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!!

www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/1a287ff8-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/1a287ff8-en#:~:text=The%20Danish%20economy%20performed%20solidly,Figure%201.1%2C%20Panel%20A).

As shown in figure 1.3, the economic impact of COVID-19 was substantial but less than other countries including Sweden.

So you agree that there was no way of knowing what the impact not having lockdown would have been but at the same time you think that they should have done some modelling to predict it.

HO has THE worst customer service.
That was before covid though so they can't even blame the partial wfh or restrictions!

I've lost half my client base of small businesses who've closed down or gone bankrupt. That's a fact. They closed down mostly because they couldn't weather months of not being allowed to trade, and to make matters worse, many being excluded from covid support schemes for no obvious reason. They included non food shops, hospitality, guest houses, tourism, hairdressers, entertainment, driving instructors, etc. Many just about survived the first lock down and were pinning their hopes on the Summer 2020 re-opening, but then we were back in lockdown again and the Jan-Apr 2021 lockdown was the real killer. One lockdown, and most could cope living on reserves, borrowings, etc., but most reserves had been depleted by the early 2021 lockdown meaning they had nothing left.

Most people weren't ever going to die from covid. Yes, of course, a small proportion of young and healthy people did die, but the vast majority either didn't catch it or survived it. Yes, lots of elderly and vulnerable people DID die mostly because they caught it in places which should have been safe, such as hospitals and care homes - lockdowns didn't prevent those deaths - as they couldn't be protected when staff were coming and going as normal without proper precautions/protective clothing, etc. Nothing to do with lockdowns at all!

My OH is extremely clinically vulnerable with cancer and even he didn't want everyone else suffering lockdowns to protect him - he was quite happy to live in a bubble and protect himself by not going out, and I was quite happy to do the same to protect him. Our DS moved out temporarily so that he wouldn't risk bringing covid into our home. The few people who had to come into our home were told we were a ECV household and to wear gloves, face-coverings etc and only went into well ventilated rooms which we didn't use for the rest of the day!

That's what should have been happening. By all means encourage people to socialise and mix less, spread people out more, insist on better personal hygiene, protective clothing, etc., especially around vulnerable people. Put a "ring of steel" around the vulnerable - it would have cost a hell of a lot less than the hundreds of billions spent on the lockdowns! To shut down an entire economy for best part of 18 months to "protect" the vast majority of people who don't need protecting is absolute stupidity.

Must be local franchises - I just looked at the one we order from and it has reappeared on the app. I'm sure it wasn't there 2 months or so ago.

Oh no😵‍💫 Applying for settled status was so straightforward. All done automatically within 48hrs. Uploading it to new passport is different story. I already travelled with my old passport, marriage certificate and my new passport, to prove that I live here.

@xogossipgirlxo that was! But we had to deal with them for non eea person and fuck me. If any other business was that incompetent while charging and holding money, the bosses would be in prison

My GP surgery has removed the straps from the 24 hour blood pressure monitors, which means you have to carry the blooming thing around in your hand or try to fit it in a back pocket if you're wearing trousers and it'll fit (they don't always). They said it was due to covid, but when I pointed out that we now understood covid to be airborne, the nurse agreed and said it was silly, but the straps would not be going back on.

Of course we fucking did!

We KNOW what type of jobs were going to be hit hardest. I remember at the time there were concerns that women were getting hit harder for lots of reasons.

WE KNOW THIS STUFF - its not well studying but you have people like Caroline Criado Perez who have written at length about the financial vulnerabilities of women. Her book Invisible Women predates the pandemic.

What the problem is, is the political unwillingness to acknowledge this and have government and company policies that actually reflect this.

This utter bullshit that 'we couldn't have known' is frankly scandalously ignorant.

Its like 'no one saw the financial crash of 2008' coming. Except all the people (like me) who absoluetely did and prepared for it. Or 'no one saw the problems with NI post Brexit' utter shite and all the other 'no one saw x coming' nonsense which is merely poor planning and looking at demographics and what they actually mean in the real world.

The data is 100% there on a lot of this. Its just that people CHOOSE to ruddy ignore it, because it throws up inconvient truths...

I'm sick of being total that 'it was impossible to predict' comments for a shedload of things I've actually said and often posted on MN as being a highly likely outcome because I understand the information we DO have.

I feel like fucking Cassandra. Its really really starting to bloody wind me up, the lack of due diligence that people have.

I feel exactly the same. So much of what happens is entirely foreseeable and lots of blindingly obvious, but we still keep getting fobbed off with "unforeseeable", etc. It's unacceptable.

Like when Brown introduced a zero rate of corporation tax and then a 10% rate which caused a stamped of sole traders businesses converting to limited companies. It wasn't "unforeseeable", it was bloody obvious that window cleaners, dog walkers, etc would convert into limited companies to save several hundred if not thousands of pounds in tax. His Paymaster General, Dawn Primarolo, is on record (in Hansard) of telling Parliament that she didn't think sole traders would incorporate "just to save tax" - what planet are these people on?

It constantly happens, and we're constantly told by politicians, council officials, mandarins, industry "experts", etc., that whatever has just happened was "unforeseeable". No, it really WAS foreseeable!

Just like when the Highways Agency closed the M6 near Lancaster a few weeks ago for a full weekend. Everyone locally knew it would cause chaos and gridlock as there's no viable alternative route. But the Highways Agency "experts" were surprised when it did! It's their sodding job to plan for traffic flow, diversions/congestion etc when there's planned roadworks and they spectacularly failed.

@RedToothBrush

"I feel like fucking Cassandra. Its really really starting to bloody wind me up, the lack of due diligence that people have."

