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!!

Many businesses, charities and organisations have been financially hammered by the pandemic and are still struggling.

Add the cost of living crisis and recruitment crisis on top and many are still in a perilous place.

In most cases it's not laziness but lack of or stretched resources.

Definitely GPs mine still has a really long message about covid. A couple of months ago I had an email consultation which took nearly all day as there was an hours delay between replies. I had to send photos in and eventually got a prescription. I'm sure a five minute consultation would have been easier for both parties.
But clearly I might have given my GP covid and killed him.

I agree. My example is the transport team at my local council who are responsible for organising school transport for children with EHCP. Since covid if you dare email with a question you get an out of office message promising a reply within 4 weeks - illness and staff shortages apparently. I emailed in Sept ..still waiting.

Yes I absolutely agree and so does DH. He wants to go to a barber but they are all by appointment now and full ages in advance.
Ridiculous

I have to pay in regularly as I’m a business owner. It’s getting ridiculous as all local banks have closed so I have to travel into a city, pay for an hours parking and make sure it’s between 9.30 and 3.

100% agree @Ilovechocolate87 The doctors, and dentists are a good example. But also many other 'services.' SO SICK of them STILL blaming covid. My friend needs face to face appointments with a specialist for the condition she has, and she has had ONE since October 2019. (December 2021 actually.) They keep saying they are behind 'because covid.' I - and many people I know - also have a struggle to get a GP appointment, and 3 times out of 4, you have a 35-40 minute wait for them to answer the phone.

Also, 2 banks in our local market town high street have cut hours too, and one is closing for good in January. We will have just ONE bank left then. I think they wanted to cut staff/close branches/cut hours, and covid has given them a good reason to do it. There is a minimum 15 minute wait to get served EVERY TIME you go in. I have heard the Argos store is for the chop next. The closest one to me then will be 18 miles away.

Then we have queues everywhere... In person, and on the phone. SO ridiculously hard to get to speak to a PERSON on the phone these days. The DVLA, my catalogue, my insurance company, my energy provider. 20 to 30 minutes on the phone sometimes, and I can't get anyone to answer! And even when I do, the person doesn't know what they are on about and cannot help me, as they just have the basic script in front of them to read off!

And as for Hermes/Evri. IMPOSSIBLE to EVER get anyone to speak to there! Same if you call big chain stores. IMPOSSIBLE to get to speak to the person you want, or to even get a person to answer the phone.

And don't even get me STARTED on the shops and stores who don't have half the stock you want, and have shelves 30-40% empty most of the time. Why? Because Brexit, because covid, because lorry driver strikes, because Ukraine war, because staff shortages. ALWAYS AN EXCUSE.

In addition.... Skyrocketing fuel and energy prices, because of the Ukraine war, apparently. Prices of Food and household goods and services skyrocketing over and over!!! WHY?!!!!!!!!!

SICK of it now. I don't believe for a SECOND that they all need to put up the prices so high - petrol, gas and electric, (OR food and household goods!) And I genuinely believe we are being mugged off/fucked over. What can we do to stop it? Or prove we ARE being fucked over. FUCK ALL! That's what!

THEN there's the passport office, and the DVLA.. SHOCKING service this past 3 years. And also post office delays because of strikes, and peoples landlords delaying repair work because of shortage of staff/workers. No shortage of staff when it comes to collecting the rent though funnily enough.

All of this makes me want to fall off the planet some days, honestly. I am SO SICK of it all, and don't see it getting better anytime soon. There seems to be no end to this shit.

It’s small potatoes compared to people’s struggles with GPs and banking but I really miss the Sainsbury’s deli counter. They sold all kinds of stuff that’s not on the shelves, like rare roast beef, chicken and ham pie, and I could buy a massive wedge of St Agur instead of those stingy little packets on the shelves.

Yes! It drives me mad (as a fellow business owner too!) myself and DH also have the "because covid" phrase which we say to each other.
My nice private dental surgery now has an extremely basic and very poor waiting room - no magazines or drinks and still limited seating for "social distancing". Yes, they are technically a "medical" place etc, but still.
Same with numerous restaurants and shops in my local town who have staff that just use it as an excuse..."oh we don't have a menu anymore, just the board that's in another room and in illegible calligraphy, due to covid..."
My gym also use to give out small hand towels, so great for workouts but also to wrap your hair up after a shower etc. now they only provide enormous bath towels??? It makes no sense! Worse for the environment and must cost them a fortune in laundry.

Oh bless you. There isn't a conspiracy, it's just capitalism in a globalised economy, which doesn't always work for the messy real world.

Totally agree!

Aviva stuffed up my pension and it has taken 8 months for them to put it right and this is only with us calling every two weeks. Total shambles.

Vitality health insurance agreed a course of physio on my knees ( plural) and then sent snotty letters after every appt charging me for treatment on one knee saying it hasn't been approved. After the 7th time I called them,the operator was perplexed as my file clearly stated physio on both knees and that the billing team were clearly not reading the info.
I raised a formal complaint which I got a response to no less than 8 months later. They agreed their service was seriously lacking and were very sorry. By way of apology they said they would send me a food hamper. This was 5 weeks ago and I am still waiting!

