Thank goodness for real people

I love paying my bills online. No hunting for the cheque book, no finding envelopes and worrying about postal strikes. No trekking to the post office when the wind in blowing up a gale and the rain lashes down. Just sit at the computer and type in a few numbers - simple. So when I changed my ISP to BT I thought I would carry on with this process. After all it saves you money as well.

So when I received my first broadband bill from BT I got on the computer and paid it. Now it was only a few clicks to setting up a DD. Or so I thought. I already have a BT account to pay my phone bill, so what could be easier than linking the 2 accounts? An hour later I am still going round in circles as it would not accept my new account number. Picking up the phone I get an automated responce. Choose my options and put in my account number - not once, but 3 times. It is still not recognising my number. By now I am pretty fed up and hang up. I hunt through my bill for a customer services number. Dial the number and a voice answers - "Are you a real person", I ask. Whooppeeeeee he is. So explain my problem. No problem he replies, I can set that up for you now. Five minutes later it is done. Now why has it taken so long when it is that simple?

I still like paying bills online, and do all my banking the same way. I just wish that some of the sites were a bit more flexible and allowed you to do what you wanted, rather than stick to their rather limited options. Thank goodness their are still some real people manning the phones as well as infuriating automated lines. Long may they continue.