I see that as a failure of process. Your tools should already be constructed in ...

rhizome on Aug 15, 2012 | parent | context | favorite | on: 1and1 ask for passwords over the phone

I see that as a failure of process. Your tools should already be constructed in a way that using them is easier and more reliable than asking for a password. Coupled with auth logging on the server side to diagnose failures on their side, there really should be no reason to ask for a password for this stuff.