If I hear ‘because of covid’ one more time!!!!!

[FTEngineerM]

Why is this the new thing that EVERYBODY uses as the reason that things can’t be done, it’s totally overused. Or am I being super sensitive?

I rang dominos a few days ago to try and get some meat put on a vegan base because whilst DC has dairy allergy I still like meat..

The response: ‘no, I can’t do that because of covid we’re not taking orders over the phone..’

I didn’t want to order over the phone, I just wanted to call and for them to swap a topping or two, pizza is same price.

She laughed said that’s not my problem I can’t change the rules bye.

It’s becoming part of every interaction I have, something is ‘because of covid’ when in actual fact covid hasn’t changed what I’m asking for for the logistics of it.

Has anyone else heard anyone say something obscure.. ‘because of covid’?

We can't have a sky dish fitted because they need 2 workers to go up high and they can't socially distance so we're paying £103 for sky go essentially

Flyingwiththecanons

“We can't have a sky dish fitted because they need 2 workers to go up high and they can't socially distance”

I think that’s fair enough, tbh.

@firstimemamma

My GP aren't doing pill check-ups (blood pressure, other important checks) due to Covid. Mine isn't due to March so I'll have to wait and see if I'm 'allowed' one.

I had to give my GP my weight and BP by email and I got a 3 month prescription. I then ordered some more from an online pharmacy.

My big complaint is trying to get through to bloody Lloyds Bank and being told to only call them if it's urgent. I can't think of any non urgent reason I'd spend 2 hours in a queue to speak to someone!

OMG! You broke a tooth and they wouldn't treat you on the NHS? Shocking!

I think that was fairly typical, i broke a tooth back in March, I couldn't get seen until it was at the abscess stage in November. Had I been seen in March, the tooth could have been saved, by the time it got to November, i had an abscess and had lost even more of the tooth so too late.

I also lost a filling, which because it wasn't repaired led to me cracking that one too. They have managed to repair that one, but it's unlikely to last as long as if they'd been able to fix it straight away. In the first lockdown there wasn't even the option to pay for private, I would have paid a lot of money to save my teeth.

Yep lm sick of it as well. For somethings it’s a justified explanation e.g. non-urgent hospital appointments being cancelled. For most things it’s a lazy excuse. I have been saying for a while what will people say as an excuse when all of this is over. If l have to hear the excuse until 2030 then l may explode!!!

I had a problem with a tooth so called my NHS dentist in August only to be told they wouldn't see me as they we're just reopening as they had decorated the surgery! They'd had since March FGS!

I was told they would call me when I could see them and, guess what, nothing. I didn't even ask if they'd see me privately on principle, I just want to the private practice next door (not that I can afford it but at least they saw me!).

It's no surprise that businesses and other organisations aren't running as usual. So many staff are off isolating, or shielding, or having to be off due to having kids not at school. Others are working from home, often very inefficiently and only able to do part of their normal job. Employers can't just employ loads of new people to fill the gaps, and if staff aren't in their usual workplaces, they're not able to train up new recruits either.

Everyone is just treading water and trying to keep the plates turning as much as possible, and for most, that means having to provide just the most basic and urgent services only,.

@DenisetheMenace

Flyingwiththecanons

“We can't have a sky dish fitted because they need 2 workers to go up high and they can't socially distance”

I think that’s fair enough, tbh.

That’s funny

I had a new dish but up last year and it only needed one person

I work for dominos - the reason we can't put meat on the vegan pizzas is because the system locks all non vegan options on the screen so we can't add it to your order (nothing to do with covid), the half and half pizzas can be done (in my store at least) over the phone but not via the app because we are running on reduced staff and more orders than usual so head office made that decision, and we don't do gluten free pizzas at the moment partly due to supply issues and partly due to having less staff and not being allowed to move between stations so usually 1 member of staff would deal with the gluten free pizza to avoid contamination but that now can't be done because they aren't allowed to move between stations. I get that it is frustrating, it is frustrating for the staff too but we don't make the decisions.

@FightingWithTheWind thanks for the response.

Firstly that’s silly regarding meat on a vegan base, PapaJohns manage just fine, they now get my custom after being an avid dominos’er.

Why can’t ‘reduced fat cheese’ be offered? There is literally no difference in portion storage or selection, it doesn’t need to remain ‘uncontaminated’ (new word hehe). I realise it’s not everyones fault who works front line at dominos but it’s still a shit pointless decision. Nevertheless the particular member of staff I spoke to was needlessly useless.

@FTEngineeM I can't speak got other takeaways but our computer system really won't allow us to pick anything that isn't vegan to go on the vegan bases, and when there are double the amount of orders but half the staff we can't just ask the make-line to swap the toppings themselves. Our store does offer low fat cheese, I'm not sure what the reasoning behind your store not offering that is. It is the gluten free pizzas where the contamination is an issue because it could potentially make someone very unwell.

There is no excuse for the staff having spoken to you rudely, I understand that it isn't your fault at all but I will say that we have had to deal with an awful lot of abuse from an awfu lot of customers (I'm not suggesting that you were abusive) and it is wearing everybody down.

Gently suggesting the OP gets over herself for such a triviality. 💐

Worth noting that during a pandemic some things can not simply go ahead. Lots of factors. A little understanding usually goes a very long way.

