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Customer Service in the Age of the Web

Video game producer Ellen Hobbs had a problem with an amazon.com order, but could not find a customer-service phone number on the Web site. So she combed the Internet for a number and posted it on her own site. In December alone, more than 23,000 people visited her site to find the telephone number. Hobbs tells NPR's Scott Simon that sometimes customers with problems simply want to talk to a human being.

Copyright 2005 NPR

Scott Simon is one of America's most admired writers and broadcasters. He is the host of Weekend Edition Saturday and is one of the hosts of NPR's morning news podcast Up First. He has reported from all fifty states, five continents, and ten wars, from El Salvador to Sarajevo to Afghanistan and Iraq. His books have chronicled character and characters, in war and peace, sports and art, tragedy and comedy.