I think you've pretty much hit the nail on the head. Obviously no website UI can ever cover absolutely all cases and some queries will need to reach a human, bu

I think you've pretty much hit the nail on the head. Obviously no website UI can ever cover absolutely all cases and some queries will need to reach a human, but most companies don't even seem to try. Even if there's a form for other queries it's usually one big text box rather than the more specific questions staff would ask you on the phone. The worst part are the responses combined from canned text blocks, which tend to make no sense at all and don't solve any problems. Or even better, online queries being ignored altogether, or receiving an automated "please call" reply. One exception to this (in my experience) is amazon. Their help section is pretty comprehensive, each shipment has associated actions you can take which are context (status) dependent and if you do have a specific request it's ridiculously impersonal but very efficient.