for the company but is ultimately aggravating for the customer.
Of course, there's always Get Human for those companies (like Amazon) that are so extreme they make it hard for you to even find their number!