On reflection, I think it was the condescending tone rather than the general incompetence which did for me.

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I'm pretty well resigned these days to the fact that officialdom screws up everything it touches.

I take it for granted that bureaucrats no longer answer the phone, that's if you can even find a phone number in the first place. We all know 'send us an email' is a euphemism for kicking a problem into the long grass. And that asking the name of the person who is fobbing you off is now, if not a full-blown hate crime, then certainly an invasion of their privacy which is detrimental to their mental health.

So when somebody came round to install 'smart meters' in my home, I was half expecting something would go wrong.

But it was the patronising language that turned my blood into steam.

To rewind a little bit, back in May I received a text message asking me when it would be convenient for........

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