AIBU to think everyday life admin has become far too complicated?

[Samben2014]

I just can’t believe how difficult it is to just the most basic of things these days. I forgot my password for my savings account online and I have just been on the phone for over an hour being passed between so many different bots and AI generated response systems before I could even speak with a human. I find doing these things that used to be so straight forward have become overly complicated in the last 12 months. I have no idea how the older generation cope. The NHS trust I work for are pushing everything down the APP route and if you’re not tech savvy you’re going to get left sitting on the waiting list. We are just not prepared for this new way of doing things, I miss talking to humans! I’m only late 30’s and find this is becoming unbearable. Am I being unreasonable?

Move to Leeds. You can do it online in 2 minutes.

They also let you pay in 12 monthly installments on the last day of the month instead of the 10 monthly on a random mid month date nonsense.

But then if your phone gets stolen/lost/broken you're totally buggered!

I do think things have got more complicated and you waste your time explaining things to people and emailing companies over and over because despite the people you are talking to having all the qualifications on paper to do the job, they don’t have common sense and are functionally illiterate. They can’t read or choose not to read and keep passing things back to you saying No you need to pay the fine/ you need to pay the bill.

Currently have debt collectors wanting payment for a debt the ombudsman has already told them that I don’t owe.

There answers “Who is this man” “We don’t believe in the ombudsman, he has no power here”

I have debt collectors who wrote to me cancelling a fine. The email said the account was now closed and I wouldn’t be hearing from them about this matter again

5 months later I get a email saying they hadn’t heard from me for a while and what was I going to do about paying the fine

(that they had cancelled)

I currently have an attachment of earnings from UC. They have the wrong information on file.

I came off UC when I moved. (When I came off UC the account was closed and I was no longer able to go into my account.
This didn’t stop someone deciding I had been overpaid and leaving a message on my journal (the journal on the closed account ) Then when I didn’t reply they went for the attachment of earnings.

have asked for a SAR which has been ignored.

I have spoken to a very angry person or should I say they shouted at me for not answering a journal entry (sent to my journal weeks after my account was closed and made inaccessible)
Apparently I should have asked for special access to this closed and inaccessible account to read the new journal entry

I swear if I ever go on benefits again I will be saying I need a job as a psychic as they believe that is the ability I have

Who am I to argue🤣

That's the promise of my local council too. I just have a slightly unusual update to make and the online system can't cope with it. I'm currently on my second attempt to raise an issue to get a person to deal with it instead of just sending the online link again. If that doesn't work I'll have to try the complaints system.

Dont get me started on council tax.

I have had 2 councils threaten me with court action over an amount written as a minus figure ( this means it is an overpayment NOT. I OWE YOU

You minus it off the next payment/ years bill

I over paid as I moved after paying that months dd.

One council had me pay a bill for court fees.
Before I was able to talk to someone about their employees lack of maths skills. I got the minus figure refunded but not the court fees.

Same thing happened in my next house. I now don’t do DD for council tax. I pay what I want to pay and will adjust accordingly when I leave this current house

We’ve all been gradually recruited as unpaid admin assistants for every company and organisation we need to deal with, with no value placed on our time at all. I wouldn’t mind so much if we at least had robust, logical, user-friendly systems to do all this unpaid work, with ready access to actual human support when we need it!

Reminding me of when a lovely relative sent my daughter some hand knitted clothes from abroad. Unfortunately I was on holiday and missed the package, and when the postman put the note through he put the wrong reference number on it. I spent literally 6 hours on the phone and online trying to rectify this, but because the number was wrong they basically refused to have anything else to do with me and said the package would be returned to Auntie X in Nevada. She would have been gutted! Last ditch attempt I googled creatively for the number of the local delivery office and miraculously found it in an old online directory. Rang it, they picked up and the whole thing was sorted in 2 mins. Humans are SO MUCH better at sorting things than systems are. Everything needs a human backup, at least.

Yes it has. For some elderly people living alone it must be a nightmare.
Why do we have to keep phoning to see if there's any offers on our TV and broadband. They should let us know.

