[Nige]

Exactly!
Especially given that, in my experience, the customer usually has more technical know-how than BT Yahoo. In my case, that's not much, but I do know how to research - I've had BT BB reps on the phone bleating in exasperation when I've told them what the problem is, and they're still stuck at the "try turning it off and on again" stage of their script. "How do you know?" they cry - I answer; "Because I've analysed the problem, done research on the issues and consulted peers with experience of these issues".

To be fair though, it's the "help desk" process that's ultimately at fault - not sophisticated enough to analyse anything but the most simple of problems. Even eukhost's support suffers from this! It's the "compu'er says no" mentality that drives them. I was once turned down for a BT mobile phone because, when the person on the phone pressed a button, the credit rating computer said "no". Apparently, my previous address "did not exist" - even though there was a BT landline installed there, and up until 5 months previously I'd had a BT account at that property, which I'd transferred directly to my current property. From which I called BT.
Anyway, a week after all this, I got a call to say that the credit rating computer had in fact been faulty, and had being saying "no" to legit customers and "yes" to debt-ridden bankrupts. The operatives just blindly followed whatever the computer said. Irony is, BT then eventually sent my phone to my old address (the one that didn't exist), so I cancelled the order and went to a proper shop!

It's the absolute reliance on a machine to give the right answer in every case that causes these problems - Yahoo thinks its machines are infallible, because let's face it, computers don't make mistakes. Unfortunately, people make mistakes, and people program, and use, computers!