I have not come across a voice recognition system that's worth more than crap.

Couple of quick tips from my trials with those:
-you can use the keypad for selection, just count the number of options they list. First option is key 1, 2nd option is key 2, etc.
-the most useful to remember is that on most of these systems pressing 0 will get you connected to an operator.

Good luck, these things sure are annoying.