Companies do tend to use scripts but the good ones will allow their staff to stray off the script once they are experienced enough to do so as long as it benefits the customer and the company, usually this involves fixing the problem more quickly.

I find most tech support is filled with inexperienced and frustrated staff who just run off a script. They're not paid well. They are Tier One support to filter out most of the incoming calls. Tech support is designed in tiers.

Tech support works with scripts. Just get to know these scripts by heart and answer all questions from the script you can in one long sentence, before they ask it. Like in "Hi I have a problem with this and that...I have restarted the router, I have checked the cables, the red light is on, the green light is off, not other lights are blinking......etc.etc.etc. That way the person at the other end of the line can just go click-click-click and you'll be 10 steps further in their script in 5 seconds.

So, +1 for play ball. Level 1 is supposed to filter out all simple issues (and once upon a time, you'll have forgotten something, happens to all of us), and they are not supposed to be creative. They get a script that has been refined over and over. Learn the scripts, prepare the answers, and you'll get to Level 2 more quickly than with any other method.

Very often the first people you get through to on tech support lines are reading from a script.

They have to ask you the dumb questions, either because their employer demands they do, or sometimes because their computer system doesn't let them get to the next part of the script unless they play ball.