AFTER experiencing various problems with my gas and electricity supplier, I received several calls from them about how happy I was with their service.

But the calls came not from human beings but automated, robotic voices, which proceeded to ask me a series of questions, to which I was to allocate scores.

Had I been able to speak to an actual person I would have been able to tell them how, after several lengthy calls over a period of almost a month, and leaving several messages - some which saw me on bended knees, clutching the phone to my ear - I still had not received an up-to-date gas and electricity bill.

I would have told them how, on one call, I baked a Victoria sponge cake while on hold waiting to get through. And how, on another, I was so exasperated I feverishly tore a large, ultra-strong cardboard box into tiny fragments, while I waited.

I would have been able to ask that real, live human why their service is so shocking and maybe even ask them to listen, take down my meter readings and send me a bill so that I could once more smile again and move on with my life.

That’s one thing about robots - whether over the phone or so-called internet ‘chatbots’ - they are not good listeners. I dare say some would argue that that isn’t true, after all you only have to ask Alexa to play a bit of rock and roll and the next thing you’re listening to Elvis.

But if you really want to chat, properly chat, about a problem, and get down to the nitty gritty about why you are stressed and why you didn’t sleep very well worrying and why you think your power will be cut off because you haven’t paid, a robot just won’t cut the mustard. You won’t get a sympathetic ear from a piece of machinery.

I fancy a move to Spain. Under a proposed law - believed to be the first in the world - people in Spain will have a legal right to speak to a human rather than a robot on customer service calls.

Also under the plans, approved by the government, companies who keep customers waiting too long in queues will be fined.

Isobel Rodriguez, the Spanish cabinet spokesman, said that everyone would be familiar with ‘the desperation of not being attended to in a reasonable space of time and by a real person.’

The customer attention bill will apply to companies with more than 250 employees or £42million annual turnover. It will automatically apply to providers of water, energy, transport, delivery, telecommunications and financial products.

Doesn’t that sound amazing? It would be a vote winner over here. Were Boris Johnson to stick that on his manifesto it might go some way to smoothing over the wrath of the electorate following months of Tory sleaze and public mistrust.

In the Spanish law, customer complaints must be resolved within a month. I haven’t even had an acknowledgement of an email I sent to my power provider, and, based on my experience of the company, I don’t expect one.

I am far from alone in experiencing customer dissatisfaction. A survey in September found that more than a third of people in the UK felt that their experience with customer service grew worse over the previous 12 months.

The Customer Service Index 2021 survey produced by call centre software firm Five9, found nearly half of UK respondents were very unlikely to do business again with a firm after poor customer experience.

Robots and other automated services add to poor customer experience. Yet, sadly, we seem to be heading for a world where speaking to a real person is a rarity.

And when you do get to speak to someone, and they actually help you, it’s a revelation. We recently needed a part for our shower after the door fell off. I rang the firm, based in County Durham. A real person spoke to me. She asked me to email pictures. She said: “I know exactly what you need,” and sent it in the post. She was a pleasure to deal with. I came off the phone a smiling, satisfied customer.