It’s time for another edition of the Speech Tech blog’s regular feature, “Crushes & Hexes.” Appearing every Wednesday, we highlight companies, places, technologies, or people we deem praise-worthy, or cringe-inducing within the speech/tech/IT world. As always, your feedback is appreciated! Email us at blog@speechtechblog.com if you have a crush or hex item you’d like to see online.

Crush: MTA’s Long Island Railroad
Why We’re Loving It: I had to call the LIRR help number today to figure out how to pick up a roundtrip ticket I bought online. First, the IVR only gives you about four options, all of which are very simple (schedules, fares, tickets, etc), and makes it super-easy to transfer to an operator. I only had to wait a few minutes to talk to someone, and they immediately answered my question. No pranks today, unfortunately. I’m not letting the LIRR off the hook without a big diss, though. They’re losing MAJOR points for making their contact information insanely difficult for their customers to find (I had to Google “lirr + phone + customer service” to find the page). I’m willing to look over this fact, however, if it means I get the answer to my question in just one-and-a-half minutes. Grade: B-

Hex: Zipcar
Why We’re Hating It: In a few days, I’m moving five blocks away from my current pad, and bought a Zipcar membership to help me transfer the goods. All I wanted to do was figure out why I couldn’t reserve a car on the Web site - that’s it! First, I called their NYC office’s number. Immediately, I was told that if I was a member, I had to call a different number. Then, I called the 800-number, only to be bombarded with one of the lamest personas ever. Let’s just say that “press” sounded like “prezzzzzzzzzz.” There were only three options in the first menu, none of which related at all to what I was trying to do. I touched “3″ to “learn more about Zipcar,” but instead got bombarded with a super-long message about how to make sure my credit card payments wouldn’t be rejected. I finally heard a “press zero for an operator” and clicked away. While the operator was helpful, Zipcar MUST do something about their phone service - I had to turn my volume up full-blast to hear half of what the operator said. Grade: D