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!

YANBU OP.

Whoever gave the assistant in Clark’s a clipboard and timetable of appointments has a lot to answer for. The power has certainly gone to their head.

Wait outside the shop despite no queue, get told we need to wait outside - urm, we are?!
Get approached by clipboard wielding lady to be told we can’t come in unless we have an appointment. That ok I say, we have one.
Make us wait 3 minutes until appointment time, despite the shop being empty.
Go in and get warned we’ve left it very late to get school shoes and why have we left it to the last minute? This is before the feet have been measured or they’ve checked stock in our size....

I mean geeez. Calm down!

GP surgery issue here.

I had a prescription which should have been sent through to pharmacy from an earlier telephone consultation. Queue up at the pharmacy, no prescription, you’ll need to go back to GP (luckily right next door) but you can’t go in, you have to queue up outside. Get to the end of the queue, staff at the door said I needed to ring and ask what’s happened! She was literally standing 12ft from reception desk and with a computer to hand, one person left behind me in the queue, so not as if there were people waiting everywhere at that moment! Have you tried getting through to your gp surgery lately! Takes on average 40 mins to get through to ours! I didn’t moan, I didn’t roll my eyes, I just thought this is silly. However, I needed my antibiotics so stood outside trying to get back through to GP, constantly engaged (it was a Monday) kept trying. Eventually a staff member must have felt sorry for me and called me inside, said she would message to find out what had happened (why couldn’t have just been done the first time) Took my details, said to them wait back outside. Ten mins later she gave me the nod that my prescription should now be at the pharmacy!

What a bloody palaver!

@Namechangr9000

I think banks will start using this period of reduced opening hours and less staff as "proof" that they dont need to keep branches open. I do 95% banking online but sometimes need to bank cash or cheques for business. Often the cheques are above the limit you can pay in via the app, and obviously I cant bank with cash online. Whilst I would love all customers to pay electronically there are a lot that cant or won't and we cant afford to lose their business.

The CoOp bank is doing just that, with more branches closing.

So true!

So many disappointing experiences lately. I can't believe we have been out of lockdown for months and still some companies are offering a very sub standard service for no good reason whatsoever.

Some reluctant employees have now seen their holiday/ furlough end and are in a foul mood and also not offering much in the way of good service, many with dreadful manners.

I will be making my future purchase decisions based on my lockdown experience (or lack of!) Some companies have gone above and beyond, others are disappointing to say the very least and continue to be.

I mentally divide people I have to deal with into two categories: "servers" and "bouncers". Servers = you (the customer) holds the power; bouncers = they hold the power.

In this theory the reason doctor's receptionists, for example, are often unpopular is that they behave like bouncers rather than servers.

I think Covid has led to more staff in more organisations now behave like bouncers. They prefer to hold the power - who wouldn't? But it's an uncomfortable adjustment for the rest of us.

@greengreengrass14 Scottish Power are crap.

We wanted to swap to a normal tariff after having day/night tariffs for a number of years.

It was apparently beyond the wit and capabilities of Scottish Power to comply with our request.There were numerous visits and phone calls, and we made several complaints but to no avail. The only solution they could come up with was one that would cost us a huge amount of money.

We upped and left after finding an alternative supplier who could do what we requested at no cost at all.

When the SP guy rang to ask why we were switching suppliers I took great pleasure in telling him it was because they were so crap and incompetent.

@ErinBrockovich our local shoe shop have stopped measuring feet! They don’t have clipboards though

DopamineHits know its happened pre- Covid but the delivery office used to be open 9-1pm every day other then Sunday now they've reduced opening hours to 7-9am and close on Wednesday's- and specifically blame Covid for this. With everyone relying on deliveries more than ever its just not acceptable. Put a screen up the desk, have everyone wear a mask, no issue.

Our local pub isn't worth the effort now.
You have to go round and round to get in and out of it and the staff look so fed up continuously cleaning .
It's not a pleasant experience

Another who is looking at what companies are doing.

Where there is obvious disparity it's clear what can be done.

I'm totally understanding of what can't and wouldn't want things to open at risk to staff or customers.

So far too of my list is On The Beach. Always use them for holidays but have also use jet2 before.

So Ryanair cancelled my flight for this week back in July. Beginning of July.

Told they would refund me costs toward hotel etc and would refund flight money when they get it from Ryanair. (I know paying me isn't RA responsibility but they still need to refund)

Now 7 weeks later and nothing. A whole summer where they've had my money and I've not had a choice to spend it elsewhere.

Yet I've watched jet2. Their customer service when quarantines went on and how they allowed customers to change holidays etc.

So in future they'll be the first company I go to. I will no longer ever fly why. RA or use OTB.

Companies that were amazing and showed real initiative in lockdown for us;

John Lewis (delivered and operated a great service throughout)
Ocado
Amazon (much to my shame)
Dominios Pizza

Let downs were:

All airline companies
White Company (not even a remote telephone service available)
Royal Mail (dont get me started on them)
Takeaways that were closed throughout

It makes you wonder how many people will die because GP surgeries have still not reopened and everything is being triaged with mixed results.

