OT: Is it just me or are people getting thicker? (2025 Update)

No, you were being asked nicely if you wanted something, and you said no. This happens everywhere in life. I don't get upset when I fuel my car and he asks if I want the windows cleaned.

Very easy to say no. If you have to say no to more than two things, then I'd get upset.

It can work in your favour. I once got a VCR (remember them?) from Currys for £20. It should have been £80. Somebody had input the wrong price into the computer. The salesman was quite happy to sell it to me anyway, so I asked how many were in stock. "Four more" he replied. "I'll buy those aswell then...." Guess what appeared on Ebay the next day?

Agreed, but so are the others. I've found Tesco to be the least incompetant.

They even think toothpaste is a weapon. WTF? Dazzle the pilot with your teeth?

There's only 1 death a week in Scotland now, and despite this that stupid Ms Sturgeon is still ranting on about masks.

I go everywhere by car. On a car ferry I sit on the open deck. Not to avoid viruses, I'm not that much of a snowflake, but to enjoy thre sea breeze. Then I forget what level I parked the car on....

How long does a shup take to get to Straylya?

Well it's better than the rest of Europe.

What weirdo would sail there?

A bunch of sheep herders who's only entertainment idea is holidaying at a big rock in the desert?

Debatable! I for one do not miss the stupidity. Europe have not got anything remotely like Johnson, and I would give Johnsons electorate approval as the major indication of the countries value as a domicile.

AB

From the well pummelled keyboard of Archibald Tarquin Blenkinsopp Esq

I'd like to live there. I need my space as they say over there.

Johnson is too weak, we need Trump.

We don't let you welfare bludging poms come here anymore.

No we don't.

Nice big open spaces, what's not to like? And for entertainment I'd be f****ng the gorgeous tanned Sheilas on the massive beaches.

Now we have a filthy Paki.

Actually having recently had several interactions with customer service phone operators, I'm beginning to think that after lockdown some people have been adversely affected in the brain department. Simple concepts like over charging due to obviously incorrect meter readings and them breaking their contract terms by trying to get money monthly when its quarterly till the end of my contract, seem alien to them, Both I suspect are simple human error, but it seems, these days nobody is available to own the odd problem that occurs nor do they understand the problem at all. Either they are hireling absolute thickest or its some deliberate corporate arrogance on we never make a mistake its always the customers fault. Brian

I suspect that it's a little bit of both of your reasons. Most 1st line "customer service" operators are required to read from a script without deviation. However, the jobs are at or very close to minimum wage and in some cases, companies have reached agreements with prisons to "hire" prisoners, in the prison, to be customer service reps for however many cents/hr they get paid. At the other end of the phone line, you experience what you've described.

Unfortunately, your complaint isn't limited to customer service phone operators. Just yesterday I experienced a shocking level of incompetence combined with indifference obtaining a prescription in person at a pharmacy located in a large, well regarded medical center. I've never had that experience when interacting with supposedly highly trained, licensed personnel.

That looks very much like a reply that relates to the USA not the UK.

the reality is that really thick people used to live on council estates and work in a factory. Now they run the BBC..

Yes, I'm in the USA. My customer service experience with many visits to London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow has generally been far superior to that provided in the USA. My one experience with the NHS (unanticipated visit to the A&E (in the middle of the night in Edinburgh) was superlative and they didn't even care that I wasn't a UK citizen but had medical coverage via travel insurance. I experienced promptness of triage, exams by both the house officer and the specialist consultant, lab work (blood, urine, x-rays) and even complimentary tea and biscuits for my distraught wife who was allowed to remain at my beside throughout the visit. Upon discharge, without request, I was provided with copies of the doctor's notes, all lab results, and a memory stick with digital files of my x-rays to give to my own physician at home. When I asked how I would be billed, they looked at me as if I were from Mars. "Charged? This is the NHS!"

Brian Gaff snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote

You'd have to be that to want to do that sort of job at a time when most employers are desperate for employees.

Can't be that with meter readings.

I've been having great fun with my mortgage company. They gave an offer when covid arrived (I think the government forced them) to let me pay half for a year. I took them up on it. When that finished, I managed to persuade them I was on low income and they did it for another year. Due to them messing up a few times, I cancelled the direct debit and paid them by standing order. When it came time to pay the full amount again, because they kept changing the interest rates and therefore the monthly payment, I decided to go back to direct debit which they could vary form their end. So I stopped the standing order and they set up the direct debit. Which didn't take anything for 4 months before they noticed and contacted me. I said that's your fault and I'm not giving you the missing months, he agreed. And set it up again. Which also failed. I've got away with a lot of non-payments. With all that and twice extending my mortgage for extra cash for a driveway and double glazing and so forth, I actually owe them precisely what I did 23 years ago. Although with inflation I guess it's less. But my house costs three times what it did 23 years ago, so I'm going to move to a quieter larger cheaper place and make a fortune, because 99% of the population are stupid idiots who pay more for a smaller house in a more congested noisy area instead of just driving 15 minutes to work each morning.

On Fri, 07 Jul 2023 10:57:52 +0100, Brian Gaff snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote: