Direct TV "Assistance Fee"

In this world of automation for the sake of cost savings, the irony did not escape me when last I called Direct TV to order a PPV movie. The automated system found my movie and as it proceeded to check out, it informed me of an "Assistance Fee". Are automated systems now collecting wages and health insurance? Is there a union of automated assistants? Isn't the purpose of automated systems to reduce fees and overhead? I hung up the phone and ordered the movie through the TV remote. Thankfully, that automated system didn't have a markup. Maybe it wasn't part of the union yet.