The prize for the utterly useless goes to ...

[gradus]

BT. 6 weeks, 6 different call centre staff, 2 calls by 'engineers', one employed by Kelly Communications and as near a perfect example of the uninterested subbie as it is possible to get - several promised update calls missed. Perfectly pleasant staff at the call centre but utterly incapable of arranging to move a landline from one building to another. Still waiting for it to be done.

[Serial_Apologist]

The idiot(s) who keep(s) putting unrecyclables in the recycling bins here, despite the innumerable polite notices I've pinned to the fence, including plastic bags!

(The bin men can refuse to empty the respective bin(s) - I do my best to make sure the right rubbish is in the rights bins, but it's not always possible to do it in time for their visits.)

[ardcarp]

BT. 6 weeks, 6 different call centre staff, 2 calls by 'engineers', one employed by Kelly Communications and as near a perfect example of the uninterested subbie as it is possible to get - several promised update calls missed. Perfectly pleasant staff at the call centre but utterly incapable of arranging to move a landline from one building to another. Still waiting for it to be done.

If you think BT is bad, try TalkTalk...they 'lost' our number altogether. Mrs A had to threaten the Chief Execuive personally to get it sorted out!
Subsequently we've switched to BT Business which is another world. Guaranteed to fix any probs with telephone or broadband within 6 hours, and no buttons to push to talk to someone in person in the UK. Everything has a downside though...it's more than twice as expensive.

[Mal]

The cash only users of the cash only computer tills in M&S - they block the card holders getting to their machines. I also blame the card holders for being too shy to give them a nudge (that includes me!), and I blame M&S for not organising matters better. So that's the whole human race really - we're all utterly useless.

[ardcarp]

I wonder if Fred Flintstone (he of astonishingly low technical equipment) managed rather better.

[cloughie]

The BBC and their music policy.

[Dave2002]

I’m too polite to say....

[Maclintick]

Westminster Council -- Our street is one-way, with perfectly standard NO-ENTRY signs correctly in place where it joins a major thoroughfare. The WC "Dept of Street Furniture" (sic) decided to place a set of illuminated bollards with brilliant white arrows on a blue background slap-bang next to the no-entry signs, effectively contradicting them...I attempted to ring the relevant authority, to point out what appeared to me to be a question of public safety i.e. that motorists seduced by the bright blue-&-white signage would disregard the poorly-lit no-entry signs & proceed the wrong way up the street, but the conversation foundered due to the inability of the council staff member to understand the concept of an "illuminated bollard"...

[Serial_Apologist]

The cash only users of the cash only computer tills in M&S - they block the card holders getting to their machines. I also blame the card holders for being too shy to give them a nudge (that includes me!), and I blame M&S for not organising matters better. So that's the whole human race really - we're all utterly useless.

Is anyone here old enough to remember when supermarkets were there to get you through your shopping more quickly? You picked up what you needed from the shelves, just like today, but then would be done at the checkout in a matter of seconds, the goods paid for in cash. Now its cashback, loyalty card, old dear fumbling with a debit card she can't remember the pin number on, hold-ups with problems in the bagging department at the automatic card payment checkouts supposed to speed throughput and some poor girl member of staff with a long face tasked (tasked - hate that word!) just with dealing with problems and understandably frustrated customers... and don't get me started on the complaints counter, usually overseen, when at all, by the member of staff dealing with cigarette and lottery ticket sales, each one of which takes a month of Sundays to process when you just wanted the tube of softmints that weren't available today on the confectionary shelves for some reason, and the item limit of five at this counter is no longer policed because it caused too much aggro.

People who once bemoaned the loss of personal service provided in small shops but who at least had the benefits of getting the buying done in one fell swoop, once a week, in minutes, now have to admit that all the supposed labour saving new technology and supermarket hegemony has achieved is the death of the high street altogether, and traffic everywhere jammed with Ocado and other available brand names' delivery vans.

All in the name of progress, of course, the euphemism for capitalism, stress and inevitable waste.

[Dave2002]

I try to be charitable, but there are people who put all of their stuff on the belts, wait for it all to be rung up, and only then start opening bags to find purses, wallets, credit cards in order to pay for the transaction. I think I even saw one person then ask for it all to be put aside, having mislaid the means to pay.

If I have a lot of stuff (happens sometimes) and I can see someone with just a few items behind, I usually wave them past me.

[Stanfordian]

I heard a young person say this yesterday and I can fully understand their ire. The prize goes to old/retired people who have all week to shop then go for their main grocery shop at weekend. This view is rather too close to home for comfort.

Companies and organisations who have messages on their phone enquiry lines that say "your call is important to us" when it clearly isn't. If it was it the line would be allocated the necessary staffing. By contrast purchase lines are often answered immediately.

[Bryn]

I try to be charitable, but there are people who put all of their stuff on the belts, wait for it all to be rung up, and only then start opening bags to find purses, wallets, credit cards in order to pay for the transaction. I think I even saw one person then ask for it all to be put aside, having mislaid the means to pay.

If I have a lot of stuff (happens sometimes) and I can see someone with just a few items behind, I usually wave them past me.

I feel your pain. It feels even worse when, if paying by cash, one has already totted up the total required and has the right amount ready to pay. One of the things I like about Waitrose and Partners, by the by, is that one can fully insert one's payment card in the reader well in advance of the transaction being ready to be competed, thus saving both one's own time and that of those behind one in the queue.

[Bryn]

I heard a young person say this yesterday and I can fully understand their ire. The prize goes to old/retired people who have all week to shop then go for their main grocery shop at weekend. This view is rather too close to home for comfort.

I am now retired and usually go to Waitrose and Partners at the Weekend to get my free Guardian/Observer and Coffee. However, I spent very little time completing the transaction at the kiosk checkout, where the voluntary tax-payers checking their 'Lotto' cards get my goat.

Companies and organisations who have messages on their phone enquiry lines that say "your call is important to us" when it clearly isn't. If it was it the line would be allocated the necessary staffing. By contrast purchase lines are often answered immediately.

Absolutely!

[Dave2002]

Companies and organisations which have messages on their phone enquiry lines that say "your call is important to us" when it clearly isn't. If it was it the line would be allocated the necessary staffing. By contrast purchase lines are often answered immediately.

That is why I sometimes phone the sales lines for help or to complain, rather than the advertised help or complaints lines. Usually results in a ”sorry, you got the wrong line, but I’ll put you through ..” Also many sales lines are free (0800) or at least regular call numbers, whereas to add insult etc. some “help” lines charge more for advice on some wretched product or service one has already bought, yet which does not function properly.

[Dave2002]

I feel your pain.

Mostly it’s not a big deal unless I’m against a car park time limit - and some supermarkets have now outsourced car parking to over aggressive rip-off merchants. For the most part, if I’m not in a great hurry I just watch in amusement, but I have mellowed and I am avoiding some of the more stressful supermarkets and shops these days. I realise that many people still go to some of those, having few alternatives.