Where are all the real live people at the other end of Customer Care Phone Lines?

Recently I have read a number of complaints about the lack of real people at the end of customer care phone lines. Initially I thought these complaints probably stemmed from the "perpetual complainer" type of person, but I have found in my case that they are indeed very genuine complaints.

Let me explain. For a goodly number of years we have used Virgin Media to supply our broadband, telephone line and TV signals, and all has been more or less satisfactory. Today however, when selecting catch up to watch a  TV programme I had missed on the previous day, things were not working according to the usual procedure, which is:-

On the Virgin Media zapper select "Home" followed by "Catch Up" followed by Channel/Day/Programme Title, then press select and play, and by the magic of Virgin Media Catch Up there is your selected programme playing back for you. But not today! After pressing play I got a box up which asked me to put in my 4 digit code, before I could watch the programme. As I have never come across this request (or for that matter a four digit code) I looked for help on the zapper. It gave me various selections, none of which gave me a four digit code. It also gave me a phone number to contact. When I dialled this I went through interminable choose 1 for...2 for... 3 for...etc, and I was finally asked to press the third digit of my password. "What password" I thought to myself - I've never come across a password, so once again I consulted the pre recorded voice to be regaled with press one for... two for... three for... etc etc ad nauseum and a final request for my four digit number (You may remember that this is what I was trying to find originally!)

No matter what I tried I was met by pre recorded voice, In desperation I called 118180 which is the Virgin Media telephone enquiry number and again after meeting a press one for... two for... I eventually got through to a real live person, who gave me three numbers I might like to try. I tried the first one, and guess what? I was back with the original pre recorded message.

Virgin Media Customer Care? Don't give me that Bull..it - its more like customer confusion!!