Call centre trauma...

It came to my attention recently that if you were to ring a company to purchase a policy or enter a contract with them, there is no queue, no annoying hold music, no lady telling you that " your call is important to us". You are put through to an adviser straight away, the policy/contract is purchased, money exchanges bank accounts and you go on your merry way quickly and efficiently. However, should a problem arise and , god forbid, you have to contact the company in regards to your policy/contract, problems quickly arise. Suddenly, the only number you can ring is the premium rate one which took you well over a hour to find. At once you are navigated through a labyrinth of numbers. Press one for this, two for that. Eventually though you are placed in a queue and yes you are told that " your call is important to us" of course it is, I'm paying 60p per minute whilst I wait for the solo member of call centre staff to finish their fag break and pick up the phone! Eventually the phone is answered and you are greeted with the familiar foreign accent, they say hello and inform you that their name is Brad, it clearly isn't.
So far that's seventeen minutes, multiply this by 60p and you are already £10.20 out of pocket. It's ok though, you are through now and are hopeful you will be dealt with quickly. But wait. you must first answer some security questions, what is your mother's maiden name? What colour was your first car?? and of course what was the name of your first pet??? It seems to me that this knowledge is now more valuable than debit card numbers and bank account information. If you know these 3 pieces of seemlessly useless information about anybody you could access almost all of their life.
A recent problem I endured with my car insurance company was trying to change my address. To my amazement I could do this online, so I did. I entered my login details, answered my security questions, clicked on account settings and manually entered my address, myself. Once this was complete, I was told this incurs a £25 admin fee... Hold on, I changed the details myself, surely this means I did the admin. So how come I'm paying somebody for something they didn't do? I quickly phoned the company to complain about this but this was slowed down with the queueing system. When I finally got through I spoke to Brad. He told me, in his best English, that whether you are to change details on the phone or the Internet, it is the same procedure so both incur a £25 admin fee. I thought about changing it back and allowing the company to do it for me over the phone, so I at least felt like I was getting something for my money but Brad informed me that this would cost £75 as three changes equals three admin charges. I dismissed the idea along with any other ideas of retrieving my £25 and the extra £6 that this call had cost me.
I guess this goes to show that no matter how hard you try, how clever you think you are, you can not get over the fact that, these companies offer a service that you are legally obliged to have. Yes there is plenty of choice out there but once you own their policy, they own you and they know they are the cheapest out there because that is why you signed with them in the first place, so your not going anywhere.