I called Automat today to make a reservation for later in the week. Bizarrely I was connected to an automated service wherein I had to navigate a medley of options (press 1 for this; press 2 for that, etc) until, eventually, I was passed to the reservations department. At this point someone answered the phone with “Automat, please hold”. That was it. Not “Hello, Automat, would you mind holding for me?” which would have given me the option to say “No, thanks, I will call back when you're less busy”; I was just unceremoniously placed on hold for four minutes, at which point I got bored and hung up.

I called back some time later and had the very same experience.Clearly the reservation team are too busy to talk to the customers who call in to make a booking. That's fine, but don't place them on hold for an indeterminate amount of time, particularly without even bothering to speak to them properly first or enquire as to whether they are happy to hold.

The arrogance and temerity of the staff in the reservations team means that I definitely won't be making a booking with this restaurant. Automated telephone services are a necessary evil when you call a huge organisation like BT, but I don't expect to have to navigate several rounds of questions before I am even allowed to speak to someone when I am calling a restaurant.