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Fed up of poor service from companies.

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LesLee7 Fri 17-Jul-26 16:39:59

Sorry for the rant I'm usually a placid person...
Just been on the phone for 45 minutes to Royal Mail. Although I was in got a card to say they couldn’t deliver as I didn’t answer – wouldn’t let me redeliver on line so spent ages on the phone. Yesterday – despite the fact we are lucky to get mail once a week all mine got delivered to the wrong house (has happened before).
I lost half my life yesterday (over 2 hours) as when I rang my bank to ask them to transfer a fairly big amount rather than do it myself online they somehow managed to block my account and it was a nightmare trying to do their digital ID. Anyone without a smart phone (I don’t have as poor signal where I am) or a tablet would have been stuck and our branch was closed a while ago. I will be closing that account as soon as I change any DD etc and going elsewhere.
I already actively only use companies where you can actually speak to someone if there is an issue, ideally that person being in the UK. I won’t use online chat as you lose even more hours of your life and get nowhere.
Try to get a workman – no chance they don’t even have the courtesy to say they are busy just don’t reply.
Wanted a tax issue checking (basic for them, they said 1-2 hours) and am on my 3rd accountant – the first 2 didn’t respond and even though the third now has all my info I’m on 39 days and counting – despite their high hourly charge. Don’t think they’ve even started.
I’m definitely turning into a grumpy old woman but I worked in public service (Chartered Librarian for 40 years) helping people. I know it’s not the fault of the person you speak to and I’m not funny with them but I do spell out how unhappy I am with the service provided. “The high call volumes” excuse for hanging on for ages is a con. I believe there are just very few people answering phones.
I am getting on (72 next month) but older people or those without a smart phone, ipad, or PC must struggle as a lot of companies just don’t give you an alternative way to contact them. Do you have the same problem?

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ClicketyClick Fri 17-Jul-26 17:01:57

Oh yes! Just today I've tried to register a private pension for an online account. Email back saying I failed security even though I'd entered everything correctly. So 45+ minutes on the phone, passed to 3 different teams before finally being told one dept has my new address, another dept still has my old address even though I'd called them 2 years ago to update it and told all was done. I hate phone calls as struggled due to being very hard if hearing so that in itself is a trial. The final straw was being told that my particular pension can't be managed online arggh!

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AmberGran Fri 17-Jul-26 17:56:25

I don't think many people actually understand customer service anymore.

We've just had BT in to upgrade to full fibre broadband. Sounded reasonable when we talked to them back in May. 2 weeks ago their contractor came to put the new cable in. Last week their engineer arrived to connect the cable to our network. It didn't work. Then we were told the contractors couldn't come back for over a week to fix the cable. They've sorted out a mini network for us so we do have some internet now but it's a bit limited. They are due back next week to complete it.

I find it difficult to understand that they can come here and disrupt an existing system then leave it for a few weeks before fixing it. For me good customer care would be 'Wow - we got it wrong but we'll be back tomorrow to fix it'.

I don't care that they got it wrong. Bad stuff happens some times. I do care that the best they can do is create another appointment when it is convenient to them to come back and fix it. It's not BT, it's their contractor, over whom BT have no authority at all apparently.

Not even much point in moving from BT - they are pretty good a lot of the time and no one else is consistently any better.

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