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AIBU?

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Original poster

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

160 replies

GrinchyScroogus · 15/12/2025 13:15

Maybe I'm caught in one of those phases where everything goes wrong. I feel like everything is such an f-ing hassle if you interact with any kind of shop or goods or services and I'm fed up with it.

I've had a delivery where it was just left in a puddle when it should have been put through a letter box, the box soaked through and the item was damaged - not unusuable but not as ordered. I emailed asking for a partial refund and got sent a £5 gift card. WTF. Never ordered from these people before and had no need for anything else from them. Had another go and eventually they refunded me £20 (about 50%) - so it was worth doing but just hassle. Offering a gift card for something delivered damaged is terrible customer service, so is having to force the customer to raise it again.

Another problem where had to try to get info out of a previous company about what work they'd done to give a new company. No one answering the phone on hold forever. Phoned repeatedly and wasted a lot of time and phone bill money.

Ordered something from Amazon from a 3rd party. what was delivered was not what was described at all. Actioned return but they expected me to pay postage so needed more emails to sort that out as I was not prepared to pay postage to return something that was there complete misdescription.

A (Well known for being incompetent) courier company keep delivering a neighbours parcels to us because they can't read the address apparently (not because they aren't in). Trying to contact them is near impossible.

Just one thing after another. Complaining is stressful and I hate all this but if you don't you lose a lot of money. Leaving the courier which is just a pain, the total cost of not trying to sort out all this would have been about £130 - none of this is just shopaholic shopping either, some of it was serious maintenance stuff.

It just seems that unless you stay at home and do nothing, every engagement with every shop or service causes problems AND then sorting it out is never easy.

Does anyone else have this experience or do most people just suck up the wasted money and let it go?

SO FED UP.

OP posts:
Tabitha005 · 15/12/2025 13:49

Fluffyholeysocks · 15/12/2025 13:38

Dare I mention HMRC? I paid nearly 1500 pounds too much in PAYE tax last year, in July I rang them (on hold for 45 minutes) to confirm they had all my P60's so could they refund the overpayment. A completely disinterested call handler explained that they were waiting on one of my savings providers to report back on how much interest I had earned on one of my savings accounts. I said I had those figures on my app - I'd earned 30 quid. Sorry - they need the bank to inform them. I asked why did I have the figures months ago and not HMRC? I was told not to worry, it would be repaid by November! I have just received my repayment - 9 months after the end of the tax year. Presumably I will be going through the same painful process next year.

@Fluffyholeysocks UGH, don't get me started on HMRC - absolute bunch of incompetent dicks. EVERY single year they screw up my husband's tax and every single year an accountant has to sort it out.

frontwoman001 · 15/12/2025 13:46

My worst experience of this: I ordered a product from abroad. A few weeks later I followed up on it because it hadn't arrived. It had been sitting in Customs waiting for me to pay the charge. I hadn't been contacted about this. It was 3 days away from being returned due to the customs charge not being paid.

So I paid the charge. Turns out they'd put the wrong address on it. That's why I was never notified about the customs charge I suppose. Luckily the postman saw my name and an address in a completely different part of town and delivered it to me at my actual address.

At last I had my product, right? Not quite. They'd only delivered two thirds of it. I contacted the company and they agreed to send on the remainder of the thing I'd bought - to the right address this time! 🎉 Aaaand I had to pay another customs charge on the missing part.

NimbleHiker · 15/12/2025 13:46

I agree. I wanted to cancel sky moovies. It took an age to get through on the phone. When i finally managed to speak to someone it was like getting blood out of a stone. They only did what i asked when i threatten to cancel my entire sky package. It really bugs me that i can upgrade my sky package online. Yet i have to waste a lot of time trying to get through on the phone if i want to downgrade my package.

the80sweregreat · 15/12/2025 13:45

Like many others , I hear you op!!
The ‘ chat boxes’ they have for many places take you in circles and trying to ring anyone results in a long wait for a human and even then it’s the wrong one or you get cut off and the fancy websites rarely tell you much.

Fluffyholeysocks · 15/12/2025 13:38

Dare I mention HMRC? I paid nearly 1500 pounds too much in PAYE tax last year, in July I rang them (on hold for 45 minutes) to confirm they had all my P60's so could they refund the overpayment. A completely disinterested call handler explained that they were waiting on one of my savings providers to report back on how much interest I had earned on one of my savings accounts. I said I had those figures on my app - I'd earned 30 quid. Sorry - they need the bank to inform them. I asked why did I have the figures months ago and not HMRC? I was told not to worry, it would be repaid by November! I have just received my repayment - 9 months after the end of the tax year. Presumably I will be going through the same painful process next year.

Original poster
GrinchyScroogus · 15/12/2025 13:34

Glad its not just me. Maybe it's the communication that's the problem.If you could call someone and they would just answer the phone, everything seems to take twice as long with emails and electronic chat.

OP posts:
Bedtimewithoutissues123 · 15/12/2025 13:30

Yes, not shopping but water company wanted to up grade my meter, I booked an appointment (for this Wednesday). 6 days early a man turns up, I refuse to let him do it because hes come on the wrong day, not from the water company (says hes a contractor). So I ring water company to see if its dodgy or not, I'm passed to 3 different departments over 30 min and they say oh yes we sent him.
Explain I am disabled (of which they know) and felt very vulnerable because the man wasn't happy I said no (they say wont happen again). Then today man turns up to do my water meter. I have to go to a medical appointment so ring water company they say oh we sent him and so I allow him to do job as no access needed.
I come back from my appointment, they ring apologise for not doing job, I ask why it wasn't carried out. She says i dont know. She phones workman, then phones me back to say actually its all completed. I say have you cancelled Wednesday appointment, she asks 'do you want me to ?' 🤣

zipadeedodah · 15/12/2025 13:25

Yanbu - I have taken to doing business locally and face to face more now. This way if something is wrong or faulty - I can go to an actually human and say "what are YOU going to do about this?"

And don't even get me started on "Apps". I don't want to use your fucking App.

Mooninjune · 15/12/2025 13:23

Totally agree OP.
Nothing, or very very little, ever seems to go smoothly or is done competently these days.

I'm currently doing battle with my local.council over an issue. And honestly emails were a great leap forward from snail mail. Apart from one snag: nobody ever blooming well answers them.

So many ways to communicate with companies and organisations and yet communication re problems and issues has never been worse.

Ineedpeaceandquiet · 15/12/2025 13:18

Totally agree. THREE visits to a well known home furnishing store to get a refund sorted. Each time, they kept refunding a bit - wth?!