Just to add to the air of technophobia, here's a tale.

A week ago I got an email from Barclays saying that my credit card had been frozen and a penalty charged, since I hadn't made any payment in the last month. But I'd transferred the money from my NatWest account and I had a machine receipt to prove it! So I went round to NatWest and asked where my money had gone. The answer was nowhere. Their computer had been having trouble handling paying-in slips inserted into the machines: people's money was being taken from their accounts but not paid over to their creditors.

I then spent nearly an hour at NatWest while they paid off my card, refunded the amount they'd taken out of my account, refunded the interest and penalty charge I'd incurred, and sent an email to Barclays telling them to restore my credit rating.

The next day I telephoned Barclays to make sure that my card was unblocked. The robot asked me to type in my account number. It was sorry, but it didn't recognise it. Perhaps I could enter my date of birth? It couldn't find that, either. Would I say my post-code? "Did you say —?" it asked, repeating something completely different. At that point, I gave up and went out in search of a Barclays branch. I told the assistant that I was having trouble with my credit card. Did I have a current account with them? No? Well, she was sorry but Barclay's branches only handle current account customers, not credit card customers. Had I tried the telephone?

Grrr!

Next week, my service charge is due. I'll be sending the agents a cheque…

Telephone robots are another bugbear of mine. They invariably want to sell you something. If you are not ringing up to buy anything, they just lead you round and round the mulberry tree while you slowly go mad. I once got into such a hysterical state with one of these robots (I think it was BT) that I started to scream "I want to talk to a human being! I want to talk to a human being!" over and over until finally a nice lady came on the phone and helped me out. She told me that the magic word to control a robot is "complaint". Say "I want to make a complaint" and they'll put you straight through.

I find that the word "representative" often cuts through the robot response systems as well. Or dialing 0 if it wants a number for responses instead of voice.

About kettles. It looks like $15-$20 US is about what they cost (if one stays away from high-end brands), although I'd definitely just go to Amazon for one. It'd be here tomorrow

Finally found one in a little Indian shop. I'm sure I looked in the same place earlier and couldn't see one. It's much cheaper than the Argos one too, just under £10.

That doesn't invalidate most of the rants in this thread though!