I'm getting super frustrated with having to do the check up with my bank app before I pay for something online. Every time I do it, I then lose the page to validate the verification process and I'm back to square one, not being able to pay. It's just one thing out of lots of irritating other tech stuff ( like the authenticator app for my work email which sends me codes which don't work, forcing me to stop doing my job to inform the IT team who are never available of the issue). Soooo frustrating.

It's awful-and as you say, we are relatively young and (probably) work with computers.
Since my GP started using Patchs I've never got anything I needed. No appointments, when I requested a repeat prescription/fit note, they just closed my request without doing anything.

Quite. And in shops when we want to pay for something, even if it's a weekly food shop and all that that entails. And in restaurants if we want to order something. And in airports if we want to check in.

But it's all so much easier, didn't you know?

Nhs app thing is driving me nuts. My parents are old and vulnerable. I live in another country. They dont have smartphones or use Internet. Im lucky they have an amazing dr surgery who keeps them right other wise id lose the plot

I forgot a password for a "spare" bank account recently. I dutifully went into the "forgot password" setting, and pressed to reset it:

1. Call this automated number and you will be able to reset your password.
2. Automated number asks me for characters from my password before it will do anything.

It was genuinely easier to initiate a current account switch and close it that way, plus I got £200 as a switch bonus.

Exactly. Mine broke maybe 2 years ago and it was dreadful getting onto a couple of things because all the two-step verifications wanted to send messages to my broken phone. It would be far worse now with passkeys. I'm genuinely really worried about accessing things if I lost/broke it.

well so far today:

I have spent 40 minutes on the phone to a major airline because the website wasn't working, partially including going over details that I'd had to ring in last week because the website wasn't working then, either

taken an animal to the vet (unusual pet, the only vet who deals with them now is an hour away), and the car lied to me that it didnt have enough battery left to get me home, and took me off the motorway every chance it could get, thus using more battery up (got home with 15% to spare and my nerves utterly shredded)

UPS delivery -needed to reschedule, took over half an hour to manage that

And an online game I play, someone tried to get into my account so i tried to set up two-factor authentication and that took exactly an hour.

I'm honestly stopping anything that has to have online interactions unless it's absolutely vital, because it takes up so very much of the day and the stress is high.

Interestingly enough, it was NS&I who I was trying to access my savings account with! Almost impossible, I went round and round in circles as well 😣

Agree and I now actively look for opportunities to deal with humans. I like Nationwide because I can pop in and see someone. I like our local fruits and veg wholesaler with a shop as they are real people.

I agree. I am mid 30s, tech savvy, and it is relentless. Everything is such a hassle. Round and round in circles you go. And when you do speak to a human they often aren’t allowed to help because of the dire processes. It’s such a stress.

This is interesting. I’m just trying to get some compensation from my car insurance company after being given the wrong advice. Luckily I managed to capture the chat screen where the incorrect advice was given - but they’ve already admitted liability anyway.

I’m now totally sick of really crappy products and services so have decided not to just give in and accept being treated like rubbish.

I agree on some points but you really shouldn't need to phone someone because you need a password reset. I've never come across any system that requires that

I completely agree

When I rang the bereavement line for a utility company they asked me why I was ringing. I'd received a letter fue to informing them online, had the letter in front of me and he proudly told me I hadn't informed them and people ring the number to bypass the system.

If the chatbot sends you round in circles it's not ai driven but there definitely too much reliance on tech.

Don't get me started on the NHS app, it's one of the worse apps I've ever had the misfortune to have to use. I've got an illness that needs constant monitoring, my GP and hospital are in different areas. NHS app gives me no info on either. Thankfully the hospital have their own app.

You're right OP it's a nightmare.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.... brilliant.

The truly dystopian thing is we all see it but we have to play along....

As for the AI zealots - whelp. That is all.

Yes, i hate it. I resent spending my time outside of my full time job dealing with crappy and glitchy tech to do basic things.

This is what really annoys me. The lack of human backup. Fine, you've removed a bunch of transactions where humans weren't really necessary because they were simple. That should free up the cash to make sure there's a human there to deal with the more complicated query, because there are fewer of them now.