I’ve come to the conclusion that the world is, in no uncertain terms, screwed. I cannot remember the last time I received a bill, ordered a meal or bought something from a shop that did not require a return trip to address some issue, a phone call to clarify something or a painful exchange with someone.
And it appears I am not alone. Apparently we’ve all argued with a telecommunications company, or bought an electrical item to find it kaput when we arrived home, or simply tried to order a meal without a food substance that’s going to send us into allergic rapture…to no avail.
But we can’t all be wrong.
I’m not sure of the current unemployment rate, but I know that the incompetency rate is at an all time high. Complete and utter incompetence is washing over our great nation – and half the time it is washing over us from an offshore call centre.
I’m not sure about you, but I’m tired of spending 10 minutes spelling my name in Alpha Bravo Charlie every time I need to make an enquiry about an account – to someone listening to me on delay.
I’m sick of all the fees and taxes associated with everything to do with our lifestyle. I have a landline. I have to pay rental on my handset. Despite the fact that I purchased the handset myself. I don’t rent it. But I get charged for it. Make sense to you?
If you were to subtract the fees and charges from your monthly bills, chances are you’d be able to buy a small island in the French Riviera.
We are governed by morons, over-governed in fact, by morons that penalise the good, the honest and the hard working at every turn and allow organisations, companies and businesses to deliver inadequate goods and services.
The system, that fateful word that’s thrown around every time something crashes, is lost, or someone operating it is just too cretinous to use, is the bane of our modern existence. And it’s the same system that does not protect the innocent and most certainly does not reward those who do the right thing.
Nothing is easy anymore. Nothing is seamless. Nothing just works.
These days, we make a point of thanking a waiter if they’re nice. Because we’re not used to it. We talk in amazed tones when referring to a company that dealt with us efficiently and in good spirits. Because it’s so foreign to us. We’re surprised when a sales assistant is helpful. We’re thankful when a request is fulfilled. We’re down right thrilled when we can end a day without being placed on hold.
We’re told that, as a nation, we’re over stressed because we work too hard. The reality is we’re over stressed because during any given week we’re having to waste quality time sorting out issues that shouldn’t exist, due to people that are useless.
The problem is that no one, and certainly no company, is willing to take responsibility for any issue or problem.
I’m currently sorting out an issue with Vic Roads that is far too tedious and lengthy to go into detail about, but suffice it to say, is about as pleasurable as getting your back stomped on by elephants. All over a fault that has absolutely nothing to do with my competency and intelligence level, but rather that of a Vic Roads worker.
If Vic Roads cares to know, I’m not all that thrilled with their work on many levels. Every trip on the Monash Freeway is like a game of Russian roulette – because you never quite know exactly what time you’ll arrive at your destination, whether your CityLink e-tag will cooperate or whether you’ll make it through the tunnel alive. The perpetual road works – seemingly on all roads I use across Victoria – seem to be constantly ‘under construction’ or ‘in progress’ but don’t appear to be doing anything, especially once completed, to alleviate our roads of traffic.
And then there’s the thousands of speeding fines sent to good drivers every day of the week, thrilling the cotton socks off citizens Australia wide. And the car parks across our cities, charging exorbitant fees to motorists. And it’s not even privy to our cities – our suburbs are littered with ridiculous, confusing parking signs all geared to rip the money out of the wallets of the people that drive the community.
Public transport is no better. I don’t enjoy paying $10 a day to stand on an overcrowded train, with my nose shoved in the armpit of my fellow passenger. On Tuesday evening I caught the train home. It was far from warm outside but the air-conditioning was set to ‘freeze the balls of a brass monkey’. Ironic, because I caught the train over some of our much warmer summer days, and the air conditioning appeared to be non-existent, or set to ‘make passengers melt’. And what with all the interesting folk I seem to attract on public transport, and the constant delays and disruptions, I’m beginning to think they should pay me to use their service.
