Why has the brilliant ITV series Mr Bates vs The Post Office struck such a deep nerve? It is ITV’s most-watched drama in a decade but this isn’t just because of the extraordinarily empathetic performances of Toby Jones and a stellar cast.
Surely it’s partly because every viewer can relate to the mix of incompetence, carelessness and built-in complexity which form the impenetrable wall of obfuscation and futility that is dealing with a modern, monolithic corporation?
Worse, it all masquerades under the patronising nonsense of “customer service”.
Such “Orwellian doublespeak” underpins the experience of trying to interact with faceless entities when something has gone wrong. As with those poor sub-postmasters, it makes us feel stupid.
“Chat to us” results in a chatbot; “talk to us” means a jolly recorded message, abruptly followed by being cut off; “complain to us” involves reading a “complaints charter” about how “they” deal with complaints, so convoluted as to conceal how we can actually complain.
My partner Lucy didn’t even want a new phone on 1 January, but was tired of the mounting inconveniences of owning an older iPhone. She ordered an upgrade from her service provider to be delivered by a different company.
As it was “next day delivery” and she was going to be at work, she arranged a day off later in the week to be at home. Two hours after accepting this request, the “delivery” was made anyway.
What was most upsetting? That they disregarded their own acknowledgment? That Lucy’s phone was delivered to the wrong address (the company sent us a photograph to confirm “delivery”)? Or that this photograph showed the recipient was clearly not at our front door?
Lucy asked to go and retrieve her phone. She was met with an Orwellian “sorry, that would be in breach of GDPR rules” and a warning that the driver would be “financially responsible” if he did not do so himself. Cue a two-week maelstrom of frustrating interactions, which have reduced Lucy to tears.
The delivery company is effusively polite (“have an amazing day”), performatively “helpful” (i.e. not at all), and full of empty promises of “VIP service”, which “ensures delivery”. As opposed to what, exactly?
The phone was eventually returned to the service provider, from which Lucy had to buy it again. Their strategy is now to throw scruffy pound notes of compensation at her. If she ever receives the phone, it may be free! If …
Yes, “first world problems”, but we live in the allegedly service-focused, technology-enhanced first world. Everyone “listens”, nobody hears. There is a problem, but it’s all normal – or somehow the customer’s fault. We are constantly patronised and there is zero accountability.
Where is the responsibility or scrutiny? What happened to fairness? And does Lucy have Alan Bates’ indomitable resolve? To be continued…
Customer service is surely designed to irritate – it must be
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15.01.2024
Why has the brilliant ITV series Mr Bates vs The Post Office struck such a deep nerve? It is ITV’s most-watched drama in a decade but this isn’t just because of the extraordinarily empathetic performances of Toby Jones and a stellar cast.
Surely it’s partly because every viewer can relate to the mix of incompetence, carelessness and built-in complexity which form the impenetrable wall of obfuscation and futility that is dealing with a modern, monolithic corporation?
Worse, it all masquerades under the patronising nonsense of “customer service”.
Such “Orwellian doublespeak” underpins the experience of trying to interact with faceless entities when something has gone wrong. As with those........
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