to be fed up with how f-ing difficult everything is?

Honourable mention to Lands End, who have real people who are helpful and possess common sense picking up the phone.

The hospital at which I have an appointment tomorrow is very lucky that another (unrelated) Dr told me about it. No letter, just a text reminding me to attend at the place and time detailed in my letter. That I haven’t received. I know it’s Royal Mail, but if the NHS could email me the letter, or even include the time and place in the text, that would help.

Yes trying to get refunds is a pain in the arse these days.

Hilariously since posting this I have received a request for a trustpilot review.

I was brutally honest.

My local council is undertaking a “transformation programme’” which seems to be largely about introducing AI. They are paying external consultants £5M to help them with it

I feel your pain . Nothing seems to function in this country now . Trying to contact any major retailer / service provider is impossible. Spent all morning trying to find a parcel delivered to the wrong address and other than a useless web chat there is no way of contacting them .

I agree. In the space of a week I’ve had a cardboard parcel containing a book left in a puddle behind my wheelie bin. I was home, they just couldn’t be arsed to make it to my front door.

Another parcel left in torrential rain in a cardboard box (again I was home and they didn’t knock), luckily the item inside was in plastic this time so wasn’t ruined.

And another delivery where they have said it is out for delivery on 3 consecutive days but as soon as it gets to the end of the slot time it reverts to “we have it”. Each time I’ve contacted them they say they will look into it and email me, but they don’t bother. No idea where my parcel is.

Nobody seems to do their jobs properly anymore.

I can’t agree more why is life soooo hard atm . Everything you do online they want you to sign in . Cookies. They want your details for
every move you make . They want to give you an email for buying a carrier bag , you phone the bank and it’s press for this option , then tell us why you’re calling , then oh sorry we can’t understand , back to the main menu to do it all over again ….

honestly it makes me so mad !!!! Why isn’t life simple anymore .

You buy in shops and they ask if you want to buy chocolates , insurance , a store card . Before you’ve got to the door there’s someone trying to get you to sign up to donate to a charity. Oh then you gotta pay for parking , you’ve gotta download an app and find out your registration details .

Honestly you can’t just “pop” somewhere anymore , or make a quick phone call , everything is a long sequence of events . No wonder we are all stressed out .

Yes, I miss the pre internet days of all companies having a phone number that customers could ring with any query and you got a competent person answering and doing their best to help. And if they couldn't help they put you through to their supervisor. All worked fine.

I work in a school and I was going through some old records for shredding today. It was records of cash payments for various things, before we had payment apps. God, it all worked wonderfully, quickly and easily. Paper letter sent home requesting payment for milk or a trip or something. Parents sent cash in an envelope, the admin ticked off each child on a class list. The only proper admin that had to be done was counting and banking of the cash. So so easy. Why didn't we realise how good such basic ways of doing things were? They worked, didn't take ages to sort out, wasn't complicated, there were no technical glitches or parents who didn't know what they were supposed to do or couldn't get the app to work...

The thing that makes my fucking blood boil is being endlessly told to download another app if I want to have any kind of service or response to a question. Each with its own plethora of passwords and stupid questions which need to be answered.

And when, in utter frustration, you give up on the shonky tech and try to speak to a person on the phone they insult your intelligence by playing a recorded message asking if you have checked the website? Fuck me I never thought of that…

I don’t mind companies using AI and tech to make things run more smoothly if it actually works. Invariably though it doesn’t. The reason you call and ask to speak to a human is because your question is too complicated or nuanced to be answered by a computer. Can companies stop pretending that every single thing can be fixed with technology!

Why can’t we all ‘ rise up’ about how these banks and big companies have managed to make everything just awful and hard and not for anyone’s benefit apart from their own ? Nearly everyone moans about t don’t they, but nothing is ever done about it.

In my experience if a business or the council thinks you owe them money they are remarkably contactable. In the sense that they ring, text, message. If they owe you money they are mysteriously uncontactable. BT, I see you.

Yup I agree I had to drive 45 mins to the bank! As the online chat was useless and I couldn’t get through on the phone Passed around and around even when I went into the bank they had no idea. Took ages to sort as everyone said not my fault got late charges ect everything is a lot of hassle these days!

