To think that since covid happened some businesses have 'got lazy and stayed lazy'

[Ilovechocolate87]

DH and i used to have an expression a couple of years back 'because covid' which we used when we thought a company was just using the virus as an excuse for not doing something properly or making unnecessary cutbacks.

But even now it seems that this is STILL continuing, but for no legitimate reason!

Some examples include;
-Our local bank shutting at 3pm...every day of the week.Crap for 9-5 working people like DH!

• No fireworks display at center parcs, which is a shame as it was really good and atmospheric over the lake.
• Soft play at our local sealife centre sitting there unused and wasted...such a shame as there is nothing wrong with it.
• Fitting rooms have been scrapped at sainsburys and asda (maybe elsewhere too?) so there is nowhere to try on clothes, resulting in either having to order online and have the expense and bother of posting it back if its not right (which it often isn't) or travelling to return it, neither of which are very good for the environment either, with all that plastic packaging and fuel!)

Has anyone else noticed that it just seems like SOME businesses/companies 'can't be bothered' anymore and are just doing the minimum possible? And the most frustrating thing is that as usual, they make the cutbacks, but the prices keep on going up!!

I'm just surprised because I thought a uni would use Skype/hihi or similar. Then you just need a headset.

Shutting the stable door isn't it? If your firm had taken on a few extra trainees over the past few years, you'd have qualified/experienced staff now wouldn't you?

Telling people they should be purchasing their own second phone lines to use when wfh when their employer hasn't got space for them and isn't providing a communications solution is so daft as to be self indulgent.

Who did people think was paying for help out to eat out?

The free fairies?

The consultant will have forgotten by the time he's finished your appointment. Contact his secretary or the other hospital you'd rather go to. Our trust is set over two counties and this happens regularly. You can request your appointments at the other hospitals IF they are in the same trust.

Agree about Banks. The way customers were treated during covid at ours was appalling. When I pulled a staff member up on how she spoke to people in the queue, she told me " you need educating, we are educating our customers". Education them in what, accepting terrible service. It still continues with short opening hours, massive queues because they only allow one staff member on the counter whilst others mill around chatting. Privacy is gone as they do all long winded time consuming admin such as opening accounts at the single opened counter. This week a poor customer actually apologised to the queue when she was dealing with a grant of probate situation.

Went shopping in a larger town yesterday - first time since Covid. Large Boots had no testers for perfume as they get stolen all the time. Staff have to individually open glass lockers and then you get to try but staff are busy. All the gift sets are dummies so staff then have to go to the stock room. Tbh staff were kind and helpful where they could be but what a situation. Maybe its been this way for a while and I have just been unaware.

CMS was bad before but I now understand people have to take the day off work and wait hours for an answer and the phone is put down on them if they complain or get upset. What the hell is going on. This is a service that was set up to protect our children against poverty. There is no service.

DVLA seem to be responsive, but HMRC have always been terrible. Doctors just dont want to see patients.

There IS the facility to re direct calls to your mobile - your employer just hadn’t bothered.

DH has partly worked from home since way before covid but calls to his office number are routed to either his mobile or his computer depending on how he sets it up. No one necessarily knows he’s at home unless he does a video meeting in which case they can a bookcase behind him.

Thank you. I will try again. I was made to feel completely unreasonable last time I rang the appointments office. I am well aware of the pressures the NHS are under and hate to seem to be moaning but spending 5 hours travelling for what amounts to a 15-minute appointment followed by the following day off sick isn't the best.

We're paying more for nearly every type of service and the service has decreased/got worse

So no, Im not willing to pay even more for the service I had pre covid thank you

too many examples to give and they are all experiences we’ve had these past three weeks. Feel like we’re doing their jobs for them as it’s become obvious we are the one communicating between the company employees to enable them to get their job done because they are working from home and communication has sunk to an all time low.
expertise/professionalism has collapsed.

I think this is the point though, lots of it is message bullshit like 'keeping our staff safe' whereas if they were honest they should say 'we're improving our profits by having fewer staff and longer waiting times for our customers, thank you for waiting'

If the employee won't give their colleagues their personal number, then it's entirely reasonable. Especially given that the WFH employee is saving a lot of time and money by not having to commute. Anyway a separate physical phone line isn't even needed - you can get a different "virtual" number which diverts to your own home or mobile phone for just a few pounds per month where you can control it via an online dashboard, i.e. to divert to a voicemail within certain days/hours etc to avoid being called out of working hours.