[quote StormyInTheNorth]@theviewfromhalfwaydown
Bloody hell. Your poor DD and poor you. I have an ED and those avoidance tactics are completely normal but someone other than you should have seen through them, especially the 10 stone.
As for eating on zoom. I am having the shivers just reading that. What a way to make things a million times worse.
I am really struggling this lockdown and I am a sensible almost 40 who has to at least eat to function for my own DD so I can see how she feels.
An idea, and this may get me some bad comments. Could you work with her to design a 'safe menu' of foods she can control at set times. That helps me to manage but I am at a stage where I know I need to eat as much as it makes me feel sick and disgusted with myself.[/quote]
Thank you for your reply. Last year was absolute hell. We have got to the point I put food in front of her and she eats it but she won’t feed herself if I’m not here. They discharged her really fast from the Ed team as they said she seemed fine on the weekly zoom call. She is looking better in herself though but it’s like I’m constantly worried she will slip back to how she was before.

Your being super sensitive, it's the way the world is, get over it, some people just love to moan.

We run our own business, and my patience has evaporated. Long rambling phone messages which all essentially say "due to Covid, our customer service is even worse than it normally is". Talking to people on mobiles with poor reception is doing my nut in.

I'm getting a new car - placed the order in October for a stocked vehicle. Still haven't bloody got it, and I'm not far from telling them to fuck off .

I'm not even getting started on GP surgeries. I may blow a gasket. We've become a 3rd world country for healthcare.

YADNBU catch-all excuse for lazy jobsworths

@DarcyJack

So at Southend sorting office half are off with covid or isolating. What would you like them to do with your parcels?? Nhs dentists are for the most part not allowed to open. Same with physio ots slts etc. We can only physically see someone in a critical situation for the most part. You know - in case we give then covid. Plus half of us have been redeployed to covid wards or as vacinators. I'm sure you know this is happening! So routine appointments have to wait as we are doing or training to do something more important. How do you expect to receive a good or even adequate service with the amount of sickness and isolation and redeployment you must know we have?

NHS dentists have been allowed to open since June last year. However service seems to vary from dentist to dentist. Not sure where you are getting your into from but that's not because they aren't allowed to open.

I have had a checkups and two hygienist appointments since last June as has my husband. We use two different practices. However we are are now 6 months past the date they were allowed to open and still some people cannot access a check up, treatment or hygienists. And in some area the dentists offer private but not NHS. It's completely unacceptable.

If our dentists are able to do open and offer appointments there is no reason why this cannot be done by other dentists.

YADNBU catch-all excuse for lazy jobsworths

A bit like "the cuts" ... as someone once said, "the last bastion of the incompetent"

On which subject I was just sent this, which I thought you'd all like:

An engineer, a doctor a politician and a priest are arguing about whose is the oldest profession
"That would be me" says the doctor, "To take Adam's rib to make Eve"
"But it was all God's doing" says the priest, "And you wouldn't have known that without us"
"No, no" says the engineer, "We were there in the first place to create the universe from chaos"
"Ah" chimed in the politician, "But who created the chaos in the first place?"

This is pissing me off. Actually, has done since March 20. It's just an excuse for laziness and shit service.

There a lot of excuses but also it’s really shit right now.
Nhs is struggling with staffing and high acuity... so you won’t see a physio like normal as they are all busy with covid patients as they all need physio, elective surgery is delayed as staff are all redeployed/wards taken over by covid.

Dentists are incredibly high risk places for covid transmission so yeah, unsurprising that they aren’t keen on doing routine check ups.

Post office/Royal Mail are struggling as 30% of staff off sick/isolating at any time. They are handling hundreds and thousands of items previously handled by others, and poorly protected. They need to reduce the volume of post coming through.

Dominos etc I can’t account for, sometimes it’s just excuses or people following rules/guidelines blindly.

@Oblomov20

This is pissing me off. Actually, has done since March 20. It's just an excuse for laziness and shit service.

Yep. Virgin media, I’m looking at you. “We are prioritising key workers and our vulnerable customers” when you try to get hold of them. This was August by the way so no excuse. EE as well, clearly some kid “working from home” and you can hear the TV on in the background.

Maybe I’ll start prioritising not paying your bills then if I can’t get the service I pay for.

I’ve noticed that it’s increasingly becoming “due to Brexit and Covid” - which is interesting as I assume the government will aim to blame Covid for as much as possible rather than admitting Brexit is causing problems.

DP went into our village shop last week, he was sending a parcel via Hermes (I believe) the shop was deserted and he walked up to the counter to be served, the shop assistant refused to serve him because he hadn’t “followed the arrows” this involved doing a lap of the empty shop to bring him back to exactly where he was already standing!

I’m boycotting our local Superdrug after I was given the 3rd degree about what I wanted to buy when we went into lockdown the first time, I was shouted at from across the shop, the shop assistant then barked instructions at me like a sergeant major and told me I couldn’t buy hair dye as that was being irresponsible (not sure why it was irresponsible and I actually had to walk down that aisle anyway to buy my shower gel).

COVID has allowed some people to release their inner twat

" you won’t see a physio like normal as they are all busy with covid patients as they all need physio,"
Apologies if this is an inflammatory question, I don't intend it this way. Why do people needing physio after covid take precedence over people needing physio for other reasons?

@WalrusWife

Dominos aren’t doing half and half pizzas “because the rona.”

This REALLY annoys me 😂