I think either someone has far too much time on their hands or they really, really don't like the IVR. It's probably the latter. Paul English showed up on ABC 7 News in New York City last week touting how he's out to force companies to abandon their IVR's and make real people answer the phone. And, his blog is helping. [IVR Cheat Sheet]

An example from his blog: Want to get through to Paypal Buyer Credit? Dial 866-571-3012 and then, according to Paul's site, "be silent and at the end of the options press 6." Not bad, considering online businesses are often hard to get in touch with and tend to be fairly web-centric (not surprisingly).

But maybe there is a point here. Businesses of the world -- improve your IVR, or find yourself with more live agent calls. Case in point: Citibank's new Simplicity credit card touts "There should be an easy way to skip automated voice menus." That's a conscious business decision, but anyone else who isn't prepared -- watch out.