On Monday, I went to Melbourne City Library to hire a book, as is generally done at libraries. When I used the self-scanner, an error notice popped up. So I made my way to the front desk and waited to be attended to by a staff member. When I was finally served, I was told that the system has been deleting people who haven’t used their library cards in recent months. And that if I wanted to re-borrow the book, I’d need to sign up as a member to the library again. Despite the fact I had a perfectly valid library card with my name clearly printed across it. Despite the fact I had done nothing wrong, it was suddenly my problem. Thanks, system.
Last night, I made Tacos for dinner. With taco shells I bought from Safeway. Taco shells that were stale. Old El Paso-the-use-by-date they most definitely were.
And this morning I returned an item of clothing to Gorman, an item I only bought the other day and haven’t even worn, because when I went to hang it in my wardrobe the stitching was coming undone. I would estimate that 1 in every 5 items of clothing I buy develops some sort of defect after the first wear. A defect that requires me to go back to the store of purchase and exchange or refund the item. They say that a stitch in time saves nine. Someone tell the manufacturers.
And these are only examples of things that don’t work and aren’t easy or seamless from this week. Every single week my days become clogged by something to do with the ‘system’, or a company, or something so mind-numbingly boring it makes me want to vent my spleen.
Who else has bought a DVD only to have to return to the store of purchase and get the security tag removed? Who else has ordered a pizza and ended up with the wrong topping? Who else has typed an address into their GPS and ended up one hour late after crossing half the state to reach their destination?
The thing about customer service, which is in an acutely terrible condition at the moment, is that it’s about two things; customers and service. People working to ensure the needs of the customer are served – and is it too much to assume that this can be done diligently? Efficiently? Promptly? Correctly?
When I go to the butcher, I pay good money for a good cut of meat. And I expect it to be premium. I would not accept contaminated meat. I would not accept 500 grams of meat, if I had paid for a kilo. So why are we all paying top dollar for services that are only providing us with 500 grams of what we need? Why are we accepting and willingly paying for contaminated meat?
If I don’t perform in my job, I don’t get paid. If I don’t deliver – the very best – I will not be rewarded. It’s time people became accountable – for their attitude, and actions, and plain old stuff ups. Granted, the ‘system’ doesn’t always work but that is exactly what people are there for – to pick up where the system cuts off. We all need to start raising our standards – in what we expect, what we deserve and what we also deliver. Until then, we’ll only ever get 500 grams of what we’re really entitled to – and that doesn’t sound like a good deal to me.
I completely agree with everything in your article Sandi. I have a great life but it’s the silly things that really fustrate me because I know I’m being taken advantage of and can do nothing about it. I saw on Twitter yesterday that Ticketek charges almost $5 to have a PDF version of your tickets. I don’t understand how companies can make money off things that cost them nothing, and yet I’m powerless to stop it. I wish we as consumer’s would make more of a stand about things we’re not happy with. Instead we complain to family and friends but ultimately put up with it.
I too free that often we spend lots of our free time chasing up on people that don’t perform even though we’re paying for it. I think it has got a lot worse lately which is a shame.
I don’t mind the Monash drive. At peak hour it’s, of course, crazy but the rest of the day it’s pretty quick for me to get into Toorak or Richmond which I do a lot.
What I can’t figure out is why some parts the speed limit drops to 80 after Burke? When it is a new, safe road with no major bends? And no roadworks on those parts the moment.
Also speaking of amazing my website hosts are pretty cheap and great service. One the few occasions we’ve had issues in the past two years (you can’t expect the internetz to work 100% of the time) we’ve called up, spoken to someone who know what we are talking about in Oz at like 11PM AT NIGHT!!!! No waiting, no transferring and they usually fix whatever the issue is over the phone. Shocking I know. Just a little bright spot to say all is not lost!
All is definitely not lost Sarah – Onya’s web hosts are an Australian owned company, that work from Australia and I’ve not had an issue with them. Always professional and brilliant.
My Monash drive is *usually* ok, but not always. I drive on it at least 4 times a week, hardly ever in peak hour, and I never know what I’m going to get – it’s wonderful that their signs are there, alerting the public of absolutely nothing. And it’s definitely not ok for a lot of people I know. Oh, the speed limit is an absolute joke! And so it CityLink.
Brooke, I also have a great life, I’m just sick of wasting my time on things I shouldn’t be. I agree. Complaining is ok – we’ve just got to do it to the right people.
