Routine info/status requests force people into long hold times and automated phone-menu mazes with no online self-service

Summary

People are forced to endure long hold times, navigate confusing automated phone menus, and place repeated calls just to get basic status updates or information from businesses and government agencies, because there is no reliable online status tracking or self-service option. One caller to a federal loan buyback center was explicitly told by the new automated system that there is NO way to check status online and had to phone in; non-emergency callers to city services have faced chronic hold times because dispatchers must prioritize emergency calls. This is a severe, widespread, and still largely unsolved daily frustration — the exact reason users want a 'call4me' AI agent that can place, wait through, and handle these calls on their behalf. Existing phone menus simply push the burden back onto the caller.