Bring back human beings

Oh I also wish for that. The wasted time spent going round in circles with automated is so frustrating.

I know after long frustrations I changed our boiler service provider. I now speak to a helpful and pleasant human being. It is wonderful.

A shout out for Wilco, just had a large, heavy order delivered, and realised I had ordered the wrong stuff. Rang the number offered, chose two options and straight through to a human being, who was really helpful, arranging collection and they would pick up the cost! Such a change from certain other large companies!

Don't believe that speaking/writing to a Virgin Media human is any easier.
For some reason they sent me 2 sets of everything, and can I get someone to understand? At least 5 emails and hours on the phone, and still no closer to sending a set back. Problem was delivery address was different to install address, and this is beyond their comprehension.
So the bots are chasing me and the humans don't understand my problem.

I much prefer the human element. So much quicker and efficient I find.

“Or if you would like to speak to an agent” - my favourite phrase on those endless introductory messages. All that matters then is that the human is intelligible which doesn’t always happen.

I feel your pain Lucca I had to get rid of Sky once on behalf of my demented mother, it was a trial.
When I finally spoke to someone they insisted it was better that my mother kept her package and transferred everything to the nursing home, eventually I lied and said she had lost her sight?.
I will burn for that I’m sure.

Just to be picky as well as wanting a human being to speak to I’d like it to be a Geordie. They are always pleasant and very efficient!
The saga today has honestly worn me out ! Not to mention interrupting my marvellous clearing out of paperwork of which I am so proud ! Black bin liner half full of unnecessary stuff ..I mean who needs last years insurance documents or ones GCE etc certificates. Gone , gone !

Virgin media has always been a challenge for me… well nigh impossible to communicate with them as they tend to read from scripts without actually understanding/ listening to the particular problem . Stuck with them for various reasons, but I lose the will to live when I have to contact them

Sky and Virgin are both equally terrible for customer service

I'm a geordie Lucca and I sometimes am not pleasant ?. There is nothing a satisfying as a good sort out. I need to get off the sofa and start.

Its the way of the world now, totally frustrating, I always choose to do these phone calls on loudspeaker when I’m doing my ironing, so I’m multi tasking. But even so, ironing doesn’t take 5 hours! Poor you! It makes you want to scream and NO-ONE in any company wants to take responsibly. Saying that, my bank First direct are excellent at answering the phone.

Might be a good idea to shred all those papers
Identity theft can be a real hassle these days

Life would be so less stressful if we could speak with a real human being! The world seems to think we're all computer savvy, I'm not too bad, and feel for those who don't have them or even if they do they struggle!
These companies unfortunately set out to make things as difficult as possible! I listen to my other half often losing the plot with them!!
Things take a better turn after waiting in a telephone queue for hours when a real life person eventually speaks to him, obviously I let him deal with it as I have even less patience !! Feel we're all becoming robots!!

Buyers who purchase online goods can be equally frustrating and often dont want to put in any effort themselves. Americans are particularly lazy in this respect.

Send every buyer a tracking number and where it can be tracked. US postal website. Not too difficult to find if you live in the USA.

"You sent me a fake tracking number"
"Here is your tracking" (paste it in) "Your package is in transit."
"My package hasnt moved for 3 days"
"Its with the customs service. It will not move until they clear it"
"You said that last time. My package still hasnt moved"
"I can only give you what information is publicly available! International transactions do require a little patience."

Opens Paypal dispute despite fact that package clearly in transit.

Package delivered 4 days later.

Paypal dispute closes automatically.

Buyer now blocked and will not be purchasing from me again.

Try cancelling an Amazon account after bereavement. Can't be done unless you are prepared to lose all photos etc. Copies of Death cert, POA, marriage all requested but still a No all down to data protection.

Spent three days (on and off) trying to get Virgin to transfer the mobile phone number I had for 20 years to 02, which they had recommended as a cheaper package. Totally incomprehensible lady first time, second time an equally incomprehensible man, both of who spoke too fast with very thick accents, the third time I burst into tears and gave up.Now I have a new mobile number and am dealing with the fallout.

You’re so right - I have spent the past month trying to withdraw the funds that I have earned from the Vinted selling site into my bank account. The withdrawal keeps failing and they have £80 of my money that I can’t get hold of. There is no phone number, the only way to contact them is by email and all I get in return is these generic bot emails that are not personalised, telling me to do things that I have already done, yet not rectifying the problem. To speak to a human being would be wonderful.

Speaking to a human doesn't always work. Some of them give you the wrong information, then later you are told by another agent 'That's not correct, I don't know why they told you that'. I've had that happen many times over the years. ?‍♀️

I would mention OVO energy, but as I was brought up to be polite I can't share with you what I think about their general total disorganisation.

Having worked in customer service the only pro for the bots is they don’t get upset by the abuse and threats agents often receive

Chestnut

Speaking to a human doesn't always work. Some of them give you the wrong information, then later you are told by another agent 'That's not correct, I don't know why they told you that'. I've had that happen many times over the years. ?‍♀️

Oh yes! 3 is famous for that. I asked for a transcript of conversations with two different assistants. Even with the contradictory texts in front of me, and sent to them, they couldn’t clarify which one was correct. The difference for me was over £30. To be fair, in the end they just cancelled the charge but still couldn’t tell me which version was correct. So I could find myself with the same problem next time.

Ovo energy are really bad, they owe me money from my Feed In Tarif, I have sent them electricity all summer. They used to be SSE then changed to Ovo. SSE paid me with a cheque, Ovo don't 'do' cheques so should pay it into my bank account, problem is they don't have my bank account details! and the account number they sent me doesn't work so I can't input my details on their Webpage. I have emailed, no response, telephoned, on hold for hours then get cut off. I did speak to someone who didn't know what to do so promised a telephone call from his supervisor, guess what? no call! Firms these days are dreadful. Never ever go to Ovo for FIT payments or even your energy.

Went to buy several items in the large Boots in our town very recently. No tills with human beings so started on the serve yourself till which would not then accept my points card. Pressed the button for assistance. Assistant came over, pressed various keys etc and walked away without a word.

So I walked away to the pharmacy queue where I joined folk waiting for prescriptions.... The assistant there was very helpful and I was able to achieve all I needed. Computers are not human beings and the shortage of human beings cannot always be solved by computers