A bit like the Shark Vacuum Thread but life in general.

DH has retired now so I've handed most of this shit these jobs over to him as I spent over 30 years dealing with all the admin.
I did laugh when he tried to sort out a problem with our vacuum cleaner - yes it was a Shark - and they said they wouldn't speak to him as he wasn't the customer who purchased it - that was me! I had to send them an email giving my permission for them to speak to him!
I mean, who the hell buys a vacuum cleaner in joint names? It's a household item of property surely?
In Sharks defence, they did sort the problem out efficiently and under warranty once they had my authorisation for DH to act.

YES! And when you do manage to reset it you get a message telling you it’s too similar to your existing password (ie the same as) which it wouldn’t let you use five minutes ago 😤

You’re not alone. I commute and have a flexible season ticket for eight journeys a month. Sometimes (strikes, faults, illness etc) I get a refund for unused tickets but my God the process is a pain. It won’t work on the app, it won’t work on the tablet - just sends you round in endless circles. Will eventually do it on the website via a laptop once you’ve promised the blood of your firstborn. I know they don’t want to give you money back but does it really have to be this complicated and take half an hour?

I feel this on a spiritual level...😩

OP, is your washing machine JL branded or another brand you just bought through JL?

I bought an AEG one from JL after moving house earlier this year, and within a few months a bra underwire escaped from both the bra and the net bag it was in and completely shredded the rubber seal of the machine. I didn't even try going through JL, just went on to the AEG website, filled out all the stuff about the machine (with serial number) and the problem, booked a repair online, the engineer turned up exactly on time and with the correct parts, fixed it, and it all seems to have been covered under guarantee even though it wasn't exactly their fault.

Excellent service by AEG. Very different from my experience with my new broadband supplier (more than three months, multiple phone calls and three engineer visits before it got properly installed), and Thames Water (nearly eight months in, what seems like hours on the phone, two home visits so far, and no resolution yet to an issue with the water supply and metering to my flat and the one upstairs - I am currently being billed for both my water and the water used by my neighbours, a large family).

Oh, and don't start me on Virgin Media and how totally incompetent and unhelpful they are when you are trying to close an account or move house.

But my experience with the bereavement departments of most utilities and financial services companies has mostly been quite good, with the notable exception of Lloyds Bank (I ended up with £400 compensation and I think the woman responsible for their screw-ups was fired).

But why can I get it from the Radisson app but not the Radisson hotel?? Take my money pleeeeaase!

It's not just you.

This week I wanted to change a hotel room booking to get a bigger room so an extra person could travel with me. I can see a bigger room is available on the hotel company's own app but I've booked a "no refunds" room so I email the hotel to say is there any chance I could change my booking and pay extra to arrange a bigger room. Hotel replies that normally yes I could do that for £x a night but there are sadly no rooms available. I reply oh but I can see this room available on the app can I just have that? They reply no sorry because they cannot access it "on the system" so there is nothing they can do. I said could you... Cancel my existing booking so I can rebook it on the app? No, sorry, no it is impossible.

Every week brings some new customer service insanity.

Oh dear. Shit surgery. Not something I have encountered in 6x years on hrt thank goodness!

Until the HRT is removed from the app because you need an HRT review with the nurse and no one tells you. You have the HRT review and they don’t add the prescription back to the app. You get hold of the surgery in desperation and they add it back but change your preferred pharmacy to the crap one with a queue out the door and no stock of anything. The pharmacy don’t tell you they’ve only fulfilled part of your HRT repeat and you nearly lose your mind in the pharmacy when you still have no patches after all of the above.

Repeat the above for all life admin.

OP is not unreasonable.

I try not to buy anything from JL now.

Their customer service is awful.

Yep. I actually remark whenever an interaction with a company goes as planned. It is DEFINITELY getting worse. I use my work lunch breaks to deal with all the admin.

I have a similar issue with attempting to sort loads of admin things out for my Mum following my Dad's death. Mum has problems with her hearing and vision so Dad organised everything and had almost all the household bills etc in his sole name. Obviously I understand that businesses need to make sure my request to change things are legitimate and I expect to be asked for a copy of the death certificate etc but some places seem to make it incomprehensibly difficult to deal with what must surely be a fairly common situation (ie death of a customer).

I think there should be a list of companies who deal with these things sensitively and quickly, and those who make it as difficult as possible. The best I've dealt with have been Octopus energy and Virgin money. Most difficult have been

• 02 (had to make 3 different calls to get through to someone who could deal with the idea that no, I did not know the passcode and no, I they could not speak to the account holder)
• Sky TV/phone/broadband- still getting nowhere. There was a fault on the landline (important for an elderly person who struggles with mobiles) that was not fixed for months. They promised a refund of the landline charges that has still not happened. Also realised that because parents are out of contract they have been charged over 3 x the advertised price for what they receive. Every time I call I need to put Mum on the phone to go through security authorise them to speak to me. They will do this each time but will not put a note on the file to allow them to speak to me every time which means I can only deal with this when I visit mum (2 hours away). Every time we are on hold for ages then told someone in another department needs to look at it and get back to me. No one ever calls back and I never speak to the same person twice. Each time they send a letter to say they tried to call back but no one answered so they assume the 'query' is now dealt with. Each time I call they seem surprised that Mum is not keen to sign up to a new 24 month contract.

When we needed John Lewis to fix our washing machine they said a 4 week wait for an engineer was "normal"
This when I had 3 kids one of which was only 6 months old!

I have the nhs app

it’s AMAZING!!!

I request all my repeats on that, and it’s authorised same day

I find tweeting grievances to retailers or using insta gets their attention. Why are Fenwicks telling you to contact Whistles? Your contract is with Fenwicks, surely? Unless it was an instore concession?
I’ve had this with Argos telling me to liaise with the brand directly, but that was for electricals they wanted to repair rather than refund. You could argue a dress wasn’t fit for purpose for a reasonable length of time (Martin Lewis is your friend for the correct legal phrasing here, not me!).

YABU to think this is a modern phenomenon. The Flanders and Swann song The Gas Man Cometh is about exactly this. Just without chatbots.