By Isle of Wight Observer
It’s not only ‘Just Stop Oil’ protestors who deserve lengthy jail sentences for wasting everyone’s time. I’d bang up a few senior executives, too.
When the Island’s only branch of HSBC closed ‘for refurbishment’, instead of making a temporary arrangement for customers, who, amazingly, still needed banking services, they put a note on the door – directing us to Southampton. How very practical, and proof, if proof were needed, they don’t give a damn about customers.
Cash is still King, and I’m happier when I have some in my pocket. Because HSBC closed the Fleet branch, last Tuesday, I went to Farnborough to pay cheques in and use the ATM. It’s a 45-minute round trip, but that too was ‘closed for refurbishment’. The staff sat outside, directing customers to Basingstoke.
Just like pointless road closures, the NHS and every other large organisation we all deal with on a regular basis, they don’t value our time. As far as they’re concerned, it’s worthless. Whatever excuse is offered, ‘we’re busy, short-staffed or ’elf ‘n’ safety,’ the consequence of large organisations treating us this way is that we’re made to wait. Car manufacturers claim not to have spare parts, so you’ll likely wait months to get back on the road. I just tried booking an appointment with my dentist, and the earliest one available was October.
When I last landed at Heathrow, our presence on the ground appeared to be a complete surprise. Did no-one tell them we were coming? Like so many other things, air traffic movements are controlled by a computer system. When it eventually managed to locate a free parking space, the necessary power unit wasn’t available. When they managed to locate that, it ran out of fuel. An hour passed before we disembarked. No-one from the airport or airline faced any consequence for this comedy of errors, so I’ll wager they do it over and over again. Heathrow airport makes hundreds of millions running things this terrible way, and their boss thinks they’re great.
Wightlink and Red Funnel won’t ever change their dreadful operating model if there are no repercussions for the terrible management. Airlines used to be able to offer ‘unexpected crew shortage’ as an excuse not to compensate passengers for delays.
Now the law says they can’t. Hurrah! Ferry operators must have the same incentive, or they’ll never be reliable.
Last Friday’s global outage was caused by a company we’d never heard doing a computer update few of us understand. It was yet another warning that we’re headed for a global catastrophe. Around the planet, for a time, McDonalds couldn’t serve burgers!
Facebook crashed recently, so you couldn’t use Messenger. I often use it to communicate and couldn’t. It took me ages to remember I could send an old-fashioned text instead. Thankfully I had that alternative, but not all systems enjoy such luxury. I once tried to buy a tiny portable TV for £49.99, and Curry’s till system crashed. I offered them £50 in cash, but they declined.
After some discussion with the manager, frustrated, I slammed my £50 onto the counter and walked out with the telly. The manager yelled after me, “But what about the warranty?” I didn’t steal it and couldn’t care less about the paperwork. During last Friday’s global IT crash, for a while, Newport’s B&Q was cash-only and IW Radio went off air. Several other local organisations had issues too. How many more warnings do we need that our utter dependence on technology few of us understand will, one day, cause a major problem.
Assuming I can get some cash, hopefully I’ll still be able to walk into Orchards stores in Freshwater, and hand over some wonga for food, loo rolls and possibly even candles. It’ll be a very different story at Tesco.