Rudi Thank you for taking the time to reply.
I think CS need to at least add a sentence to their automated reply that reads something along the lines of - bear with us, we have a backlog but we will get back to you. The customer expectation at the moment is that a reply should be received within 48 hours (as per the website). People get infuriated when that timescale drifts by serveral days .
I also think people that are calling to raise queries are getting a very different service to those that are using email, hence the differing views on CS.
It may be too late for me but I hope things improve.