To bloody hate the admin of life

[cheeseomelette]

Why is nothing simple?

have been trying to get the boiler either fixed or replaced, some medical issues looked at, and a load of other house jobs sorted while managing a demanding full time job where I’m out of the house every day. I can do basic things but plumbing, cars and electrical things are just not in my skill set.

the hassle is unreal. Logging on to things at certain times with certain pass codes, resetting endless passwords and waiting for call backs or arranging visits. I end up buying new things because I haven’t got the time or energy to chase someone down to have my existing things fixed or serviced and that’s expensive and not great for the planet.

i’m having this rant waking up in a cold house because the boiler is playing up,again and the plumber I rushed home from work to let in yesterday didn’t turn up.

I’ve booked a private medical appointment this morning because there is no contacting my GP. They turn the booking system off online and don’t answer the phones.

It’s got to the point where I just feel sick when something goes wrong in the house because I know what a load of stress it’s going to be. I don’t know what the solution is here - I’m even contemplating downsizing to an apartment with a service contract.

YANBU. It drives me mad. The chatbots, the parking apps even when parking is free, not being able to turn up anywhere without prebooking, it feeling like a miracle if a tradesperson follows through, the chasing up, the multiple school apps, the apps that send you a text or email that doesn’t come through, the increasing charges for diminishing services, the groundhog days of repeating tasks to follow things up.

I feel your pain OP and life admin is certainly more complex and time consuming than it used to be.
Since covid I've noticed that customer service is virtually absent - no-one answers the phone, probably because there isn't anyone the other end , and when you complete a contact form it's rarely followed up.
GP appointments now involve a lengthy e-consult just to secure an appointment.
If a prompt course of antibiotics are required I've had to see a private GP. Prior to covid that was never a problem.
Parking apps are another source of potential stress, particularly in areas not visited before or poor signal areas. It would also be helpful if the same app could be used across the country.
This is the cost of progress. 🙄

I agree, modern technologies have made some businesses lazy and to be less bothered about their customers. It's also been a driver for businesses letting go of their customer service reps as they're no longer required. Frankly businesses that operate like this don't deserve to survive.

Anyone without a smartphone now must be in serious difficulty. This really isn't fair on people who probably need more help in life than most.

I hate being expected to order food from an app in a restaurant. Install the app, scroll through hundreds of options, try to make payment, get authorisation for payment etc.

Absolute nonsense. I don't want loads of apps cluttering up my phone just because I fancy eating somewhere.

Now when they ask if we're happy to order from the app we just say "No thanks we'd prefer to order from a human thanks" and it's fine.

My husband is getting on a bit and really hates mobile phones but he's had to get one recently just to deal with everyday life. They've closed our three closest banks and online banking is the only solution for most of us, though even then we still do have to visit a branch from time to time, a journey of three quarters of an hour on a good day outside rush hours.
I get particularly annoyed by companies that don't give a phone number, especially those who have an online contact form with limited subject options on the drop down menus. For example if you don't have an order number there is sometimes no way you can send the form at all.
Some of the .gov.uk sites are a real trial, you need all sorts of information to progress through them even when the subject you're investigating isn't really that confidential. Also the sites where they insist on sending you a code by text or notification which never arrives, or arrives too late to be of any use at all.
I don't use parking apps as you seem to need so many different ones. Fortunately we live in greater London so we can get to most places by public transport which can be quicker than struggling to find somewhere to park and then struggling to find a way to pay.

I agree about gov.uk sites. I recently had to contact NS &I. I got loads of questions before I could speak to an adviser. I couldn't answer some of them or it said Sorry I didn't understand that". I got so frustrated I was actually shouting at the questions.

There was no email option so I gave up and wrote to them

Or you go through the security questions and then the person you manage to get through to asks them again!

I didn't understand that...
AAARGH..it's not atuned for NE Scottish accents.
Likewise I was shouting 🤯🤯

@Thesteinwaysyouvebeenleadingmeon When I did get a reply to my letter, it said I didn't have any premium bonds 😪. I know I was given them as a child and can remember seeing the certificates so God know what's happened to them.

Yes I'm fed up bawling down the phone in a faux English accent.

My dads premium bonds mysteriously disappeared too

im pretty posh accent wise and find I need to Americanise I bit to be understood

It's a weird one @Bruisername . I remember getting them as a child for birthdays and Christmas and thinking "What a boring present. Why couldn't they give me toys or sweets instead?" 🤣

I know all the information like previous addresses etc was correct.

God yes, apps in restaurants.
you have to get on to their WiFi to download the app which is a pain in itself in usually dingy lighting

then you download the app, input more information they don’t need, finally get some food added. Then there’s an Apple Pay fiasco and it won’t go through.

You are then all hangry and have been there 30 minutes without a drink and have 45 mins left of your reservation.

at that point it also invites you to tip 20% for the non existent service you’ve had so far.

aarrrggghh

ps still no word from the plumber. Still using the plug in heater. 🙄

My pet hate is when you go onto a website to purposefully look for something/buy/book something, I know exactly what I'm wanting to do, how many distracting things seem.to pop up to delay me doing the task I set out to do.

