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I have spent all of yesterday morning and best part of the afternoon today trying to call various government departments as well as large private organisations and no one answers the bloody phone!!!!
In the name of god get some humans to answer the phone - PLEASE
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God why is it so bloody hard . . . . on 16:05 - Jul 3 with 2179 views
Back in the 90s, I worked for a very large private company and my desk was in a huge, open area of our HQ building. There were dozen upon dozen of people working in that space.
A sloping walkway came down into the area from a hallway. The head of that part of the business was a brash, outspoken gentleman from the Sunderland area who, buoyed by a very successful and lucrative sales career at our company - a single deal earned him a bonus of over £1m - was very outspoken, very direct and frankly, terrifying. He didn't suffer fools gladly, scared the living daylights out of everyone and was a real bully.
One day, with the office packed, he walked onto the walkway, unseen, only to hear a 'phone ringing, unanswered. And ringing. And ringing. He lost it and bellowed at the top of his voice: "Answer the fkin 'phone!" Cue panic as multiple people scrabbled to pick up the receiver
Another time, he was put in charge of a business unit tasked with developing a vital, major new product. An invite to an internal product launch event went out, and when I turned up to the lecture theatre in which it was being held, it was packed and everyone looked attentive, if very nervous. He launched into his presentation and when he quipped that there would be a test at the end, the note taking in the audience went off the scale.
Then, twenty minutes in, a bloke turned up late, sheepishly telling the furious looking presenter that he had been on a customer call.
The presenter glared at him and boomed: "It's a good job I don't know who you are!" only for a member of the audience to shout: "Oh, hello, Mark!".
"Things had started becoming increasingly desperate at Loftus Road but QPR have been handed a massive lifeline and the place has absolutely erupted. it's carnage. It's bedlam. It's 1-1."
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God why is it so bloody hard . . . . on 16:45 - Jul 3 with 1957 views
Working from home. You must be calling during the school run, popping down the shops time or out doing the garden time. This call if you had got through would be recorded to stop you saying what you would like to.
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God why is it so bloody hard . . . . on 16:59 - Jul 3 with 1906 views
God why is it so bloody hard . . . . on 16:59 - Jul 3 by Juzzie
M50 I signed up and paid every time I went through with an account and their system. However their system messed up and they forgot to charge me and I thought I must have paid. 2 months later 50 euro fine. To register a complaint you have a set of options to choose from - none matched my reason. I rang the helpline - my helpline buddy told me look at website I said I have none of your reasons match can I talk to a supervisor. No supervisor here ring London - why London this is a republic of Ireland toll bridge. It's owned by a London company - here's the number ( at this stage after negotiating the various helpline choices I was on the blower over 20 minutes and about 20 quid plus down). So I googled the number over £3 a minute and average call over 15 minutes. I paid the fine as it would have cost me more to phone. Now I've wasted £50 on other stuff i.e. games system for kids at Christmas that was a scam on Facebook etc. But this one still really annoys me as it appears to me I was set up to get done.
Helplines are not helpful when you are cycling through menus that make no sense and end up with you being told your in the wrong department.
I end up pressing the wrong number that means that there are no more options and i get cut off and have to start again
Couple of years ago - I had to wait 1 hour and 45 minutes to speak to the doctors receptionist and as soon as she asked me what was the reason for my call, my mobile conveniently decided to run out of battery,
I had 57% charge when I initiated the call so thought that would be plenty !!!!!!
Having just gone through the process of handling my mother's affaires after her passing, the phone being answered is one thing, it's what happens or, doesn't happen as the case may be, once you've got through!
To be honest, and loving a good argument with some obnoxious official, I found it helped my grieving process to be engaged with the idiots at BT. A total shower that were unsurpassed in their sheer breathtaking numb-nutsness.
Second up, London Borough of Ealing. On the day I registered her death, I brought her blue badge to hand back. Now I'm in the bloody building and the registrar says he can't handle it or offers to ring the department who can. I then receive a letter asking for it, and one day, as I'm in Ealing, I thought I'd pop it in. Simple, right? After all, I'm going to be outside the same building...no. A palarver, added to by gormless guards, who couldn't find their backsides with a map.
My mum was 90. Her death was coming, and so I'm mentally prepared, and with years of dealing with difficult clients, situations, and officialdom. However, at a time of bereavement I wonder how old people can manage or, say, a young 30-something, losing a spose with kids, a mortgage and job insecurity would.
Upshot: while paying peanuts does get you monkeys, I suspect that those paid more than peanuts to design organisational operating systems, end up handing the monkeys over-complicated procedures that put the client's needs second behind saving money and trying to be clever!!
'Always In Motion' by John Honney available on amazon.co.uk
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- was very outspoken, very direct and frankly, terrifying. He didn't suffer fools gladly, scared the living daylights out of everyone and was a real bully. 