I think it simply comes down to this:
Everything revolves around money. It’s the worlds obsession to get more of it.
When a company is centred around profit they get a 500g steak thats advertised as 1kg. When the butcher down the road cant get ahead because he is selling $1kg for more or less, he’ll go out of buisness or do the same thing.
If employees arnt respected by being paid a decent wage to put care into your Pizza. If they get treated like crap because they are lowly paid workers and arnt invested in the company, theyll forget a topping or two.
When Australian’s damand lower prices (because we arnt getting paid that much) companies will go and get products made off shore for a fraction of what they did here. The workers in Australia were making great clothes, but they wanted to be paid more, to kept up with the inflation level.
Shoppers go online due to price and the fact that now, a lot of the time, it’s just too hard to shop here. You’re right. A lot of things are a drama caused by systems or general malayse.
In the end the western world is too obsessed with the dollar. We are greedy and in some cases morally corrupt (hello GFC!). The rest of the world knows this, they work harder, faster and for less. The western world is out of touch and on a different planet.
This is a world where profit trumps service. It’s everyone for themselves.
Sandi, long story short: The sh1t has hit the fan but we were too busy listening to our iPods to hear it.
You are entirely right Myles. So much of so many things is driven by profit and profit alone – not people, or the community, but money.
One thing that bothers me is that some people within some companies earn a very decent amount, but still aren’t accountable or responsible – heck, the companies themselves aren’t. It’s very hard to win when it’s you vs the big guys.
And you are so right about people demanding lower prices – this is, unfortunately, where a great deal of our quality got lost.
I love the last line of your comment – pure gold.
Also, now I want a taco.
A non-stale taco.
Hahaha.
I am dealing with a Tesltra stuff up at the moment. I moved house and wanted my Internet account transferred to the new place. I was told my account had been cancelled (not by me, aka: Illegally) and I would have to reconnect to transfer. Following this I had to get a new phone line. When all this was done I was to be sent a modem. The modem never came, so I called up and was told it had been delivered….to my old address!! so we got the right address (like it’s that hard?) and it was going to be 16 days! After the 16 days I called to find out what was going on…I was told yet again, it had been cancelled! By this stage I was about to walk into a Telstra shop and start throwing things until someone listened. Now I’m still waiting for the modem and no one at telstra will accept any kind of blame for their ridiculous stuff ups that have put me without Internet for a month! It is, as you say, F**KED!
You are right. The Monash is a joke. I regularly drive back to the CDB at night when all but one lane is closed. A journey that usually takes 35 mins is pushed out to almost an hour. And most of the workers are standing around chatting while the cars crawl along at snail’s pace.
Today my computer died. The IT company took 2 hours to remotely fix it (which I don’t hate because I know it took that long) but failed to reset up my email. When I called back, the tech was a lunch. Shouldn’t that just be something you know you have to redo?? Service is a dirty word these days.
Good peice Sandi, you are rather brilliant.
This article has really annoyed me as a reader of this magazine. To title this article as ‘everything is f**ked’ is really vulgar in a magazine that is expecting to go to print.
Instead of offering any solutions this article concentrates on all the negative aspects of life, things happen even if you do pay for them but you should be able to deal with them in a suitable and positive way.
All the things that you have listed in this article are all trivial things and if you have this attitude you would be a very hard person to be pleased. We live in such a great country i feel our system provides us with a lot to be grateful for especially in comparison to other countries where people have little freedom or services available to them. It is so rude to suggest that people should pay you to go on public service you should be thankful that instead we have a public service system. Any citizen no matter what type of person can use the service and i think thats great, if you don’t like catching public transport don’t.
Im sick of people complaining about everything that we have. Be grateful for everything that does work rather than letting trivial things effect you.
Heather,
First point; Onya WILL be going to print. And titling an article ‘Everything’s Fucked’ has nothing to do with that. I find the celebrity tabloid shots and breasts on display and the depiction of women in most gossip magazines far more vulgar and offensive.
