Every time I have ever used live chat it has been horribly slow, obviously outsourced, textbook/flow-chart driven, and almost entirely worthless. I have spent hours upon hours dealing with people who can not communicate clearly from Hostgator to Comcast and had almost every experience end in failure.

Similar to the author, when I have called a US-based customer service number and spoken to a representative, my problems are either resolved almost immediately or I receive a very clear explanation of what the issue is (usually at this point it becomes apparent that I've misinterpreted something).

Another option that can sometimes work well is tweeting the customer service or brand account. I kind of hate that customer service is being pushed to 140 characters or less but I think the perception of what it means to be "good" at social media results in companies over-delivering or at least being very mindful of customer needs. This has been my experience with Comcast.

my live chat example from Comcast: https://gist.github.com/jfsiii/4450046#comment-712192