Conference calls can be a pain. Nothing replaces face to face conversations however cost can be prohibitive sometimes.

Does this sound familiar?

or
http://conferencecall.biz/

And if it does, then take a bit to look at this site and identify if you are a freelancer, consultant or simiar: http://clientsfromhell.net/

And of course fun for geeks: http://thedailywtf.com/

A couple of years ago I wrote what I thought about meetings. Today I will add another thought

If you have a 30 meeting where there are 10 people sitting down with you, this is not actually a 30 minute meeting. It is instead a 30 min * 10 people = 5 hours loss of potentially very productive time.

Moral of the story: keep meetings short and only invite those who really need to be there.