I didn't have a nice day...

Calling various companies to tell them of our change of address was never going to be a fun experience, but dealing with Telewest's notoriously bad service certainly makes it all the more painful.

Interestingly, of all the companies I phoned (Telewest, Powergen, Wessex Water etc.), the most friendly, efficient, customer focussed and generally switched on, was the Bristol City Council taxation department.

We keep hearing about how super-efficient businesses should be allowed to sweep away fusty old civil servants and usher in a new age of customer satisfaction, yet I wonder if this could just be a Thatcherite wet dream predicated on the fetish for profit, rather than the desire to give good customer service. To stretch the analogy somewhat, privatising free-marketeers are probably rather poor lovers, known for selfishness and brevity. Council employees, on the other hand, are the Kama Sutra personified: attentive, sensitive and effective.

The Telewest call centre is therefore like a Great Windmill Street clip joint: Offers something you wouldn't admit to wanting, fails to deliver even that, and leaves you feeling cheap and used after the event...