Yes. There was before March 2020. And this now. Excuse for everything. You are echoing my DAILY ANGST!

This is my experience too, although undoubtedly some businesses are milking it to save money.

Which is why I now shop mostly in Waitrose. They still have lovely deli counters

I think a lot of this was happening before covid - banks open after 3! We went about 10 years without a bank being open after 3, but actually that has changed recently. About a year ago we got a branch about 5 miles away that opens after 3.

Use of fireworks have been in worldwide decline for decades too, I know living in Europe 30 years ago there was a lot of movement and feeling against them, on environmental grounds, as well as safety. I think they are certainly on their way out, nothing to do with covid.

Softplay, no idea, but its open near us. some dressing rooms are open, some are not, same as always

In Sainsbury’s I buy what I need to nip to the toilet quickly try it on and if it doesn’t fit I’ll return it straight away ha ha

Unfortunately I’m in the Waitrose-free wasteland that is north Manchester @CaptaNoctem 😞

That's nonsense. Working from home doesn't mean you can't take calls!

Or - you could perhaps bring your own entertainment?

I agree op.

I regularly attend events at a private members club. These events always used to have a free buffet, but that stopped because of Covid, yet has never returned.
So, same price to attend the event but no free food. You can however order it from the bar if you pay for it.

Yes! Sainsbury's deli counter- why hasn't it reopened??? Other supermarkets have?

Mine is quite a local one - a localish garden centre was renowned for their Christmas Grotto experience. Having been taking DD since she was two & always go with her best friend & family. Obviously all stopped due Covid but it hasn't been restarted! This year & last they've waited till mid-October (considering they used to start selling tickets in Aug it was so in demand) to make a lame-ass announcement stating it's not safe blah blah heavy heart blah blah. Its really shocking as I'm sure it was a massive earner & also something great for the kids - a whole experience rather than just seeing Santa, but no, still can't run it safely ffs! & yet every other place seems to be managing it just fine.
Their loss - we've found other places & probably won't go there again in future & imagine many families will feel the same.

Most of these things (but not all!) are actually staffing issues caused by brexit, not Covid. Not having staff to man changing rooms, grottos, soft play, wash cups, see patients etc. Not an excuse for the magazines and everything leisure related by appointment though!

⬆️⬆️⬆️ this I think is a big part of it, and for as much as we heard about the 'power hungry staff' in places, customers for the most part were quite frankly fucking horrible and abusive, and that doesn't help with recruiting staff and keeping them, and sadly that attitude continues more than ever compared with before covid.

You reap what you sew and this is happening now with the general attitude that customer service staff are there to stroke egos, blame for anything that you take a dislike to and bear the brunt of people's anger and frustration.

Businesses have learned ways to save money, that would have cost them money before covid and they also had to operate with less staff because they couldn't have as many in the same place due to social distancing, and even if they wanted to/could afford to employ more people, who on earth wants to work in a job where you are treated like crap?

These roles have been devalued more and more over recent years and that was increased with covid and now the COL, turns out they're pretty important though eh? Considering the complaining going on when there's less service on offer than some would like.

Very few people think these jobs are in any way important or worth respect, yet are quick to complain when the service level drops in response to that attitude.

Fitting rooms have been scrapped at sainsburys and asda (maybe elsewhere too?) so there is nowhere to try on clothes,
I wonder if that was to stop the staff having to clean up after perverts had been in there.

Yabu. Many businesses were devastated by covid and aren't going to just bounce back within the space of a year or two or even five. Especially when so much other shit is going on in the world.

It might have escaped your notice but the energy crisis is hammering businesses far worse than the general public. I've seen clients who's energy bills have trebled, quadrupled and quintupled.

Add to that a staffing crisis that's hitting from all sides. With brexit reducing the number of migrant workers available for the likes of hospitality and NHS, 2/5ths of people aged between 55-66 taking early retirement since covid, and an extra 500,000 people removed from the workforce due to long-term illness since 2020. There simply isn't anyone there to increase staffing levels, even if businesses could afford to.

Then add in the extra costs and layers of red tape brexit has inserted into supply chains, making every import and export more costly and time consuming. Plus the fact that the energy crisis is making virtually every supply more expensive too.

Finally chuck in the fact that for many businesses revenue still isn't back to pre-pandemic levels, meaning they're operating on reduced budgets.

Frankly, it's a miracle we haven't seen widespread collapse of businesses, especially across the hospitality and retail sectors.

You should just reconcile yourself with the fact that we won't be returning to 2019 levels in the next few years, if ever.

In my experience, the customer service offered by banks and utility companies was poor before Covid and is now abysmal. One of my friends is a support worker for vulnerable adults living in their own homes. He frequently has to phone utility companies on his clients’ behalf and often wastes an hour of his shift waiting on hold. This throws out his whole schedule of visits. Just answer the fucking phone!

My GP surgery was fine before Covid, but is now a bit crap. Recently, I waited three weeks for a two-minute phone appointment. A few days ago, I heard on the radio that we can’t expect surgeries to go back to pre-Covid levels of service due to a dire shortage of GPs. I can’t bear it. I feel like an idiot for abiding by lockdown rules “to save the NHS!” Waiting times for cancer treatment seem to be worse than ever and I don’t think that’s something we should accept.