Have you ever telephoned a so called ‘customer service’ contact centre, sometimes called a ‘helpline’, and not been on the receiving end of a recorded message telling you that your wait might be considerable because there is an unusually high level of calls at the moment?
Whatever time of day one calls, the message is always the same; so how come the level of calls can be described as ‘unusual’, because whatever time the call, it is called unusual. You don’t think they are lying do you?
The situation has become so bad now that the same message that warns you about the unacceptable wait also asks you to be nice to the representative that eventually take the call; presumably because most people by then are so frustrated and angry they are not very nice to the first person they eventually speak to.
Frustration only increases when one discovers that the person with whom you are communicating has no authority to do anything about the issue you need to resolve and will all so politely tell you to go away, or tell you to ring in again but choose a different option, or possibly call a different number all together. The whole process is deliberately designed to wear you down and make you go away.
If not satisfied with the service you get you will be invited to make a complaint, they like doing that because it is another procedure they have deliberately designed to waste you time and energy by following a Labyrinth path through their bureaucracy that eventually leads to you admitting defeat or, if you don’t give up, they will after ’extensive’ investigation of the records amazingly decide they did nothing wrong. If you want to appeal to the regulator you then have to go through another procedure, not dissimilar to the previous one but will take even longer.
How did we let ourselves get into this situation where we have to put up such appalling behaviour ?