After months of procrastination, I decided to get a professional head shot for my business. My first call was to Sears, and it turned out to be a textbook example of inept customer service.

I called the phone number from the Yellow Pages and was greeted by a sterile-voiced automated attendant. I had two options–”1″ to schedule an appointment, “2″ for anything else. At least that’s what I think, because while the instructions were playing, the line was ringing loudly.

Before I had a chance to respond, a woman at Sears answered the ring. The first thing out of her mouth–”What’s your phone number?”

This bothered me. Is that any way to start a conversation with a customer? By demanding personal information? Why does she need my phone number anyway? I reluctantly gave her my number and asked about scheduling an appointment for a photograph.

“Sir, you have to call another number for that.”

Splendid. Now I feel confused, violated and frustrated.

At least it was a toll-free call. A woman answers promptly and starts giving me a scripted explanation of how to schedule an appointment. “Whoa,” I say. “Before I schedule an appointment, I’d like to know how much it costs.”

“Sir, you have to call another number for that. What is your zip code?”

Time to bail. Three phone calls and two pieces of personal information was more than I wanted to invest. I said thanks but no thanks and proceeded to look elsewhere.

Bureaucratic. Intrusive. Aggravating. Impersonal. That’s the way my customer service experience made me feel about Sears. Besides that, I wonder if they make it difficult to find out the pricing on purpose. Whenever companies erect road blocks between me and pricing information, I get suspicious. But let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and say that Sears just has an ineffective process in place.

You already know that Sears is not alone. How often do you run into the same type of thing? I wonder if customer service managers ever take the trouble to test their phone support by using it themselves. Don’t you think that would eliminate the problem?