Funny isn’t it? Virtually every time I dial any telephone number beginning with 0800 or 0845 be it an insurance, utility or whatever company I seem to get the same response no matter what time of day I make the call.

“We are experiencing a much higher volume of calls than usual at this time ……..“. I am then informed that if I want to speak to somebody I will either have to wait and wait (whilst being entertained by some crappy 70s pop song by Boney M that sounds even worse 40 years later!) or alternatively I can ring back and repeat the process. Maybe I should try ringing out of normal working hours but if I do that the chances are – “Sorry, these offices are closed between the hours of 9am and 5pm. Please call back then”! Infuriating isn’t it?

Recently I sent an email enquiry to British Gas and received the response  –  “Due to unforeseen demand we are unable to respond at this time………….” But why?

Why is the demand unforeseen or the volume unusually high? In a country of 60 million people what do they expect? Such nonsense, why don’t the idiots just employ more staff to man the phones and computers. It can’t be that difficult to work out can it?

The people who run these organisations don’t have to have the gift of foresight or the ability to anticipate the unusual. All they require is bit of common sense and therein, I think, lies the problem.