Here's a funny fact...some of the smaller companies that have "automated messages" are simply a person reading from a script, in a monotone fashion. I don't really understand why, when they could just record the voice. I worked for telemarketers one summer (no, I didn't do the calling--don't stone me, please, lol) and some of the women that had been there for years just read from a script with instructions to not let the callee stumble you up or interrupt you. Some of those women didn't even read anymore, they had it memorized and just said all that stuff. I used to sit at my little counting counter and just shake my head in disbelief.