Second point; I am the most positive person you don’t know. I always see the good in everyone, and in every situation. I run a youth program, encouraging young people to move beyond the situations in their life and live to the fullest – in the happiest way they can. I firmly believe that your attitude is everything in life. And I find your judgement of me, and the kind of person you assume me to be, as extremely ill informed.
I am thankful for everything I have in my life. I have the most amazing life. And I’m also the luckiest person you don’t know. I don’t take that for granted at all.
I know we live in a great country. Do you think I would have started an entire publication devoted to how amazing Australia is if I did not believe it was the best country in the world?
My suggestion that Metro pay me to use their trains was a joke. But I can tell you that when I was mugged at Melbourne Central station, not one single train staff member was helpful in any way at all for me. Yes, it’s great we have a system in place, but the system is extremely flawed AND WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO MAKE IT BETTER.
I know that third world countries exist, and that there are people out there that have far less than all of us, but just because that is so does not mean we can’t work towards making our lives better – making our country better. I love this country, but it’s not perfect. And there’s nothing wrong with suggesting so.
I don’t let trivial things effect me – but when you add up every little trivial thing effecting people – due to the greed of companies and the incompetence of some workers – what you are left with is high blood pressure and not much else.
If you knew half of my situation, you wouldn’t be so quick to judge. Do you know how patient I am? How nice I always am to every single person I come across? How much good I do for this country and the people within it?
I stand by every word I wrote. If you don’t like it, don’t read it. I can assure you I’ve come across far more people in my boat than yours. And it’s time we all started being a little more honest about the reality of things.
Do you want to know how I protected myself from not being taken advantage of when I was mugged? I kicked my predator in the balls, numerous times, until he couldn’t walk.
It’s time to start doing the same to the people taking constant advantage of the good, hard-working people within this community.
Sian, telcos are the worst! I hope it gets sorted soon!
Sarah, I know. I understand roadworks have to happen to improve our roads, but seriously?!? It’s never ending. I’m the same as you, it takes me exactly 35 minutes – but who’s to know when you never quite know what to expect?
Sandi, ignore heather. Another thing that annoys me immensely is that some people constantly need to bring others down for merely expressing their opinion. Bravo for standing up for yourself against haters 🙂
Well stated to your reply to @heather. I vouch for Sandy’s charter as a happy grateful, positive and outward looking individual. I agree service is not longer a word or practiced anymore. It about time we spoke of the exchange ofour money for goods and service that is what we expect in retuen. Maybe the service is neglected now as people don’t like to work for the tax component of the GST.
I just have to say that having lived in several countries and experienced similar issues everywhere – Australia is more frustrating because when you do protest – love it Sandi btw – you are told by other Australians that you are wrong and ungrateful. You are not wrong. This country is geared towards big business and govt revenue at the expense of the individual. Take CBA and the ATM debacle – they arrested two men who knowingly withdrew more than they had in their accs… Currently the big four are facing lawsuits for illegal bank fees, they regularly make mistakes with customers money due to not upgrading inept systems… No one from any of the banks have been arrested have they?!!! What I’m saying is Australians have to start seriously and rationally questioning authority in this country instead of just bending over and assuming ‘only the bad people complain – good people aren’t affected’. Everyone is – and everyone must take a stand. The govt backed down quickly to the mining companies over taxation because they banded together (madness btw – it’s mining – they can’t just find another spot somewhere else – govt had decent bargaining power and good cause) – Rarely do individuals band together or make a stand in Australia to protest the very real fraud and barely legal practices that happen daily but it’s definitely time. It begins with articles such as this. Onya Sandi 😉
I bought a beautiful dress from Leona Edmiston about a year ago on sale. I finally fit into it after my hard work and guess what I discover on the special night I want to wear it out? The security tag is still on it! And not in a place I could hide under a cardigan. Now I need to make a one hour round trip to Prahran and back just to get the tag taken off. I’m not in Prahran, it’s not convenient. Now I have to battle traffic (I hate driving), find a car park (I hate driving), to explain my situation to the store probably to get no sympathy and just be sent on my merry way with nothing to show for my time. Le sigh.
