h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Is it just me or is this getting worse? Why is it that I have to assume that somebody paid to do their job won't do it or will do it lousily and why is it that _I_ then have to make the effort to get to the result I should have gotten in the first ing place?

Argh!

This is getting worse. Period.

Thanks

Good luck with your new home! I have no idea how you can survive such low temperatures - and without heating!

What do you mean without heating? I heat the house like nuts!

I read you had to burn shoes to get the heat to make some and the pipes were frozen ...



The actual reason for the rant was our post office, btw. So I can't just say "oh well, that's the last time I'll ever deal with them, then" ...

yeah well, it'll get close to -30C again this weekend. This time I have a bit more firewood though. I am not sure about the pipes. They melt up but if it'll remian cold for more than 3-4 days it may happen again. Ah well, I about to move out anyway.

As about bad service and such - I haven't notice any service ever getting better. That's the thing with services. Even if they improve machines, people can always make it worse.

good luck for the weekend then!

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Gaaaaaa! Not civil servants!!! They are usually the worst when it comes to giving good service to the public, presumably because it takes a lot to get them fired and they know it. Having said that, I've been lucky with the post office here as most people I've dealt with are quite pleasant and efficient. But other government offices can be a nightmare.

I find clothing shops and department stores to be rather hit and miss when it comes to good service. Recently at a department store I found the *perfect* winter coat on sale but couldn't find my size and when I asked the salesclerk she just said - 'sorry, if it's not there then we don't have it' - without even checking.

So I went to another branch and same thing, couldn't find my size. But this time the salesclerk was very helpful. She first checked the stock on the computer and said that 'in theory' there was supposed to be one coat there left in my size. And then she spent quite a bit of time looking all over the place for it . . . and finally found it! I was so pleased and impressed that I let her know how much I appreciated all her help and how lovely it was to get such good service and she positively beamed at that.

And so, it seems to work both ways. That the customer does have the right to complain about bad service, but we should also remember to thank people when we have received very good service. Kind of reinforces the 'good behaviour' and heck, everybody likes to feel appreciated.




az

Post office: worst part of it is that it happens so often - and that I have no alternative than to rely on them.

The 'they can't loose their jobs' is far from true here - there were a lot of small post offices that hat to close during the last years. The post as a company is cutting down massively on the service - but at the same time rising the prices..


Positive feedback: I'm one of the first to tell somebody when I like what they do or how they do it. I'm just outraged by the fact that by now it's a bl... _exception_ when a person actually does his/her work.

(and how long will it take them to get h2 off the hook of a server that seems to be constantly too busy, but for other reasons than h2...)

Apparently - or so I've read - it's the football message board (606) that tends to overwhelm the BBC site and so we end up with all these Server Too Busy thingys.

Meanwhile, I don't think the small post offices closings were due to unfriendly service. Noggin used to run a post office in his shop in Wales and it was closed due to government cut-backs.

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I know what you mean. Just can't personally complain about this at the moment as I have yet to go to the tax office to set up my new biz stuff - once that happens I'll no doubt join you!


az