@Friendsoftheearth Amazon & Dominos Pizza fan here too they have been wonderful throughout!

@PablosHoney

Yes! DVLA I’m looking at you!!

SNAP!! Why can't they manage what other companies have done, just no excuses!

So true! Also loads of companies have no existent customer service.
Phone lines shut and email reply takes a months! Literally.
I bough something of official Michael Kors website in beginning of July and they overcharged me online double.
I contacted them daily, phone lines switched off, email took 6 weeks to reply. Wtf!!!!!!
In the end I had to contact paypal to refund me.

I couldn't agree more, OP, but get used to it - for years to come the unthinking will blame Covid for absolutely everything

As said right from the start the problem was never going to be about shutting things down for a short while, but in getting them running again - especially in the public sector, where all too often the mindset is to find a reason not to do something, rather than getting on with making it happen

In the midst of covid I tried to contact virgin media for a vulnerable patient and despite being told they were only open for vulnerable customers I got disconnected multiple times, it was a nightmare to sort out!

How do you expect companies to provide the old service when most staff are still on furlough? For example, I work for an independent travel agents, family run. I deal with aftersales and usually there would be 4 of us to deal with this, because there is no income with nobody going on holiday only I have remained working the whole time from home. The other 3 will remain on furlough until November (if they ever come back) so how am I on my own supposed to deal with the thousands of bookings we had due to travel during the time we were in lockdown and answer the phone to random calls such as "I'm going on holiday in 2022 will we still be in lockdown".

It doesn't work, if companies have no income they have no choice but to use furlough right now which means staff levels are down. I get its frustrating but it is what it is.

@contrmary

YANBU. It's a convenient excuse for them to give. It's the same with companies using it as an excuse to make redundancies that they were planning to do all along.

And closing shops etc.

Oh but I'll give a shout out to excellent service.

Ds has a young driver experience. Was due for April but obviously cancelled and rebooked for weekend. Covid guidelines masks. Fine.

Ds is autistic and has struggled with masks and has now stopped using them due to stress.

Rang company the day before to say couldn't find anything about exemptions. Isn't any.

But ..... even though they don't have to offer full refund with only 24 hour notice they immediately offered to refund voucher with unlimited expiry so ds can go when this is all over.

My dental surgery - obviously has been emergencies only throughout this.

Due to a medical condition I have very weak teeth and as such require prescription oral hygiene products. My prescription ran out in April. I called them about renewing - and was told they wouldn't be doing it.

They could have sent it electronically to my pharmacist, posted it - neither of which would have put them or me at any risk, but it was a blanket no to any service except emergencies.

Well I'll be along as an emergency pretty soon now I've been without my prescription for months!

Yes there have been some places that have been fab, our local off-licence has turned into village store. Now selling fruit & veg, locally sourced butters meats & cheeses. Delivered to my mum & dad during the start of lockdown. Couldn’t do enough for people - I’ve ordered balloons and afternoon tea via the shop for a birthday party. Hopefully diversifying has paid off for them, I know who I wanted to support now.
Compare And contrast this with the no can do, CBA speaking to customers attitudes of which there are many examples in this thread.

I have had excellent service from a couple of small independent shoe shops. Actually I had found the small independents to have done the best in all this, both online and physical shops.

I will be supporting the businesses that have worked hard to adapt.

My local pub has been amazing. Independent and entitled to very little government assistance but run by someone who loves the business and wants it to succeed.

While some pub chains were whining about having to pour beer down the drain due to lockdown our landlord was struggling to source enough beer (and containers) to meet demand as he served takeaway to people in a socially distanced queue outside. He had to increase hours and take staff off furlough to cope. He also did takeaway lunches and had a pop up shop. They are open now and running a safe and sensible system for those who want to eat or drink in while still doing takeaway for those who prefer.

A local cafe ran an emergency shop while they couldn't open as a cafe. Selling bread, loo roll, flour, veg, milk etc alongside takeaway coffee for walkers.

An independent garden centre started offering home delivery for purchases made via email or phone and couldn't keep up with demand but the big chains were shut up and moaning about waste.

My own employer worked really hard to get work from home options up and running asap and a week before lockdown we were able to offer a full service with no delays of our making and only a tiny skeleton staff in the office.

I hope people continue to support the businesses who have adapted.

I agree OP. I am waiting for a broken double glazed window to be replaced, have waited a month so far, phoned the company and was told the delay was due to Covid. Sadly, still no date for window to be replaced. 🤷🏼‍♀️
Went to a fabric shop a couple of weeks ago, felt under a lot of pressure to hurry up and get out as other customers waiting outside, fair enough, but I’d only been in the shop a couple of minutes. Just can’t be bothered now.