Well said and completely agree Sandi! I’m hopeful that things might get better though – where we have choice and especially when bad service is exposed (in forums like this, and also business review websites). This type of thing is precisely the reason we started WOMOW – Word Of Mouth On the Web – to help people avoid dodgy operators, and reward businesses that provide great service. The more people share their experiences – good and bad – the sooner these dinosaur businesses will realise that they will be held accountable. The few dollars they save by outsourcing, or the few dollars they make by charging for services that should be included will seem insignificant when their customers start making better choices.
I vouch for Sandi’s character too. She is one of the most delightful and optimistic people that you’d ever meet. However, I do know that she doesn’t appreciate being taken advantage off. And quite frankly, neither do I! This is not a bad flaw in our characters though, but rather it is right and just.
Long term I would not want to live anywhere else in the world other than Australia. I have travelled quite extensively and visited places where I’d love to live for a time – but Australia is definitely home. But I am becoming increasingly more frustrated with this great country of ours.
Example 1: We are robbed in broad daylight whenever we buy anything here as we can get it overseas for half to even a third of the price. That is just wrong.
Example 2: I spent nearly an hour and a half on the phone the other day with Telstra fixing up our Foxtel, only to discover that they had charged us for the last year for Sport and Movies that we a) didn’t ask for and b) ever receive! After being put through to three different people I finally asked quite politely to speak to a supervisor to get this sorted out. I was then hung up on rudely as the girl on the other end of the phone declared that her supervisor can’t do anything for me more than she had done so and so what was the point.
Example 3: It has now become a joke with our family that whenever we go out for dinner, nine times out of ten we have to ask for cutlery as our meal has already arrived and we are without it. Now being a Mum I tend to have problem with that as I have taught my children not to use their fingers as it is rude, but restaurants keep letting me down! And, no I’m not talking about McDonalds – they just get your order completely wrong!
Example 4: There isn’t much point in being successful in Australia too. You are taxed at a much higher rate. You get no benefits from the government. You get hit with a “luxury car tax” if you buy an expensive car, You pay ludicrous amounts of stamp duty for having a nice home. Example 1, certainly comes into play here too. I don’t quite understand why it’s cheaper to jump on a plane for 14 hours have a holiday for a couple of weeks in 4 & 5 star hotels, do all your Christmas shopping and still not spent as much as you would have if you’d travelled anywhere within Australia for a tenth of the time. We just pay way too much here for things and it’s about time more people start saying something and asking for change otherwise things won’t change.
There are more and more examples that have happened to me too in just this past week, however, I am a positive person who likes to see the good in all. So I’ll just finish by saying, I don’t mind paying for services provided they work or are what has been requested. I think that’s where the “essence” of tipping in America works because a waitress will work hard to make sure your time in her care is pleasurable, and hence she gets rewarded. If we all decided to pay a “fair” price for things according to the quality of the service or product, the length of time the provider has put into it and how long we have had to wait, etc, then I think our economy would be rather different. Some businesses would thrive and others would simply die.
I suppose it’s also really just a case of the old adage, “The customer is always right”. Also I’m of the opinion that you get further with a smile than a scowl, it’s probably about time that was taught to our customer service providers and businesses here in Australia too.
Hi Sandi
While I do not disagree with with your sentiment, I recommend dedicating as much research time and article space to solutions for each of the issues you’ve raised.
I don’t think I’ve ever gotten off the phone to a telco in under 45 min; but I always take an extra 5 min to speak to a manager and give very specific feedback on how the customer experience can be improved. If nothing else comes from it at least then I feel as if I’ve contributed to the volume of feedback that will hopefully be an impetus for systemic changes to be made.
I am lucky enough to have the opportunity on a daily basis to have my first-world problems put into perspective, as I work with humanitarian refugees from Burma, many of whom have been tortured and traumatised by a brutal and merciless regime. I am constantly amazed and inspired by their grace and humour and their deep gratitude to Australia and its people for giving them the opportunities many of us take for granted.
So, without dismissing problems like poor customer service, my recommended approach is to see these things in perspective and also take the time and energy to be part of the solution by consistently giving specific feedback wherever we see an opportunity for improvement.
Lionel – Thank you x
Desiree – Agree, agree, agree. Cannot agree more. A woman after my own beliefs.
