to be fed up with how f-ing difficult everything is?

[GrinchyScroogus]

Maybe I'm caught in one of those phases where everything goes wrong. I feel like everything is such an f-ing hassle if you interact with any kind of shop or goods or services and I'm fed up with it.

I've had a delivery where it was just left in a puddle when it should have been put through a letter box, the box soaked through and the item was damaged - not unusuable but not as ordered. I emailed asking for a partial refund and got sent a £5 gift card. WTF. Never ordered from these people before and had no need for anything else from them. Had another go and eventually they refunded me £20 (about 50%) - so it was worth doing but just hassle. Offering a gift card for something delivered damaged is terrible customer service, so is having to force the customer to raise it again.

Another problem where had to try to get info out of a previous company about what work they'd done to give a new company. No one answering the phone on hold forever. Phoned repeatedly and wasted a lot of time and phone bill money.

Ordered something from Amazon from a 3rd party. what was delivered was not what was described at all. Actioned return but they expected me to pay postage so needed more emails to sort that out as I was not prepared to pay postage to return something that was there complete misdescription.

A (Well known for being incompetent) courier company keep delivering a neighbours parcels to us because they can't read the address apparently (not because they aren't in). Trying to contact them is near impossible.

Just one thing after another. Complaining is stressful and I hate all this but if you don't you lose a lot of money. Leaving the courier which is just a pain, the total cost of not trying to sort out all this would have been about £130 - none of this is just shopaholic shopping either, some of it was serious maintenance stuff.

It just seems that unless you stay at home and do nothing, every engagement with every shop or service causes problems AND then sorting it out is never easy.

Does anyone else have this experience or do most people just suck up the wasted money and let it go?

SO FED UP.

I miss when mobile phones were really good at making phone calls.

Sky are absolute bastards for this.
I used to be able to manage my account using the options on my TV.
Clearly they want everyone to download their App. Fuck off! Why should I have to load my phone storage with your crap?
Tried phoning them… invariably get an overseas call centre where the level of English is so poor that communication is impossible.
They win when you give up. It’s all absolutely deliberate.
Once I am fully out of contract, I’m off. Seeing their adverts offering services for £25 for new customers only has just finished it for me.

@Badbadbunny @MrsZiggywinkle

MrsZiggywinkle · 16/12/2025 16:59
Wait until you have to do banking for an elderly relative using Lasting Power of Attorney. That’s a whole other level of madness. I have a whole list of banks and companies I will never use again.

I agree. I've done it for family and also some clients over the years. My list of banks not to touch with a bargepole include Post Office and Halifax, both of which I've found to be slow and utterly useless several times with different people. I closed my own accounts with them a while ago as they don't deserve business the way they poorly treat the elderly, their families and families of the deceased customers.

Hell yes to the horror show that is Halifax. Obstructive, incompetent, unpleasant to deal with, no compassion for the difficulties faced by people needing to use LPAs. Would never use them.

NatWest was good and ++ points also to Nationwide.

Another problem I've found is not even being able to communicate with a company at all.

Delivery driver not delivering to us caused property vehicle damage with van. Tried to contact the company to claim for the damage. Only way to contact them is via their online chat. "Please enter your parcel reference number"
I DON'T HAVE A PARCEL REFERENCE NUMBER AS YOU WEREN'T DELIVERING TO ME.
Tough luck. With no reference number you can't even access the chat!!! Can't move forward.

Another one - online chat. Please send me your phone number as I want to make a billing complaint. "Which venue are you complaining about. Enter venue". I'm not complaining about a venue. Arrgh. Again you have to pick something from a drop down menu or you can't move forward.

It literally makes me want to become a nun in solitary confinement. What do they call those people? Anchorites? That's it. Not have to deal with anyone ever.

Totally agree! Everything is painful these days. There's a fight needed for everything.

Today: Food delivery with double cream that expires tomorrow, got to rebuy now and request a refund. 2 extra tasks for something that was supposed to make my life easier.

Last week: Car went into garage for service, brakes fixed and battery replaced. They didn't bother doing the battery or the brakes. Now got to manage without the car 2 days next month.

Earlier this month: son had hearing test booked automatically on an inconvenient date, rang about 20 times to rearrange and finally got through about an hour before the appointment (their opening hours on the letter were clearly wrong). Rebooked for a better date only to receive a letter saying it's been rearranged for another inconvenient date. Ended up just cancelling it in the end as it was no longer needed.

It's all such a waste of everyone's time!

Agree.

It feels like nothing can be done simply or quickly anymore, let alone done well, with endless hurdles to clear before making any real progress. It’s draining. Even trying to speak to a real person at a company to fix the smallest issue feels impossible.

I have a friend from Brazil who’s nearly losing his mind from all the stress caused by the bureaucracy involved in solving problems. He says that in his country, there’s a full consumer law code to protect people from companies, along with a whole government institution dedicated to defending consumer rights. Isn’t it wild that a so-called third-world country has something we don’t? He also mentions that there are actual employees in companies whose job is to help and support consumers. It’s not perfect—things often go wrong—but at least they have laws and a government body to fight back. Of course, it’s not all smooth sailing there either, especially when companies or their employees aren’t cooperative, or when communication breaks down. Still, like I said, at least they have laws and a government institution to stand up for consumers.

Everything this years seems far more likely to take at least theee goes to he anywhere, and even then things never quite get sorted. It’s exhausting

I agree with you all..The stress is awful.

There’ll be another thread on here shortly with lots of retail staff and customer service staff complaining how rude customers are.

Er yeah, because I have finally got through to you after a chat bot, ringing twenty times and being on hold for 55 minutes for you to tell me that I’ve called the wrong number…..

Yes! Awful!!! My favourite recently was someone coming to deliver 3 x large, heavy items. Called me and said 'I'm on this road'. I said 'O.K I don't live there...' 'well I put in the postcode'.

The deliver driver had literally just put the postcode into his sat nav without bothering to add in the address and then got frustrated when I told him he needed to actually come to the address as I couldn't carry the massive, heavy items 5 minutes down the road.

And what about when they do something wrong, offer you a £10 gift card as an apology after 30 minutes spent on the phone following a lengthy conversation with an AI chatbot that can't help you with any personal info anyway, but delivery costs £3.99 so you've actually been given £6.01 as a 'gesture of goodwill'. Infuriating!