No, they're not professionals.
Yes, they still bill your phone calls.

I once called and lasted for 45min if I'm not mistaken, was couple years ago when i recently resigned my job in SGP and came back Msia was pretty depressed... nice guy was kind enough to talk with me about anything at all.

His name was John, i think probably a fake name but John if you're reading this I hope all's well on your end.