It service related but fed up of other stuff going wrong - several things have broke in the house recently - all sorted but chuffing hell we’ve had enough

I have received some money from both my bank (3 x £25 payments) and British Gas (£50) as an apology when I’ve complained about the awful customer service that I’ve received from talking to their agents either on online chat or on the phone. It didn’t make me rich but it was more than enough for me to order a coffee and cake with it as my compensation for wasted hours/unnecessary stress 😆

Maybe if more people kick up a fuss and make them pay - literally - they’d have more incentive to change.

I despise chat bots and this AI generated shit that so many companies have now, it’s so bloody frustrating when you can’t seem to speak to a human.

We’ve waited in all afternoon for Open Reach to install fibre broadband, they need to dig a trench through our front garden to lay the cables to the house. No sign of them and no text or call to say they aren’t coming, they literally have 6 minutes left of the appointment time. As it’s now pitch black out, we’ve assumed they aren’t coming today. So if we want our fibre installed, that’ll be another half day we’ll need to be home for.

The currently well known delivery company whose delivery driver can take the time to take a photo of my package that he’s thrown on my doorstep and send it to me, but hasn’t got the time to ring my doorbell to hand it to me. Then you get the email asking how your delivery was.

EDF, making it so, so difficult to get something particular done with our solar panels. We’ve had to have the solar battery company back out, we’ve had to contact the solicitor we used when we bought the house, for which I’m expecting to be charged and a couple of other things and we’re still not there yet. They really don’t want us to be getting cheaper electricity.

This is the issue with using big companies.

This year I've barely had anything that hasn't gone wrong. I've had:

• One toy delivered broken
• One parcel go AWOL and they didn't even tell me, just eventually processed a refund
• One order of three identical items be split into two parcels for click and collect - but they didn't tell me when I picked up or on my order email? So I had to go to the shop twice
• One click and collect order that was wrong item but I didn't realise until I got home, 40 minutes drive away
• One clothing item that had a mark on but they can't exchange, only return
• One item turn up without any packaging or instructions and can't work out how to turn it on!
• Oh and disgusting bruised and mouldy apples from supermarket online shop. Honestly looked like they'd been repeatedly drop kicked.

From next year I'm buying from small local companies where I can buy from and talk to actual people.

Completely agree OP, there is a crisis of customer service in this country. It’s impossible to speak to a human and resolve issues and no accountability on the part of companies.

I used to do a lot of online shopping but I honestly can't be arsed with the 10 e-mails that come through notifying me of every single step (plus returns are a complete faff).

Thanks for ordering.
The order is being processed.
The order is leaving the depot.
The order is on it's way.
The order is round the corner.
It is being delivered.
It has been delivered.
How was the delivery?
Rate the company out of 10.

I am lucky I live near a retail park so I now go there as much as I can. Pick up item, take to till, pay, get receipt, go home and be left alone!

Some things are unavoidable and still have to be done online though.
Apps/chatbots/filling in forms. Argh!

Agree. I hate insurance companies with a passion. I dread September as that’s when I have to go through the pain of renewing house insurance. The price will inevitably have been jacked up 50% even with no claims

Isnt it just part n parcel of consumerism? (Scuse pun)

Insurance companies have laughed at us all for years.
Mostly it’s win win for them or try and get out of paying out. Excess is a bug bear of mine ( although I can see why they do this ) and the money they must make is a scandal. We all just have to suck it up because not having it is a big gamble and car insurance is mandatory ( of course)
The money we have paid out over the years for insurances and it goes up every year even if you don’t claim anything

These companies don’t really want customers after they have sold you X y or z for whatever.
As far as they are concerned it’s job done , now get on with it and don’t bother us if it goes wrong.

I agree the chasing up for mistakes is an extra pita but thankful doing it online is much quicker.

I think in general companies do not hire enough staff these days. There’s not enough people to answer the phones etc.

My pet hate is companies that only have a "contact us" form and not email or phone. You fill it in, and some of them don't even let you know whether or not it's been received.

And second to that is companies that have a phone line, but when you ring it, they give you five minutes of "have you checked this that and the other, don't call for XYZ, etc etc" before you even get to the menu. Gaaaarghh!