Why is it so difficult to get companies/organisations to sort things out at the moment

[StPaulandTheBrokenBones]

This might be an unusual set of circumstances but I am trying to sort out a number of issues at the moment and I am losing the will to live. I work full time so I don’t get much opportunity to deal with personal matters during the day. However I am off today and I’m trying to sort the following:-

1. My husband moved out of my out at the beginning of September and he set up a mail redirection for his post. My post is now going to his address. Numerous emails, apologies from Royal Mail and telephone conversations with them have still not resolved this. To say I’m pissed off would be an understatement. My name is not on his mail redirection.

1. When my husband moved out I emailed my local council tax department to let them know and I also filled in their online form to claim 25% discount. Despite numerous calls and emails I still haven’t received my new bill. Apparently I can’t use my old council tax reference to carry on paying the monthly instalments and my ex paid the bill by DD before he moved out so I don’t have the reference number in any event.

1. I ordered a Christmas tree from Balsam Hill. They use UPS as their carrier. Apparently three attempts have been made to deliver my package but on one of those occasions I was in the house and no one knocked on my door. Balsam Hill has sent me a very patronising email this morning but I can’t rearrange delivery without a card and no card was left on any of the delivery attempts.

1. Royal Mail was supposed to deliver a parcel yesterday. It didn’t arrive and the tracking is still saying it’s being delivered yesterday between 9am and 1pm, despite the fact it’s now Friday.

AIBU to be totally fucked off.

Staffimg shortages. Either due to sickness, lack of childcare or brexit.

Possibly also that most people aren't working at 100% due to the prolonged stress of the last 18 months.

I hear you.

It makes my blood pressure erupt. I manage to do my job. Why can't other people? 💐

British Gas who were unable to book us in for servicing our boiler in April 2020 have now cancelled our boiler warranty because we didn't have it serviced (not did the attempt to rebook servicing nor did they write to us to warn us) we only found out when the engineer we had booked with them turned up and said it would cost because our warranty was invalid as our boiler hadn't been serviced. So we sent him away as he had no prices that it could be. Anyway. Now other companies won't come and look at our boiler as they didn't install it. We have no heating and no hot water a boiler less under two years old and apparently there's not a gas engineer who wants to be paid to look at it apart from British gas who refuse to give us a price structure in advance

They are unable to find a member of staff able to authorise cancelling our contract payments or deal with our complaint.

Your number 2 happened to me when DP moved out. In spite of the fact that I had paid the council tax for many years before DP moved in, when DP moved out I had to start from scratch as if I was a new occupant - fill in all the fucking forms and a new DD even though none of the bank account info was different and I was going to continue paying as I always had. I blame that on systems designed by a twat.

Balsam Hill are horrendous to deal with. It’s not my fucking job to track down my delivery. It’s their legal responsibility to liaise with the delivery company and sort out when they can deliver my bloody Christmas tree. And trying to ring UPS is a joke. Apparently it’s being delivered today but on one of the previous “attempted deliveries” I was at home and no one knocked or rang the bell. This is not a cheap tree and I’m getting really pissed off.

Yes, I appreciate the difficulties working in a pandemic because I have had to work through it myself.

That doesn’t mean companies or organisations can continue to hide behind it as an excuse for poor service. I’ve had no post for almost two months. I can’t pay my council tax as I don’t have a bill and the online forms I’ve filled in have a target date of the 14th December.

It’s because all of the office staff are working from home.
Apparently it’s a really good idea and people are much more productive

YANBU. I suffer anxiety anyway, but I hardly ever get anything online, as I worry so much about something going wrong with the delivery, and I don't always report repairs to my housing association as I can't always face the hassle of something taking multiple trips to fix. But it's not on, living like this and expecting everything to go wrong/take too long. It's as if what should be the exception (missing delivery, etc.) has now become the rule.

@Fairyliz

It’s because all of the office staff are working from home. Apparently it’s a really good idea and people are much more productive

The office staff sorting and delivering OP's post? The office staff at the UPS warehouse or driving their vans?

The only one you might have a point with is the council tax, but we all know that the unnecessary bureaucracy there pre-existed COVID.

CremeEggThief and Fairyliz. I couldn’t agree more. It’s got to the point where I now expect things to be difficult. If something goes well or if I get good service then I’m surprised. It really shouldn’t be like this.

In my job I’m accountable to my clients. If something goes wrong, even if it’s not something I’m personally responsible for, then I’ll apologise and try and put things right.

It seems that when I complain about poor service, I get a response with lots of apologies and platitudes but no solutions being offered. What is the point of an empty, meaningless apology if you can’t take any action to resolve things for the customer?

Guess that must be why O2 been overcharging of late.

Exactly, StPaul. I've now got to try to chase up a voucher I ordered online for my mothers birthday nearly 2 weeks ago that was supposed to be posted to her and she hasn't received it. Give. Me. Strength.😬

OP I think number one is because it is done by surname - do you have the same surname as your ex? But if so Royal Mail could have told you that!

Number four - could be a RM error - parcel might still arrive. I've had something to say it was supposed to arrive on a certain day and then it has appeared a few days later.

It's not because office staff are working from home, I have worked from home the entire time and would have been sacked if I had not worked effectively.

My mum is having so many problems with companies lately. She has a POA as my stepdad is in a nursing home. Absolutely no one will accept it. She can't pay bills, access bank accounts or pay the credit card bills. She also couldn't pay the car finance despite needing to sell the car. It's been an absolute nightmare. One of the worst is AA - they've taken 2 years of payments at well over £100 per year and point blank refuse to cancel the policy.
The recent level of customer service everywhere is dismal.