Kirsten – That does not surprise me. Hope you can sort it out (hassle free).
Fiona – Thank you, and again, I agree.
Catherine – Thank you. And I found myself nodding to every single point and example you raised. Especially about there being no incentive to work hard!
Cameron – How do you know that I haven’t? That I don’t speak to the manager? That I don’t write complaint letters where appropriate? You don’t. For your reference, I do. And I believe that half the time it doesn’t make a difference because one of the biggest problems is that no one really listens – that’s the cold hard truth.
Whilst I understand your sentiment, I actually live in the first world. So first world problems, to me, are problems. I know the difference between not having food or a home, and being inconvenienced, and I certainly don’t take my life for granted. I’m not stupid, I’m not ignorant, I’m just angry. I was born in Australia and I will not apologise for that. I’m more than aware of people in the world that aren’t as fortunate as us, but that doesn’t mean I have to stop living my life, or stop trying to improve my country, because others elsewhere in the world aren’t as fortunate. The very people that love our way of life and the opportunities that abound, are the very reason these situations need to improve. If I, an Australian born, English speaking person, has to deal with such issues – some that are, at times, frightening and a real battle – then what must that be like for someone who can’t speak the language well? Difficult, I imagine.
I’m being entirely honest. What I have found is that some people don’t like to hear the truth. And they are the very people that need to.
This entire article is about our current reality – and that’s part of the solution. Until we all truly recognise JUST HOW BAD things currently are, we cannot work towards making them better.
This could have been written by anyone in the USA….except for the road issue. I agree with your assessment of service and quality of workmanship. Yesterday, I talked to no less than 7 people (probably in 7 different countries) at Visa to get a question resolved, each of course directing me to another department and providing me with that toll free number….time consuming.
Yay! Thank you Thank you! I have been expressing the same things myself of late IT IS CUSTOMER SERVICE, not customer ahhh hang on till I get there or get on it? My god after 2 years of overcharges from one telecommunications company we were given a rebate of a quarter of that and still evry single bill for every single service we get from them has been over charged yet again we would love to go to another carrier but none of them provide the range of services out where we are…….hmmmmmm and as far as offshore outsourcing of labour well dont get me started, if this countries government hadnt sold of country resources to the cheapest bidder then maybe the gov would start say a stay home mum scheme and provide those mums who wish to work from home with the training and equipment so we could get a decent customer service from people who not only spoke english but understood the difficulties one may face in obtaining a service that as value for money…PULL YA SOX UP PEOPLE!
Just to have your supporters know its very quick to judge someone as a hater, I consider myself to have a criticism of the article but I think criticism in such disciplines as writing a good thing also debate is so rather than just accept things on face value I think society progresses by debate. Fair enough if you disagree though.
Sure I do agree I shouldn’t be quick to judge you sandi but as I reader I just judged you for the things you said in your article. I am a psychology student and volunteer in the community also so yes i judged you incorrectly however from what you had written I still have the opinion that your tone in the article about such issues conveyed a bad attitude and one that is not helpful . I still hold that the article wasn’t helpful rather just a big winge.
Also as an employee at a fine dining restaurant and working at other places I am often highly impressed with the service we receive in Australia and after living in the US and Canada where they operate on a tipping system I don’t believe paying for the right service is ideal.
Furthermore I do not doubt that you’re devoted to Australia and improving Australia however when you stated that ‘we are governed by morons, over governed by morons’ I found that to be offensive and ill founded especially to the people in the public office dedicated to making our lives better. Yes there have been huge problems with the implementation of Myki and such problems in the state of Victoria but the government is working hard to either fix or change the system already, many people aswell as myself belive it has been a waste of money and works appauling considering such systems like Oyster in the UK however the way you put your point in the article I thought was poorly and rudely expressed.
Also on your point about being mugged I was accosted in St.Kilda know one helped. There is a bystander effect happening in society where people expect others to help, I don’t know I just would rather deal with things in the best way I can. I still think that some of the issues you raised and the way you wrote them were trivial but I also understand you wrote the things you did to create a positive change, Which is great.
Sandi, the title just says it all 🙂 I totally agree with what you are trying to say… 🙂