To think that Covid has become a convenient excuse for poor service ?

[Mellonsprite]

For some firms (not all) ?
Just come back from a couple of days away in the Uk. Lots of car parks still closed, public toilets not opened, Not many inside activities like museums and castles re-opened yet, the officious-ness of the clipboard wielding all in the name of Covid? The hotel Meal meal (Prepaid) was cancelled at last minute, then acting like refunding my fee paid upfront was highly generous of them, apparently they’d ‘mis-calculated due to Covid’. Neglecting the fact that it left us completely high and dry, unable to speak to guest relations via email or phone. Bars closing at 9pm with staff asking customers can we pay up & leave!

@Polnm

Yes

NatWest bank on limited opening hours with long queues outside in the rain. No-one answers the phone when you call-email them only and they might reply in a week.

Admiral gave me £25 back but it now takes an hour to get through to them by phone.

I am rethinking which businesses I use based on their actions during cv19. NatWest with a personal account, business account, large mortgage and isa are on borrowed time.

Don't switch to Barclay's as I had a very similar experience. Spent literally hours waiting for them to pick up on their 'help' line. Since they're all probably working from home I don't really get the excuse that their services are limited because of the virus. Just plain old shoddy 'service'.

Don't switch to Barclay's as I had a very similar experience.

First Direct have been very good, in fact I'd say I'd waited a shorter period of time in recent months than I did pre-Covid.

Actually as well as negative GP experience I’ll also add negative Veterinary experience too, which seemed pretty ridiculous.

We had a dying gerbil. Rang vets, require a video to be emailed, emailed, waited, told to come down straight away. Had to sit in car park for at least 40 minutes! Vet eventually came, took our lovely gerbil in by itself (we weren’t allowed inside) then he rang probably less than 5 mins later to say gerbil had died in his hands while he was examining her

I can’t understand why one of us wasn’t allowed inside? I have been able to attend hospital appointments etc what’s the difference in one person accompanying their pet? Was a pretty awful experience tbh and I often wonder if it would have felt less cruel to let her die peacefully at home.

For everyone having bank problems, I switched from Lloyd’s to Starling and it’s been brilliant so far. All my direct debits and details to pay other people switched automatically so it was no work for me at all.

Not great if you’re keen to go into a physical branch but I believe you can pay in cash and cheques via the post office

The other good thing about Starling is that you can use their debit card in ATMs worldwide without Starling charging you extra fees.

Adding Sanctuary Housing and Vinci Construction to the shitlist. The former for sending out demands for rent which had been paid (they keep doing it due to SAP computer system) And the latter for taking eleven weeks to do a roof renewal which has been imposed on us by the former) the fire brigade were particularly unimpressed

Its the hypocrisy from Sanctuary as well and wanting it both ways. Banging on about how they are all working from home and how these are unprecedented times ....................ah but when its us tenants we have to carry on as normal and sort out the same messes they caused in pre Covid times and put up with the crap attitudes from their contractors. Sick of hypocrites wanting it both ways.

We also need to add the tax office. They randomly decreased my tax code in April, not sure why nothing at all has changed. So far I have made 42 attempts to contact them, apparently they are working reduced hours. As if we didn’t know.

@Fairyliz Can you log into yoour personal tax account ? You might find more info from there.

Has anyone tried to contact the police on a non emergency recently? I unfortunately needed to a few weeks ago. Cannot get through for love nor money, we tried for hours for days on end. We Lao went to a police station, it was all locked up, I used the intercom and then stood there for 45 minutes whilst it rung.

I concluded that the only way I was going to speak to a policeman would be to commit a crime and wait to be collected (which I decided against of course).

Wish I could vote more than once agree completely with you op.
I too have vowed that I will stop using certain companies due to their behaviour during the pandemic. Dunelm - general crappy service on several occasions. and exceptionally rude staff. Eon - uncontactable unless an ''emergency''. Any online retailer that uses Hermes - diabolical courier in normal times, using Covid as an excuse to step it up massively. Just to name a couple.
On the other hand, our local council despite still mainly working from home have been fantastic, over and above with a couple of queries I have had. As have our vet.