How do you explain organisations which aren't businesses doing the same though? I.e. public sector, education, charity, etc., are also giving crap customer service at the moment. WFH is the common factor, not profits.

Yeah, it was always obvious to me (& surely to everyone?) that there would be financial repercussions to all the financial help given during the Covid crisis.
I agreed with things like the furlough scheme at the time (though it didn’t benefit my family) but I always knew there would be a bill to pay & it wasn’t going to be cheap. I don’t feel like the public were misled on this issue - the information was there all along about how much it was all costing.

It’s really, really not expensive to do and this lack of initiative on their part is telling.

Oh god. This sounds absolutely typical for universities. I too work in one, where we’re only allowed in 3 days from 5 (because they used Covid as an excuse to reduce the estate, and we all now hot-desk - which is GRIM, as so often you can’t get a desk by your teammates, and spend half the day walking back and forth, trying to find a workroom free.)
We have never had the investment in systems, which allow inbound or outgoing actual calls from home. I’m fairly senior, and am not supplied with a phone - or even a laptop (but, that’s another story….), and I’m not willing to have students have my personal number. So, unless you can do a teams call, then it waits until the next day I’m back in the office; and if that doesn’t marry up with the office day of the people on the other end, time marches on, ad Infinitum.

Its a totally common complaint in Unis, and we’re all pretty sick of the complete lack of investment in infrastructure (or salaries). All part of the reason so many of us are willing to strike in a couple weeks time. It’s totally unfair on everyone concerned, not least the students.

Oh, and my team has been running with 30% vacancies for about 8 months now. So, 21 of us, instead of 32. Partly an inability to recruit suitably experienced/qualified people, and partly because Unis are trying to save money.
Is it any wonder we’ve all become broken down and knackered (and not willing to pay for our own second lines/diverts, on top of all of our own kit for home, etc.?)

Do they still say that they are keeping staff safe though? I haven't heard that for ages. I have just noticed long waits for everything but no reason given other than they are very busy.

Nobody knew what the trade offs will be and they still don't. We don't know how many people would have died without lockdown or what impact that would have had on the economy. We don't know how much the financial problems we have now are due to covid or Brexit or energy costs anyway. As for letting people choose, that's how we ended up with Brexit.

How often does your DH actually need to attend the bank in person? I think I last went 5 years ago.

yeah... so my bank has those little card readers to do certain things, like add new payees on the current account App (BACS transfer). One of our 2 card readers had low battery, was failing I tried replacing battery but that didn't work, so I wanted a new reader. You can buy them on eBay but I work in the city where bank is, they used to given card readers away for free.

4:05 pm on a weekday: bank is already closed.
3:30pm next day: bank still open , but staff needed about 10 minutes to find one.

Digital banking made me need to go in person to the branch, is how I look at it, and the limited opening hours meant 2 different visits.

I am another university scientist who certainly doesn't have a work phone. You must be joking. I had to jump thru a million hoops to even get a new laptop 2 months ago (previous laptop was issued > 9 yrs earlier, in 2013).

I work (in office) in a concrete bunker so I dunno if I can get reception there. Forwarding calls from my desk phone might be a bad idea coz might never arrive. Better that they can leave messages I pick up. Oh, and my phone is one digit off the University switchboard so recorded messages are useful to forward to right person.

How much money are you saving by not commuting to work as often?

If your bank are faffing around with readers to do simple things online, then you really need to change to a different bank. I bank with Halifax and Santander and don't have any of that nonsense - everything can be done online. I've not set foot in a branch of either for 10-15 years - I wouldn't even know if we even have branches in our nearby towns.

I think dh has that reader for nationwide and I keep logging into my online banking when he is to annoy him how faster my log in with bank is😂😂😂

Yes I bank with Nationwide as well and the card reader thing is a pain. On the other hand, they actually still have branches which has proved to be useful at times. I have two other accounts which I use to do bank transfers.

I tried for him to get rid because honestly. It's card reader, 4 years of wrong address. I am pretty sure letters are still going to the old one! And so on. But we have travel insurance with them and apparently the branch thing is important. Even though that we were in branch twice since beginning of 2017.....