Crap Britain - Cheque Woes

I wanted to pay off a credit card today using money in a current account of another bank. I brought what I thought was my cheque book but it turns out it only had paying in slips left in it. Bit of a pain but I went to Santander and asked if I could pay off the balance using my debit card, "No", I then said I didn't have my cheque book, could I write one on a piece of paper instead? "No", he didn't understand and then said "No chance" he had never even heard of this happening (although a quick scan of the internet shows that other people do!). He suggested getting a cheque from HSBC. I went to HSBC, "can you give me a cashier cheque?", "No but we can give you a bankers draft which is like a cheque and which costs £20", "£20 for a cheque? No thanks", "You could always pay online", "I could always walk in front of a train, not really helpful though, I want to pay it today so I can close it today while I'm in town", "Sorry".
What a load of toss. You can have £1500 in a current account and all the ID and info you could possibly needs and again the computer says "No". Everything takes time or hassle or for things that actually work like a bank wire, you have to pay some ridiculous fee. I fear that unlike some other countries, we still haven't understood that if a computer doesn't make something easier, you should go back to pen and paper!

Crap Britain Again

I tried to call a restaurant yesterday and the phone range and then sounded like it was answered but I couldn't hear the other person. After trying over a couple of hours, I called the operator on 100 and got someone in India. She told me it was a business line and she would transfer me to business customer services, which she did. Business Customer Services then told me it wasn't a BT line and although she didn't know who was the owner of the line on her screen, she then said even if the info was there, she wouldn't be able to tell me due to Data Protection.
In the end I had to go to the restaurant early to book a table and their phone was actually broken but why is it that our computers and technology have moved on 1000 years in 30 years but our ability to actually solve problems has reduced? Shame on everyone!