Another day, another survey; sometimes Sneak thinks his life is nothing more than a minor percentage point in a pointless piece of research. This time though those clever people at Vicorp, which creates speech self-service technology, have found that although people are willing to use automated systems for some services, you can't beat a bit of human interaction on the phone.

Apparently joyous moments such as losing internet access or the TV signal are most likely to have customers hangin' on the phone for a call centre operator. Sneak wonders why we bother at all, as the end result of waiting 25 minutes is usually either a) to be cut off without warning b) put through to the wrong department and put on hold again, or c) speaking to an operator you need a Phd in regional dialects of the UK to understand.