Even if you're calling the corporation itself, the customer service (which I now matter-of-factly call customer disservice) department is there to shield the company from the customer's complaints.

I had a recent incident where I received a reminder letter from a bank requesting some information I had already provided and ending with "if you have any queries please call such and such number". So I did, to figure out whether I should ignore the letter because it had crossed in the mail with my reply th the previous request, or not.

So it turns our the phone number gives is for regular customer service, and this department 1) has no way of checking on whether the open issue had been resolved; 2) even if I had called during the other office's business hours they could not put me through to that office; 3) they didn't have a phone number or email address for me to call the said office; 4) they could not forward my email address or phone number to the said office for them to call me back.

In other words, pure firewall to keep customers away from the company. No 'service' to see here, move along.

The peak-to-trough part of the business cycle is an outlier. Carnot would have died laughing.