To be fair, most issues that call centers deal with are rather simplistic, and don't really justify employing highly qualified people there. Apart from those not being interested in that job anyway.
Of course I'm mad too when I have to deal with a clueless call center rep, especially when they don't move you up to higher tier support even if they have no idea how to handle the issue. But as long as they do that, I'm fine with the concept.
The problem is that every issue that is escalated costs more money to resolve, so there is pressure from managers to make sure that the number of escalated calls is minimal. The reality is that this is a horrible metric to go by. The issue that a caller wants resolved it what dictates the level of support that they need, and the company really has no control over the volume of calls that require more than tier 1 support (other than building a decent product, I guess).
Of course I'm mad too when I have to deal with a clueless call center rep, especially when they don't move you up to higher tier support even if they have no idea how to handle the issue. But as long as they do that, I'm fine with the concept.