Telemarketing (outgoing calls) is dying thanks to a combination of blocking technology, caller ID, privacy measures (unlisted phones, etc.), mobile phone use, and of course the fed-up public who forced their Lobbyist ATM Withdrawal Specialists - er, Congressmen - to do something about it.
Unfortunately, this has failed to convince the marketing weenies and they now view all incoming calls (support, service) as sales opportunities - even when the customer wants to terminate due to horrible service, substandard/defective products, high prices, etc. This "Verify" stuff has become pervasive....they have all your information on a screen in front of them but want to ask 10x about address, e-mail, etc. etc. It's supposed to build rapport but I refuse to play the game if and when I have to phone any company. I tell them you have what you need - let's move onto the action steps.
Testify! I recently went through some problems when my ISP started reconfiguring to offer VoIP. They knocked out my internet service for almost 2 weeks. I had repairmen out to the house every day, made multiple phone calls to customer service every day. Every call to customer service I had to repeat my phone number, account number, and home address at least 3 times before I heard the phrase, "Let's see what we can do about getting your internet service restored, then we can take a look at your account and see if we can offer you any additional services."
I kept telling them the only service I was interested in was internet service, and they were doing a lousy job with that, so I sure wasn't interested in even listening to the sales pitch for cable tv or VoIP.
LOTS of companies now have a circular protocol which REQUIRES one, at some point, to call in person to some sort of 1-800 number. I'm convinced this is only a sort of job security thing for the telemarketing types.