@userxx
Yes I can log into my personal tax account but the information there is wrong. No way to contact them to correct it

I went to a play place I have a pass for. Don't even get me started that I couldn't book in at peak time because it's for paying customers. I mean I've pre- paid hello. But anyway, we get some very late lunch. Get the same thing I've had before, same cost. Apparently sandwich doesn't come with crisps or salad anymore due to Covid. But I can still pay extra for chips to be added.

Member somewhere else which gives a slight discount on food. Can't do the discount due to Covid profits. I understand it's a tough time for business, but it's a tough time for consumers.

I’ve noticed oooe service, laziness and a couldn’t care less attitude everywhere. Can’t get through in phone lines and when you do the staff seem untrained , unmotivated and ill informed. Staff in cafes seem bored and listless. Can’t get refund for online shopping so am not doing shopping any longer online. Fed up with it all.
There is either hysteria about masks/distancing or no concern at all.

Poor service!

We went to a restaurant today. We were told to download an app and order all food via the app. We did no problem but the people on table next to us (who we knew) didnt get a confirmation message after they added payment details. She checked with front of house staff, and they then checked with the kitchen who said yes their order was confirmed. After half an hour they had no drinks, so she checked again only to be told it hadnt gone through and they would have to order again and wait an hour for food!! They were not particularly apologetic and didnt offer any discount (I dont know how they would deal with this via an app?) or offer to speed up their food order since they had already waited half an hour. Despite ours working I was pretty unimpressed with that level of service. Friends left and ate elsewhere.

Absolutely YANBU! Many have closed their customer service lines completely and blame covid for delivery taking weeks, when other firms can deliver next day etc.

It's also an excuse for getting rid of staff too unfortunately.

Yes, I ordered some garden bits middle of last month from 2 separate companies, all items in stock with 21 working days for delivery, it’s way past that now, seeking a refund via PayPal, they keep telling me the items are with the courier but when I ask which one they say don’t know! Took JD sports a month to refund me some money as well, same excuse they are working with limited staff, happy to take my money though!

Don't get me started! Every single company seems to be using it as an excuse as to why your call can't be answered, your query can't be resolved, your stuff is late. It's an absolute nightmare. Can't they keep the economy going by employing extra people if everything is so bloody difficult?

I'm sick to the back teeth of the excuses. The insurance claim I started back in February, the hotel rooms where I couldn't get through in time to cancel, the overcharging from Virgin for months before I got through. Etc etc.

We had an issue with Scottish Power, entirely due to an error on their part. All contact details removed unless on prepay and about to be cut off. Eventually got through via Twitter to find our meter had been accidentally deleted from the national database!

To add insult to injury they are surveying customers to get their views on charging customers for each contact with their helpline!

Generally agree with you.

And organisations like the National Trust are truly pathetic in their inability to re-open widely.

However - had a pre-booked meal at Prezzo yesterday and service was excellent (in contrast to general experience).

To be honest once schools are back in business next week, I can't see ANY excuse for other organisations to not be operating normally.
In my mind that includes ALL public services such as GP surgeries, libraries etc, and other services such as banks and shops operating with normal working hours.
Those of us that have worked throughout this crisis are really fed up with all of this. So, the party's over - let's get back to work.

But let's be honest.

The Doctors Surgery and the NHS in general are the very worst.

Local large hospital takes about 10 minutes to answer calls on the main switchboard. And they installed a wonderful new phone system last year.

Probably quicker faxing them (if any of us outside the NHS still had fax machines)........

It's tricky.. I work for a garage and customers aren't happy and would probably post on this thread but..
We can't let them wait for their car
If we don't have a loan car, I can't magic one up
If we are full, we are full and we can't get extra technicians in because of distancing and they can only work so many hours a day!

So a lot of the time it seems like I'm saying no but we physically can't do anything about it. There is a backlog because of Covid, but it's also the busiest time of year

YES!
Went to a local pub for eat out to help out for the first time. Really excited, first meal for DH and I without kids since March. Service was slow - fair enough. But the food was so poor. Linguine replaced with spaghetti with no explanation, pre-packaged rice... we were the last ones in there and still had to ask for the bill.

Can’t believe the stories about Sky though - I wasn’t getting missed calls on my phone for weeks. When I finally answered it, it was Sky asking me if we wanted to upgrade. I said no. A couple of weeks later, I started getting more missed calls - Sky again, asking the same question! If they call again, i’ll be telling them to turn their attention to customers who actually want to speak to them!

Great service from HMRC of all places, however!!!