Wal-Mart to customers: Don't call us

One of the downsides to company Web sites is that businesses frequently use technology to keep customers at arms' length -- or maybe the companies simply want to distance themselves from paying human beings to answer consumer questions.

Starting next week, folks who shop online at Walmart.com will be hard pressed to find a live person to help them. As part of its new "Customer Contact Reduction" program, the world's largest retailer will take down the toll-free customer service support number on its Web site, according to an article in the New York Times. Instead, shoppers will just have to navigate the self-help features on the Web site and figure things out themselves.

Wal-Mart says it's making the move because it has just updated its Web site. Besides, oodles of calls were from people who were simply tracking orders, which the web can do just as well -- and a darn bit cheaper -- than employees at call centers.