Accept cookies....sign up to our newsletter for offers, do you want to complete our survey , follow us on socials, what do you think of our website..then the page jumps as it loads and you lose your place on it......FFS just let me click on what I'm trying to click on!

And don't get me started on endless updates for everything 🙄

Oh and the bloody government gateway thing that once you've spent 2 hours setting it up by various texts, emails, special words, questions etc it will only last for 90 days !

Virgin media are becoming my nemesis as well. Their telephone system literally just hangs up on you. I did happen to get through to a foreign call centre type person eventually and they have the ability to repeatedly retell you everything youve just said, everything you already know over and over. Finally got off the phone with them after 2 hours and they have the cheek to send you a text survey about the call.....no thanks, do your own market research, I'm spending no more of my free time doing it for you.

I am tempted to move to some sort of remote smallholding and refuse to have contact with anyone else on a regular basis.

Ive had a parking app ask me to verify that I am me when paying either by using my internet banking app or my internet banking card reader. I refuse to have my internet banking on my phone for security and my card reader stays at home. DH had to pay for parking that day.

Last week I had to run updates on two different parking apps (different days), with minimal internet connection.

Im trying to return something to Amazon. I selected Royal Mail collect from home. Got an email saying there was an issue and to go to the Royal Mail website. I filled in the details and requested delivery. I assume because of that, they changed from them bringing a label to me needing to print, which would be fine if they provided the label to print. I assumed they would still bring a label, but they didn’t but did agree to come back at the end of their round if I could sort out the label. So I sat on the phone for 30 minutes to find out that I need a different number. I tried that number and got a message that it would take 60 minutes for the call to be answered. My parcel still isn’t collected and I’m waiting for a reply to a message sent through their website.

I hate how I can no longer just log on to something with a username and password. Even when that’s all I need, websites for some reason ask for the username to be submitted then the password on the next page. I have no idea what benefit there is to doing it that way. Or they don’t have passwords but email a code every time. Sometimes at work I deliberately don’t open email to avoid distraction, then have to because they need the code inputting for a website that has minimal risk of private data being stolen or similar. Or another website that I use that makes it look like you’re logged in, but you try to navigate somewhere and it decides you’re not so you log back in, then have to redo the navigation.

I should probably stop there for the benefit of my blood pressure…

I hate it too. That’s why dh does it all🤣

@cheeseomelette I once ordered a meal through a QR code at a chain restaurant, only to find the QR code was accidentally linked up to a branch several miles away. My meal had been made, just not at the right location…

@Catsandcwtchesi hear you. I sent a whole round of drinks to the wrong Wetherspoons (same name, different town) not long ago. Thank God it was only Wetherspoons prices as it was cocktails and all sorts.

i realised what i’d done but couldn’t get through to anyone to stop it. May as well have poured money down the drain.

What an absolute piss take

My DH refuses to participate in any of this sh*t so I have to do the lot. He still insists on writing to the Inland Revenue, he responded this way once when they contacted him about a mistake they thought he'd made and never heard from them again. He reckons that three pages, hand-written, is the optimal length for putting them off any further action.

I hear you, OP.

It's the multiple barriers and hurdles put up to accomplish even the most simple of tasks. Several of those tasks a day stack up and so the barriers and hurdles feel relentless and unending.

I read an article in covid about 'micro-stress' which is exactly what you're talking about. Just hundreds of tiny moments of frustration per week which compound. They don't add up enough to say "I have a stressful life" (in fact, the article argued that lots of people experience micro-stress quite badly because they don't have too much broader stress in their lives), but they do mount up.

OP, I blame you for our boiler going on the blink. An hour to get through on the phone on Saturday, to book an engineer who won’t come until tomorrow. No better service for being on the Priority Services Register….

Three of those four screwups were by the private sector, and the speeding ticket was not affected by my ID.

I'm actually in favour of digital ID. Many European countries have it and not a single political party is proposing to abolish it. Ditto ID cards.

ID cards and digital ID actually protect you, because they enable you to prove, in a way that the government and the law are obliged to accept, that you are who you say you are. Look at the recent story of how 23,000 people lost their child benefit because HMRC decided to try and piggy-back the detection of whether someone is out of the country on whether they (or someone of the same name) bought an airline ticket.

Here's a challenge for you: You probably know several EU citizens who live in the UK. Find a single one who has ever been disadvantaged by the fact that their home country issues either physical or digital ID. Literally just one. I promise that you won't be able to. Next ask them if they would like the UK government to issue them with a biometric card proving their right to live in the UK (which at the moment is merely an entry in the Home Office computer). Literally everyone will say yes.

I wish I had kept the very funny video/GIF that I saw a while back on this subject.

It was the scene from Airplane! where Robert Stack arrives at the airport to take charge, and he gets importuned by all the religious people who used to hang around US airports trying to buttonhole people. He kicks and punches and throws them all out of the way. As he does so, each one is captioned: "Cookies", "Location", "Newsletter", "Feedback popup", etc.

That’s so funny.. there’s a lot to learn there!