Never call them. You get a 'No!' or you set off a series of events ending in an official 'NO!!'
It depends on what the intent of your call was about to begin with, which department or individual you speak to, and the tack you take when you speak with them.
Agreed, that
CERTAIN issues you shouldn't even call or talk to them about, as it only raises alarm bells unnecessarily, when you should have instead first thought to yourself "what possible good could come out of asking them this?" Unfortunately this prior thought process doesn't occur to enough people.
However, it is not impossible to have a productive discussion with them on other, less volatile issues, and sometimes
IS worth the call. You have to educate yourself first about the subject of what you're asking them about and consider the implications of speaking with them about it. Sadly, you have to take that into account, because it will likely go on record. Again it depends on what the purpose of your call would be. If you're simply looking for basic technical advice on something, and you KNOW you're in the right, and it doesn't involve a hot political topic, you should have nothing to worry about.
That's a case where you CAN and should have success talking to them.
I won't go into details, and nothing related to this thread's topic, but quite a while ago I had researched the regs about an item of mine, and wanted their second opinion of my interpretation of how it was classified. The fellow I spoke with agreed with my take on it, backed me up 100% and told me I was correct, which gave me ammo, so to speak, in successfully dealing with another department.
Granted my issue was a much more benign one, and simpler to see the logic of what was right, but I'm just suggesting not to paint in too broad brushstrokes impressions of them that will limit your ability to get anywhere with them. I can't speak for everyone employed there, but some of them there are quite approachable and level-headed, AND at least to me were quite helpful. I know, hard to believe, eh?
Just sayin'. There are
some good people that work there. Maybe it was just my lucky week. ;-)