I recently called a public utility company to provide my daughter's change of address details. I asked to be put through to the person who had written a recent letter to my daughter, but instead found myself speaking to the firm's telephone call centre.

The advisor I spoke to would not let me speak to anyone except her and refused to give me any assistance in changing my daughter's details, citing the Data Protection Act.

After a increasingly heated argument, in which my husband also participated, she eventually won. It cost me £2.38 in airmail postage and a great deal of bad feeling to correct their mistake. Should I require help in the future, I shall not ask them for it!

-Mrs P. Bolingbroke, Larkhill, Hove