DEAR SIR: One recent morning, I sat down at my computer to register the birth of a calf online. In hindsight, perhaps I could have waited until I had my wits about me before attempting the registration.

Anyway, when I had the procedure completed, I received a computer-generated message that the calf’s dam had given birth to a calf inside the previous 270 days. I was then given the option of either emailing or printing a registration error form – I printed it off.

It took me a while to figure out what was wrong with the online registration I had just submitted. Then it dawned on me – I had unwittingly entered the dam’s mother’s (calf’s grandmother) tag number. I telephoned the National Calf Birth Registration Service in Clonakilty (the telephone number on top of the form) to find out if there was any way I could correct the error online. The irate guy that answered the phone must have got out the wrong side of the bed, then got back into the bed again, before getting out the wrong side a second time. He spoke to me in an agitated, impatient tone of voice. He was rude, condescending and downright narky. At one stage he accused me of not listening to what he was saying and admonished me for being unsure of what I needed to do to correct the error.

“Please understand that while you are used to all these procedures this is my first time,” I replied. It didn’t make one bit of difference; his attitude didn’t change.

I needed information; not a telephone rage incident – so, angry as I was, I refused to allow him to drag me down to his level. At the end of the call, I decided to be magnanimous and said: “Thank you very much for all your help.” He responded with an intolerant, aggressively impatient: “Ah yeah, yeah, yeah.” Then he hung up.

I sat for a moment thinking about the conversation – it had been surreal, like something out of Fawlty Towers. I couldn’t (and still can’t) get my head around where the particular guy has got the notion that it is OK to treat a citizen seeking his advice with such unbridled contempt. Do they record the calls in and out of the National Calf Birth Registration Office? If they don’t, they should start doing so.

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