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!

Yep, I deal daily with HMRC on behalf of my clients. They were bad enough pre covid, but now anything that isn't automatic online has ground to a halt. Letters sent in Jan and Feb still havn't been answered/dealt with. Phoning them is nigh on impossible - you get through to their call centre after waiting forever in a queue only to be told they can't help because their system is slow/down/faulty etc.

Same when I have to contact other large organisations, local authorities, etc.

Excusable for the first few weeks, but completely inexcusable now we're 5 months on.

I think a lot of it is the working from home. It's just not an acceptable substitute in a lot of cases. It's keeping things ticking over (slowly), but not really good enough for the long term. It's a sticking plaster over a broken leg.

Same when I've had to try to contact banks, telecoms companies, etc for personal reasons.

I've found smaller firms a lot more dynamic and managed to get themselves back up and running close to normal a lot quicker.

Companies, like mine, have used CV to cut staff, either through lay-offs or furlough, then use the remaining staff to take up the slack and they can't, overworked and pi$$ed off
Company share dividends are now on the up, so no shortage of funds, director pay, even during lock down, either stayed the same or went up, few took a pay cut, despite cutting staff pay.

However, its not across the board, BT & Openreach installed fibre broadband to my house recently and it was was faultless.

Got a suggestion for who I can get my licence from other than the DVLA @Devlesko 😂😂 I Hope you have them a telling off for chastising you like a kid @ErinBrockovich

@Badbadbunny friends at HMRC in the estates/IHT department have been seconded to the furlough scheme - I have been told they have a skeleton staff. I also imagine that they are under pressure to maximise revenues and so more files are being pulled for scrutiny.
This is just hearsay though!

Am sick of it too. I have an on-going complaint that has been in progress for a year.

2 weeks ago the excuse was that due to covid communication is difficult.... pointed out that Covid didn't exist last year which is when I'm actually complaining about....

.....silence....

I don't unstated why opening hours and even days of so many things are being cut due to covid precautions. If they said it was due to the financial impact of covid I would understand better.

My grump is with my mobile phone company couldn't possibly help me outside of a 4 hour window and only over the Internet when my sole internet connection that I needed for literally everything broke. 6 months of to and fro and I've finally managed to get them to release me from my contract with them early because they can't work out what's wrong and fix it. For quite a long time they were amazed that I didn't want to pay them £40 a month when I was only receiving £15 a month's worth of intermittent service

Yep, I deal daily with HMRC on behalf of my clients.

I've given up trying to contact them. The web chat service used to be excellent and was my preferred method but even that is taking an age. It’s so frustrating.

I sent my driving licence off for renewal months ago, I work in a school but got a new position in a new school in the last week of term. I can’t get a DBS check without my licence as my passport has also expired, I’m due to start next week and my job involves being left alone with children, no DBS no dice.

@userxx

Yes, everything takes so much longer with people WFH then they harp on about how productivity has not slipped etc - I beg to differ. It's been a fucking nightmare to complete a simple task.

I've mentioned this on other threads where people have been suggesting that WFH will be the new normal and office buildings will be left to rot.

No way.

It may suit those WFH but it's not suiting the customer/service user, and ultimately loss of customers, falling customer ratings etc will force the companies to improve their service which will almost certainly mean bringing workers back into their usual workplaces.

Yes, I'm sure there'll be more flexibility, maybe WFH days as part of a normal working week, some days home, some days office, but anyone who thinks that WFH will become common practice all the time is seriously deluded.

friends at HMRC in the estates/IHT department have been seconded to the furlough scheme

I'm think the CIS department is also included in that juding by the long delays of tax refunds.

@SockYarn what do you want music for? Can’t you just speak to each other?

I'm a council worker. It took from March to June for us to get enough laptops for people to work from home. We are still waiting for smart phones for my department. It's also taking a lot longer to deal with what should be a simple query as our remote working facility was never set up to deal with 80% of the whole Council using it at once. That was finally resolved last week but before that you would regularly get kicked off the system.

Our call centre team us now taking calls from home as the equipment arrived. We have a lot of parents working for us who have been trying to balance child care and work so are working all sorts of weird combinations to ensure they get their hours in and also don't let their kids go totally feral as most holiday clubs are not running.

I just went away to Dorset last week and the National Trust system was the most annoying bloody thing to use. I have two young kids so rarely get to go in the houses etc anyway but really value the grounds. Tried to book on Saturday morning to visit a place on Sunday. Fully booked all day. Tickets only released on the Friday.
Shout out to the Red House Museum in Christchurch for keeping open and having an easy to use booking system plus allowing walk ups if they have capacity. Also to The Coconut Tree in Bournemouth for a really good night. It just felt like a quiet night out but with extra hand washing

@userxx

Yep, I deal daily with HMRC on behalf of my clients.

