"Phoning for advice"

It has been a challenging and frustrating experience interacting with the practice for some years, but in the last 3-4 it's been painfully farcical. I try not to use the service unless I really need something as it's just so difficult to work with. By way of one  example, when I recently needed some advice on a matter. I've tried now for 4 days to get an appointment, phoned 20+ times and still nothing. I find the booking service appalling and not fit for purpose. I feel that patients are forced to a race to phone in at 8am on the day and hope there is an appointment, but in 4 days I've never even got in a queue. I've either been told that the queue is already full or just getting a busy tone. They don't have an online booking service; if I phone reception during the day and actually manage to get through they tell me to try again at 8am the next day. I don't see this as a workable service and might force people to try 111 or even A&E instead.