I dislike this new trend

So, I've been moving lately. One of the joys of moving involves calling a bunch of companies to have things connected or disconnected at various residences. I've gotten pretty good at it, particularly as I'm renting a house this time and so have a lot more things I'm responsible for ordering.

However, I've been having the weird problems with phone companies. Every time I call a phone company, I end up sucked into a long and unrelated conversation with the person who is supposed to be doing something to my phone lines. This has happened with both Qwest and Verizon now (who are in some kind of Stupidest Name Vaguely Based On A Word Contest, but that's unrelated). I understand about them asking about television, internet, diaper-delivery services, singing telegrams, or something else they might want to try to sell me, but these are more the kinds of conversations one has with strangers at parties. Today, for example, he spent a good ten minutes telling me about his children and Washington State testing after he found out I was a teacher. This couldn't possibly be related to selling me some kind of service, since Verizon does not (as far as I know) sell instructional materials suitable for use by a middle or high school math teacher.

I dislike this new trend. Phone calls are already not my favorite things (yet I sprung for the I'm-a-sucker-and-want-unlimited-long-distance plan again, because I am dumb and really like predictable billing amounts) and this does not help.

Does this happen to other people, or do I just have a really lonely voice?