I've given up trying to contact them. The web chat service used to be excellent and was my preferred method but even that is taking an age. It’s so frustrating.

The web chat is annoying because it only appears in some areas. They don't provide it where it's really needed. Even if you are lucky enough to get attached, they seem to be unable to do much or give any real information. All very superficial. It would be good if they put qualified/experienced staff onto it who had the ability to do more than just read the onhelp page pages back to you!

A mixture of both, there's some people taking the piss but on the other hand you have some vulnerable employees, some who have had covid, some who have family members who are sick. People seem to have lost any compassion and are expecting everything to be the same even in circumstances where the change in circumstances means delays or cancellations. The 'we're all in this together' seems to have gone out the window!!!

Yes. Basically its the dream scenario for people with a Can't Do attitude. And I think 'cos Covid' is going to be used as an excuse to justify endless cut to services & unpopular closures & restructuring measures. I hope people will push back.

Oh and in terms of work. My department is pretty much only able to have 1 in 5 of our staff in due to desk set ups and distancing. It's rubbish but we are getting stuff done just a couple of days slower than we'd like

@userxx

friends at HMRC in the estates/IHT department have been seconded to the furlough scheme

I'm think the CIS department is also included in that juding by the long delays of tax refunds.

And PAYE too. Still waiting for SMP funding for clients back from February. That's an automated system which usually works well, but completely nothing since then. Not just one client either, I've a handful awaiting refunds but it's impossible to get anyone within HMRC to press the button to authorise them.

@SomewhereEast

Yes. Basically its the dream scenario for people with a Can't Do attitude. And I think 'cos Covid' is going to be used as an excuse to justify endless cut to services & unpopular closures & restructuring measures. I hope people will push back.

Fully agree. Far too many people have always spent more time & effort explaining why they can't do something than they'd take to actually do it. Covid is an absolute gift to that kind of person.

Yes, GP receptionists, I'm looking at you!

Yes, everything takes so much longer with people WFH then they harp on about how productivity has not slipped etc - I beg to differ. It's been a fucking nightmare to complete a simple task.

Have to agree, as much as I’ve embraced working from home myself, and I would like to continue to an extent it’s not as productive (in my area) if I’m being completely honest.

Fully agree. Far too many people have always spent more time & effort explaining why they can't do something than they'd take to actually do it. Covid is an absolute gift to that kind of person.

Yes my point exactly, in fact I said this almost word for word to the hotel in my OP.

We turned up at the farm shop having googled their website to find out what the rules for visiting were.

Turned up, washed our hands at the outdoor sinks and politely stood outside the shop. The woman barked at us, asking if we'd washed our hands, then told us one person in the shop at a time. There was only me and dh there. We selected our items and queued up as we were paying separately, but she started having a go at dh because he was standing too close to the demarcation line on the floor - like about 0.3cm too close.

I'll never return. It was like dealing with a rottweiler in a pinny

After hours on the shite website, I lied to Sky and said yes I'm vulnerable to get through, the call was answered immediately, suggesting the call handlers are not busy but sitting there waiting for calls from vulnerable customers. It's Bollox.

YANBU. Lots of places seem to be doing this at the moment.

We went to the Lakes recently and I tried to ring a leisure centre with a query. Couldn't get through at all so called in. My query was answered which is fine but I mentioned to the young man on the desk that I had tried to ring and perhaps the phone lines were down. He looked most confused and said they weren't really answering the phone because of covid

Bank in town is now only open 4 hours a day because of covid

People struggling to see doctors/dentists 'because of covid'.

There may be some genuine issues because of it but it is starting to wear a bit thin now as many places seem to just wheel out the 'because of covid' line willy nilly.

British Gas have been atrocious. They have over £2500 on account for me (business and personal accounts) and you can't access the credit refund request online, and no one will deal with the request for a refund on the phone. If you can ever get through to them. I want to swap companies but I'm scared of a) massive cockup with switching, and b) I'll never get my refund if I move. Which is probably what they want.

much as I’ve embraced working from home myself, and I would like to continue to an extent it’s not as productive (in my area) if I’m being completely honest

That's a very brave thing to say on MN - haven't you realised the only acceptable view's that WFH is much more productive and that only dinosaurs and control freaks feel otherwise?

Far too many people have always spent more time & effort explaining why they can't do something than they'd take to actually do it. Covid is an absolute gift to that kind of person

Absolutely this ... god, this thread's like therapy!!