call4me blog

We called the billing lines at Cleveland Clinic, Advocate Health and an HCA hospital and asked about discounts, charity care, itemized bills and payment plans. All three put us through to a person. Here is what they said, the full recordings, and the federal rules behind it.

Costco's own return policy page, quoted, plus a recorded call to Costco customer service asking what happens past the 90 day electronics window, how a purchase is found without a receipt, and how the refund comes back.

A call4me customer's assistant called NY Tolls by Mail with no bill number, only a California plate and the owner's name. A person answered 2 minutes 37 seconds in and found unpaid toll bills. The same assistant also checked New Jersey E-ZPass and the PA Turnpike. Here are the phone trees, what each agency said, and all three recordings.

We called Hertz three times. On the past rentals line, a virtual assistant named Haley answers first. One call reached a live representative after six requests. One call ended when Haley hung up on us. Here are all three recordings, the exact prompts, and what the person told us.

We went back through 138 customer service calls we've published to 77 companies, and timed how long each one took to reach a live person. Here is what got through, what didn't, where AI assistants and account number prompts stopped us, and the full dataset as a CSV.