I'M SURE I am not alone in my frustration on the subject of trying to get some decent service when phoning companies or services.

It is almost impossible to get straight through to a 'real person' to talk to instead of a recorded message and a list of 'options' to choose from.

Even at 9am in the morning the recorded message comes on the phone and tells you 'all our agents are busy at present, please hold, you are in a queue.'

They keep you on the line to either push up phone charges or to hope you go away or go online.

Last year I had to phone the police headquarters at Winfrith and was left waiting on the phone after selecting the 'options' for an hour and heard the message 'all our agents are busy' 47 times. I counted each and every one and eventually gave up. I wrote to the commissioner to complain.No wonder nothing gets reported to the police with this attitude.

These services and businesses don't seem to want to talk to anyone anymore. They just try to make things as difficult as possible it seems, so that everything is dealt with online. Well, I have news for these people. Not everyone is online or wants to be.

Computers and the system they have created have also been responsible for all the fraud and hacking.

People actually used to talk to each other, write letters and use a till that didn't break down or crash.

Oh, happy days.

Mrs P J Stephens

New Orchard, Poole