IVR

From AOL Wiki

The Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is an automated system of guiding callers to their destination. Most legacy IVRs are touch-tone based, requiring you to press a number to be transferred to a specific department.

Modern IVRs, although a nuisance to consumers; attempt voice-recognition to assist and transfer people without pressing buttons. Not a lot of people enunciate clearly enough for IVRs to be effective, which causes more customer frustration.

AOL deploys a modern IVR which rejects user-overrides like pressing "0" to reach an agent. AOL customers must acquiesce to the IVR in order to reach an agent.

Most of the AOL Customer Service Phone Numbers route into the same IVR.