reynardo | Dear NSW E-toll people.

You have an email contact form on your website. It doesn't really have much on it - just asking for my name and the reason for the contact.

So I use the form and put on it my account number and a brief summary of the problem - that the tag itself had stopped beeping some months ago and we had been given incorrect information about its status. I included our home address and my phone number.

The site has an auto-email that tells me that you will reply to my message within 5 days. That's fine - I appreciate you letting me know.

Five days later I get a reply asking for my home address so that they can look into things. I send the information straight back - and get an auto email saying they will reply to my message within 5 days. Oh.

Five days after that I get an email saying I had the account number wrong. Mea culpa - indeed I did. So I email straight back with the correct account number, and for their infomation include both the home and the post office box mailing addresses so that they can check the account.

I get an email back saying that they will reply to my message within 5 days. This is getting rather tedious.

Today I received an email saying that yes, they have located our account, and as I am not the account owner but I am an authorised person, they need my password to continue.

I've sent the password straight back, with a rather terse note saying that it would make more sense if THE BLOODY ONLINE FORM HAD ASKED FOR ALL THESE DETAILS IN THE FIRST PLACE, INCLUDING A CHECKING FIELD FOR THE ACCOUNT NUMBER.

Can you guess what I just got back?

I should be grateful - the last email only took four days. But do you think they could have rung me, or sent me a form with the requirements or SOMETHING???????

Dear Customer,
This is an automatically generated response to advise you that we have received your e-mail.
You will receive a response from one of our specialists within five business days.
Yours sincerely,
The RTA Team

*whimper*