+++

I can actually remember both you and I pointing out on MN during the pandemic the subsequent impacts of lockdowns on the economy, deaths from other causes (such as missed cancer screenings, children's education etc etc. However we were shouted down as anti vaxx, Covid deniers, granny killers etc.

I get that we live in a democracy and that I have to accept the downsides from the decisions taken by the majority. However I cannot tolerate those that made their choice but now whinge about the predicted downside. Whether that be a Brexit Leave voter moaning about the passport queue when they arrival their EU holiday destination or those that supported the lockdown but now complain about tax rises or cuts in spending.

Seriously where did they think that the money for £600 million for eat out to help out or the £45 billion in business bounce back loans would come from?

That's what should have been happening. By all means encourage people to socialise and mix less, spread people out more, insist on better personal hygiene, protective clothing, etc., especially around vulnerable people. Put a "ring of steel" around the vulnerable - it would have cost a hell of a lot less than the hundreds of billions spent on the lockdowns! To shut down an entire economy for best part of 18 months to "protect" the vast majority of people who don't need protecting is absolute stupidity

They’ll never admit it though. It’s all ‘ how could we have known?!??’ when actual experts came out against lockdowns they were smeared relentlessly but they were right in the end.

Bloody GP’s!

All the supermarket butchers, bakers, and delicatessens have closed, apparently forever.

You know what we didn't know - what nobody knew - in March 2020 @RedToothBrush ? We didn't know much about covid. We didn't know how bad it would be, who it would kill, who it would damage, how it was spread, or how to treat it. Given that, an element of caution was, I think, warranted.

Yes, for the first lockdown. But we knew a hell of a lot about all those factors by Summer 2020 and should have been a lot wiser and careful about controlling it from Summer 2020 to Summer 2021 rather than continue the knee jerk reaction of just shutting everything down twice more and being far too slow to open things up again once numbers were clearly falling.

Personally I feel it was right to be cautious at first before we knew much about the virus. But after we all had ample opportunity to get vaccinated? And more was known about who was clinically vulnerable to Covid and who wasn’t particularly vulnerable? (most of us).
The over reaction to the dangers of Covid went on far too long and I can barely believe that some people & organisations are still being ultra cautious and slow to return to normal. Can’t help feeling it must just suit their personal circumstances.

YANBU. I’m trying to contact my council about our council tax bill. Can’t get through on the phone at all, emails take weeks to be answered. I phoned at 4.45pm today, the recorded message told me the offices were now closed, and opening hours were 8.30am-5pm ?!
I’m a vet nurse, we work so hard to provide a good service regardless of what is thrown at us, there’s no way we would get away with some of the excuses I’ve had from other professions!

Oh yes to the delivery people. We have loads of daily deliveries at work and because they tend to drive the same route the drivers get to know the customers. When Covid started they were no longer able to collect signatures so they asked for names and took photos of goods in situ. They don't bother with photos any more and the driver from one company, which I won't name, pushed his luck a bit too far when he didn't bother to deliver and named the recipient on that day as a member of staff who does indeed work in our stores but who happened to be on annual leave that day as our records clearly showed!

You are spot on.
in my own experience, mine and my parents gp surgery’s see patients as an inconvenience and gps are lazy and overpaid - in my experience!
and utilities, British Gas, etc have done away with ‘customer service’ - absolutely diabolical 😔

Totally agree with this post. However it doesn't stop the occasional passagg text from the GP when requesting a repeat prescription🙄They have time to do that!

In my town the barbers do not take appointments and are full all the time. Also my son works at the top barbers in Brighton and they take walk ins and bookings. So its just the one place making excuses for sure

Just about every government dept you could mention from tax office to DVLA, passport office etc. Staff have got used to sitting at home in their pyjamas watching Netflix, refusing to return to the working environment; hence the massive build-up of work and impossibility of reaching anyone by phone to have an actual conversation

Certainly true of HMRC. Only "automatic" things are being done, i.e. tax demands generated after electronic submission of returns etc. Anything requiring human intervention and you're waiting months, if not years for action.

I've got client cases where we've submitted repayment claims in 2020 and 2021 which still haven't been processed meaning real liquidity problems for clients who need the money due to them. It's impossible to talk to anyone with any authority to explain why there's such a delay or to action the repayments. Always the same, they say they'll "pass a message to that team", and that's all they can do. We're phoning monthly for some clients with exactly the same response. We've now got a template letter for clients to send to their MP advising them of the problem and demanding action, but they're getting similar responses from their MPs, i.e. vague promises but no action, and MPs are also getting fed up of it.

As for other "routine" things like VAT registrations or self assessment registrations, things that used to take a few days, can now sometimes fall into a black hole within HMRC literally never to be actioned, with HMRC seemingly unable to action them - they can see an application has been made, but can't explain why it's in "limbo" without being allocated to anyway, without any note on the system as to why it's held, and with no way of knowing who, within HMRC, is responsible for it, so they can't even "pass a message" to the right person/dept to expedite it. Because a submission has been made, the HMRC system won't allow you to submit another, computer just rejects a repeat submission, so you're really stuck with nowhere to go.

Even things that are actually "done" are usually done wrong. A regular task for us is asking for changes to PAYE tax codes - despite us spelling it very clearly what tax code we want, with a full breakdown as to reason, the vast majority of "new" PAYE codes come out wrong mostly because the HMRC "human" hasn't bothered to read our notes on the submission and have made assumptions of their own. Presumably too busy watching daytime TV, playing with their child/dog or answering the door to actually read our request submission!

Absolutely spot on.
Lazyitus is the new Covid