Willing Billing

I recently received a bill in the mail and had some questions about it.  So I called the number they gave me and after hitting all the buttons necessary to speak to a person, was informed by a computer voice that there were 40 people in front of me and it would take about half an hour to speak to someone.

I did a quick calculus. Is it worth it?  Should I just give up?  Should I call later?  I hung up and immediately regretted it. I called again, and this time someone picked up and was happy to answer my questions.

Is this any way to run a billing department?

PS  I received another bill in the mail to renew a subscription.  The cost was twice as much as last year.  They've pulled this on me before, so I called and threatened to cancel, and they gave me the old price. The whole process is pretty tiresome.

I always pay these people with a check, because I think if I gave them a credit card number, they'd just renew at the higher rate and figure I wouldn't notice.