Whenever one of those automated voices tells you they will connect you automatically for another 50 to 75 cents, don't take it. It's a sucker bet. The odds are rigged about 5 to 1 that you will get connected with a wrong number and have to start all over again. I tried to call my own telephone company to ask about the situation, using the numbers provided in their phone book. He and I didn't like each other, but he did actually provide some answers.
Phone companies know things are in a mess.
The advent of more area codes to accommodate frantically faxing and cell-phone toting yuppies has forced changes since the days when operators were local folks who knew the geography and sometimes the people involved in your call. They were half right. Local companies began outsourcing some or all of their directory services, or keeping some local service with overflow calls going to faraway operators. The operator to whom you are speaking might be in Nebraska or Leesburg and, as the large directory assistance services try to keep up with demand and keep down their costs, might not be terribly bright, polite or well trained. The national data base used has around 127-million listings and is supposed to be updated daily, meaning somebody else, not necessarily very bright or well trained, is being paid to input that information.