Am I alone nowadays in encountering almost complete incompetence from large corporations? Ask yourself these few questions:

• How many hours have you recently spent trying to sort out some invoice whose figures have been incorrectly input mangled by a computer?
• How many competent staff have you recently spoken to - staff who understand their computer system and understand that it can foul up?
• How many times have you been shunted from person to person, each one not knowing what to do and denying responsibility?
• How many companies even remember the phrase "The Customer Is King" let alone implement it?

As far as I can make out, company attitude is now "We've got your money, you've got a problem - TOUGH. There are plenty of other mugs walking in our doors each day so we don't require YOUR future custom."

Companies appear to be hiring wet-behind-the-ears 18 year-olds fresh out of school who are first taught "The computer is always right; customers are just a nuisance to be fobbed off as quickly as possible." These guys can't type their names let alone get a 5-digit number into the system correctly.

That's not to mention the wet-behing-the-ears teenagers who are programming half of these systems. These systems are already operating on a tighrope and with just a little push...

I don't think it's just me, and I think it's getting worse all the time. Computer systems are becoming so complicated that most humans (especially those 'worthy' of lower-paid jobs) are simply incapable of handling them.

As far as I'm concerned, we are already in a computerized nightmare and it's only going to get worse... opinions?

-- Y2KGardener (gardens@bigisland.net), August 28, 1999

Answers

How many people do you deal with that can even understand or speak English?

-- postal worker (postalworker@postall.com), August 28, 1999.

y2k Gardner, aptly put, many thanks.

Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), August 28, 1999.

I can only think of ONE thing that surpasses current annoyance beyond what you posted above:

Being stuck in Computerized Voice Mail Hell.

"If you wish to complain about a product....press one."

"If you wish to complain about a service....press two." BEEEEEP

"What service are you complaining about?......

Press one if it's about one of our wet-behind-the-ears customer service reps...."

"Press 2 if it's one of our incompetant nasty sales boobs that sold you our service plan...."

After about thirty minutes of that fiery hell you are left with:

"If you wish to talk with a live human being press the star key....." BEEEEP

"We're sorry, no human beings are available to take your call....If you want to leave a voice-mail message, press One....

.....If you want to register a complaint on our automated dump bucket, press 2...

....If you want to commit Hari Kiri now, press 3....BEEEEEP

.....If you want to kill yourself with a firearm, press one.......

....Slit your wrists.....press two.

....If you want to kill someone else, please call our diversion dept. at (999) 999-0000. They are open Monday and Sunday from 2A.M. to 2:15 A.M. New Guinea Standard Time.

Thank you for calling.

To return to the main menu....press the pound key.

AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! BLAM! "

-- INVAR (gundark@sw.net), August 28, 1999.

yup- I called a Paper Products company I buy from- needed a case of pint berry containers. simple huh? Not quite. the woman who answered the phone couldn't find me on the computer- not by farm name or my name- so? I reassured her I had ordered from them just this past June- and for several years. Well- she left me on hold to try to figure it out as she wouldn't even begin to process an order if I wasn't on her computer- so I sat- on hold. Till I hung up. will pick up pint containers from store in nearby city this week. One lost customer.

-- farmer (hillsidefarm@drbs.net), August 28, 1999.

Thanks INVAR - great!

I remember three years ago having fallen prey to one of the free AOL disks (OK, OK, I won't ever do it again - I was young and stupid then). I used my "free 10 hours" and more. At the end of the month I wanted to cancel. No e-mail address for this, so I spent hours on the phone: each time I was waiting "to be served by the next available representative" -- but after precisely 2 minutes was cut off and had to dial again...

In the end I wrote them a letter.

-- Y2KGardener (gardens@bigisland.net), August 28, 1999.

actually perhaps y2k will be good for something. perhaps we will get back to more basics and it may take another 5 years before the corporations get incompetent again. that is assuming that y2k will not turn out to be a complete horror.

-- rena (wsch117360@aol.com), August 28, 1999.

I doubt if most corporations will become more competent until there is a change in the work ethic...and customer orientation.

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), August 29, 1999.

Yes!!! This past year has been consumer/client hell for me, as I have wrestled with many stupid errors of companies, clerks and the local government. But here is one on the light side, which I hope gives you a chuckle and makes you scratch your head as I did.

Recently purchased 3 cases/24 each of tuna on sale. At the checkout was an English-as-second-language new clerk. She could not understand that she merely needed to enter the price X number of cans. She called her trainer, another youngster with ESL (only a little more English skill) for help. The second girl told me that we would have to open the cases and check out each can!!! LOL...or not, when you're tired and on a line.

-- Elaine Seavey (Gods1sheep@aol.com), August 30, 1999.