It seems that we are back to the things that make my blood boil. Communications this time. I have recently had reason to attempt to communicate with different organisations and it hasn't been easy. We are in the 21st century now, when things were supposed to be better. In the 1970's programmes such as Blue Peter (if you are reading this outside of the UK you will not know that reference, sorry) were holding competitions where children would try and predict what life would be like in the future. They came up with flat TV's, mobile phones and cities under the sea. SciFi authors such as Clarke and Heinlein have written about instantaneous communication. But the reality is different.
People will blame all this on COVID but, and let's face it, that is complete and utter bollocks. We have become lazy and selfish. Corporations have decided that the customer is not king anymore. They will do anything to save money and make more of that money for their shareholders. This means that call centres are short staffed or outsourced to foreign climes. People would rather converse by text message and email than face to face.
I am looking to buy a motorhome. I have found a nice one and decided to have a look at what the insurance would cost me. All insurance quotes these days are done online via comparison sites so off I go, boot up the laptop and login to my preferred site, the one with the meerkat.
I type in the registration of the van and it tells me it doesn't exist. Bugger! I go to the DVLA website and it does exist, it's taxed and has a current MOT. Check again with the meerkat and a couple of other sites and it still does not exist. So we talk to the current owner and it is insured with, strangely enough, the same company that insures my car. Great, I'll phone them. I look online for a phone number. There isn't one, it all has to be done through the customer portal. Customer portal tells me that the vehicle doesn't exist. I'm sure that you can sense that my frustration level is increasing. Still no phone number but there is an option for an online chat. Online chat eventually promises me a call back from a sales agent which, two days later, I am still waiting for. I guess that they don't want my business.
I decide to perform an online search for customer service phone numbers for vehicle insurance and come up with a few and phone one of the more well-known ones. I get an answer, after a few minutes on hold, from someone with a very thick Asian accent asking me how they can help.
'I would like a quote to insure a motorhome' say I.
'This is the wrong number for home insurance, we only deal with vehicles.'
'Yes, I know, I want to insure a motorhome'
'Home insurance is a different department, I can transfer you now'
I hang up and try another number where the conversation follows a similar path. Both calls are, apparently, recorded for training purposes. Hopefully they will be used to train people whose primary language is not English to understand those whose primary language is.
Our lives are supposed to be made easier by all the modern methods of communication. The insurance companies use the DVLA database for reference so that method of communication didn't work. The online chat method does not work, probably because we are talking to 'bots. Software designed to mimic a human response and save the company from employing more humans. But that form of communication is a very limited method as, I expect, no company wants to buy the licence for software that would give Alan Turing a run for his money, far too expensive.
Also, no company wants to pay the rates to employ people in this country who can understand the quirks of the English language. That's not picking on foreigners. A few years ago I was in hospital and the Spanish doctor explained what they were going to do to me. I couldn't understand her so the Phillipno nurse explained it to me. The one person you really want to understand is doctor, or an insurance agent in different circumstances, but it seems that is not always the case.
I, eventually, found an insurance quote that was reasonable but the whole process took me 4 hours. And that was relatively quick compared to the process of trying to get my driving licence back.
I had to surrender my driving licence due to my internal defibrillator activating. I could have it back after 6 months but I had to send a form to my cardiologist for him to tick a box, send it back to me and I would send it to the DVLA. Needless to say the form got lost at the hospital. I had to contact the DVLA for a replacement. Phoning resulted in me being put on hold for half an hour and then getting cut off as there were an unprecedented number of calls. I tried again half an hour later and the same happened. I went online and searched their website for assistance and, again, found a webchat option which pointed me in the direction of several articles that might help. No they didn't. 6 hours later I found a replacement form.
Is the modern world easier to navigate? no it f#cking isn't!
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