Modern Life

I think big business is using tech to obfuscate and confuse people into acceptance of Kafkaesque customer [dis]service, it should be easy but it's not, bots on websites refer you to frequently asked questions that make you feel stupid and wonder if it was a ot that came up with these FAQ's.

I think you need to remember though that someone in a business probably has pages and pages of emails a day to get through, they also have to do things like eat and sleep.

TheCatWoman said:

I think big business is using tech to obfuscate and confuse people into acceptance of Kafkaesque customer [dis]service, it should be easy but it's not

Speaking as someone who has worked on customer service for corporations for decades, the fact that this is such a poor experience in general is down to lack of investment because the companies do not want to spend money on stuff that does not make a profit.

I've been recruited time and again to come into a service department that was falling apart to restructure and rejuvinate it and it all stems from poor management, largely brought about by lack of investment.

If becomes a self fulfillng prophecy - don't invest, loose your staff who can do a good job, service plummets, customers get fed up waiting and stop calling and eventually the workload drops to the point your struggling team can manage it.

It does a lot of reputational damage to the companies and that was where I would come in - fix the team, cut off the management from interfering, return the levels of service and start to advertise the new quality of service.

Then leave as the contract was over - time for the same somewhere else and watch from a distance as the same olf rubbish managers get their hands on the team and destroy it all over again.

Luckily I never had to deal with the big service companies like broadband, utilities or banking - they have too many managers to keep at arms length while their mess gets sorted.

Clearly, given your wealth of practical experience, you are better placed than most to see what needs to get done, which can only be addressed by strong and draconian legislation and changes to law, with the relevant regulatory bodies being given far greater and far more far reaching draconian legal enforcement powers to correct the issues involved and to robustly challenge these companies through the courts - I would suggest lobbying the House of Lords on this issue, as well as your local MP’s once they get elected, as clearly, laws need to get changed 

Clearly, given your wealth of practical experience, you are better placed than most to see what needs to get done, which can only be addressed by strong and draconian legislation and changes to law, with the relevant regulatory bodies being given far greater and far more far reaching draconian legal enforcement powers to correct the issues involved and to robustly challenge these companies through the courts - I would suggest lobbying the House of Lords on this issue, as well as your local MP’s once they get elected, as clearly, laws need to get changed 

Now your idea I love as you say some screening and also make sure it is cross representative but ordinary people on the ground know what is happening

You are spot on I am political and nail my colours to one party warts and all.I will keep that private as I think we are not many to get political on here but I see the issues  with our system.First past the post distorts one party and gives them power.It means millions of people are wasting their vote as most seats are safe and do not change hands.This can lead to complacency on who is elected.So I think proportional representation must come in and so what if we get coalitions that keeps a check on extreme policies.Second as i say there should be some non partizan representation.Finally the House of Lords should be fully elected and on a different cycle to the house of commons and have powers to be a check on the commons.At present they can only block for 12 months.

I have found a lot of bad laws are now on the statute book you may have heard of my rant about CPNs CPWS .With ordinary people and yes ND people fully represented this could be prevented.anyway thanks so much for your comments you have really helped

the mp constituency situation in my view is broken as they all have to follow party lines.I don't know how you alter this but if you have an issue that has affected you and it is due to their party policy will they really be able to back you.That is why I think we will need some sort of independent non partizan representation like great business people ordinary people etc

My MP didn't respond, ,she just passed all my details onto head office and now I get regular mailshots which go straight in the recycling.

I agree about the need for PR, the problem with a meritocracy like that, is who decides what talents are useful? Would any of us be deemed worthy of high or even any office? Would we be immediately barred because of being ND?

I think there ought to be a two term limit for any political party to be in power, after two terms, they seem to run out of ideas and any sense of urgency. For all that I'm a political animal and enjoy politics for its own sake, I'm not party political and this election feels like a nightmare, I feel even more politically homeless than ever and will probably vote for the Monster Raving Loony Party Candidate, or spoil my ballot paper again. It would be so nice to be able to vote FOR somebody rather than against.

I think too that there are a lot of people who don't really care, they just want to potter along and accept any dictats from on high, or they are the ones who go for the people who appeal to the lowest common denominator, so as they won't be "left out".

Cat Loving Man said:

We need a parliament either elected by Proportional Representation or a parliament of talent and not political parties

While that is good in principle, the problem remains that the issue are the politicians themselves.

Every time a party has been in power for 2 terms or more, regardless of which party they become increasingly corrupt and the whole tree below them ends up falling to the same issues.

I think that by having people who make a career out of wanting to be in power, they are already off to a bad start. Power breeds corruption as is the case in most areas and the greater the power, the greater the corruption.

I think a form of national service where people have to serve in the role for a period of time would sort this. Take away the careers in politics and make it a duty - like dury duty.

There would need to be some screening program to keep the psychopaths etc out (and have a voluntary decline option too) and there is a better chance of having a government of the people, for the people.

I don't see any politicians being willing to give up their power to do this though.

We need a parliament either elected by Proportional Representation or a parliament of talent and not political parties

Good call the problem is MP s either do not respond or just respond with what you already know.

Laws to change CPW and CPN s they should go full stop.

People with mental illness not just Autism should not be judged when applying trivial laws in the same way as those without.A support group I am seeking to said that this is why Autistic people in particular end up in trouble

Having read Rory Stewart's biography of his time as an MP, I can only agree with him about how as soon as a minister gets on top of their brief, theres a reshuffle and they're moved on to another department. It's no wonder regulators are wanting more powers, and government fails to gives them any because there's no continuity coming from the top.

I agree that corruption and malpractice is rife, the rules on who and when people in government can work for, including civil servants, is long over due for reform, as are campaign funds. We just need more transparency and accountibility

IrishInManchesterUK said:

you are better placed than most to see what needs to get done, which can only be addressed by strong and draconian legislation and changes to law, with the relevant regulatory bodies being given far greater and far more far reaching draconian legal enforcement powers to correct the issues involved

I had the pleasure of working for one of the government regulatory bodies when it was created from several other public organisations and it taught me a few things about the companies we regulated.

So many of the big companies out there seem to be croocked as heck and when we could come up with hard facts about this (sometimes we had to raid them to sieze files & computers) then we were limited on what we could do.

They largely budgeted in for any fines we could give them and if we tried to force them to break up into different companies to change the monopoly then they would by and large form their own "competition" to get around the regulations.

Big businesses are like hydras when it comes to trying to regulate them - slippery, resilient and many headed.

MPs are useless in dealing with them as most end up with campaign contributions through other routes, jobs on the board for family members or any number of other bribes paid to look the other way and hold this stuff up in committee until it fades and dies.

Idealism is largely dead for business regulation from what I have seen - the OFGEM / WATGEM / CMA etc are mostly toothless.even if they are run by well meaning people.

Sorry, didn't mean to get so dark there - just brought back a lot of dissapointment from my time there.