The immaculate and so much less stressful solution would be to have a faithful assistant to whom you could explain your problem and who would immediately come back with the information you needed. They largely proved immaculate in conception, but not in practice. The tariffs, rebates, over-riders and local taxes are so complex that the bewildered service representative couldn't answer. We then took an Amtrak train from New York to Boston. The assistant conductor was plainly unfamiliar with the intermediate stations and their facilities.
Staff turnover means that customers are always facing new and untrained staff.
Next, we discovered that our UK credit card had been stopped. Eventually this was found to be as a result of human error by the card issuer, but in the meantime we spent frustrating blocks of time listening to poor quality music recordings and talking to service reps unable to answer our questions. Around the world Ritz Carlton Hotels are a fount of knowledge for all their guests. Compare these examples to the information service provided by Mr Gregory, a local butcher. And even if you don't quite know exactly what you do want, he will advise on quantity, cooking times, storage, whatever.