One was from Gavin Hackwood, a 36-year-old father of two from Newport, South Wales.

Last month, Mr Hackwood went on to the Sky website and began an online chat with an operator in the hope of cancelling his television package after finding a cheaper deal from Virgin, which would save him £23 a month.

He had read on the Sky website that it was possible to cancel his services by “live chat”, and so began the conversation by giving his 31-day notice of cancellation.

But much to his surprise, the operator, named “Rachael”, wouldn’t allow him to cancel until she had gone through “the process” with him. Despite frequent requests to cancel, the operator wouldn’t accept his notice until they had spoken at length. In total, the conversation ran on for one hour and 36 minutes, with the transcript running to about 3,800 words (for comparison, this story is about 950 words).

At one point Mr Hackwood wrote: “I have been on this chat session for an hour and we are no further forward. I have made you aware I wish to cancel which is all I am obliged to do under the terms and conditions of the contract with Sky… please cancel the account and stop wasting my time.” To which the operator replied: “I am not doing this to annoy you. I made it very clear that I would need to go through this before I could make any changes to your account.”