Hello! Help! Can you hear me?

Had occasion to ring social services the other day.  Not something we have occasion to do often - they seem to have enough on their plate without casual inquirers interrupting their endless case-conferences.
But on this occasion when we did call, answer came there none.  Another department - the result was the same. Had some virus infected their telephone exchange? What if we had a weeping child in danger?  Where would we go?  To whom should we turn?
Not apparently that day to what some people I know irreverently call the SS, clearly.
Can there be anything worse than frustration?
You have a need which urgently wants fulfilling. You have taken all reasonable steps to be self-sufficient, sort it yourself, but the task for some reason is beyond you. Your last desperate recourse is to the public service that brings reassurance, expertise and closure to your problem.
Ring, ring - there's no answer.
These difficult days provoke all kinds of unworthy speculation.  Have they all already been victims of the cuts?
Are they all on strike?
Perish the thought!
But what price customer service? Nobody's recording your call for training purposes; nobody's getting back to you. You've hit a big, unbreachable telephonic wall.
Public sector or private, unless the organisation you need to talk to is prepared to talk to you - in office hours, I grant you - there's no point in its existence.
Customer service - as our Focus for Change (www.focus4change.co.uk) courses insist with an emphasis on service -  not only greases the wheels of communication but make both life and work worthwhile.