It depends very much on who you spoke to me. I spoke to a lovely man once called Robert, called him in complete hysterics at 3am and he just spoke to me until I was calm and had stopped crying. Didn't tell me to do anything, just asked what my name was and what was happening at that minute. No advice but by asking me simple things: "What time is it? What's the weather like? Oh we've had rain" etc, it calmed me down enough that I was able to go to sleep..
The email service, I hated - I tried it a few times when I had not long began uni, you could tell that the person emailing was changing by how they spoke.
Childline on the other hand in my first week of uni, I couldn't thank enough - I ended up speaking to someone on the 1/2/1 messenger service (I was only 2 months over 18) and they were lovely.
My mum phoned them in 1991, not long after I was born. She couldn't get me to stop screaming (I had an at the time undiagnosed illness and was always crying). She took me in the pram to the neighbours and asked her for help, to take me for five mins or something, the neighbour refused. She went home and phoned Samaritans, explained the situation. Her NEIGHBOUR then replied, stammering, that the Samaritans weren't there for that and perhaps she ought to contact the health visitor. My mum, realising it was the neighbour, hung up in a panic! Mad - and probably why it's all based in call centres/offices now.