Aibu - Why is everyone you deal with these days an arsecovering rule stickler?

[HandbagCrab]

Lots of things have happened lately where we've had to complain. I'm not a natural complainer but sometimes it needs to be done. No one apologises anymore for your inconvenience, hurt feelings, time wasted, missing money etc etc. It's all arsecovering with no apology (presumably so they're not admitting fault) and repeating rule technicalities from some kind of list without considering we're human beings.

I make mistakes and I apologise, other people/ companies/ organisations cock up and it all seems to be mealy mouthed excuses and passive aggression.

Aibu to think the world is going to die a slow death behind swathes of bureaucracy and inflexibility? Why do organisations do this and train their staff to behave this way?

I work in the catering department of a certain retail partnership that I know many of you shop at. I'm the "complaints champion". We aren't allowed to outright apologise as it's admitting liability. Often it's simple stuff like "my cake was stale". They get a "I'm sorry we haven't upheld our standards" kind of response. And a customer service voucher giving 2 people a free brew and cake. It's impossible to prove so they get an apology for alleged dip in standards and a freebie.

More serious are allegations of food poisoning. Until proven that we caused it (this has never happened), we absolutely cannot apologise and therefore accept blame. In that situation, as soon as you say sorry without a caveat, you're screwed in the eyes of the law. And in my experience (20 years in catering, never had a proven case of food poisoning on my watch) most allegations of food poisoning are not at all correct. And I've had it once - the most ill I've ever been. Having the shits/being a bit sick 3 hours after eating something is not food poisoning.