It’s Not Only Our Healthcare System That’s Broken
Most of our service industries are a mess
This rant will mostly resonate with senior citizens. Anyone under the age of 40 is already computer proficient and used to doing most things themselves. This includes building or fixing stuff by watching a YouTube video. I was so disconnected from this behavior that, a few years ago, I had to look up what DIY meant. (For other aging non-tech boomers, it is short for Do It Yourself).
My first encounter with DIY service was when I had problems with my computer, and the “help” section of a website referred me to the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) section and community forums. The latter is where you converse with other similarly lost individuals online, hoping to find a solution. To save money, companies fired their live-person assistance phone staff. Why pay them when we obedient schumcks will spend hours looking for an answer online?
And it’s not only technology that has destroyed the service industry. In my city, which has a population of almost one million people, there is only one full-time car wash service remaining. By full-service, I mean men and women who will actually clean the inside and outside of your car after it is run through the automatic gauntlet of brushes, shampoo, and rinse. This used to cost me around $15–20 per wash. For the same dollar amount, I get to pay for a subscription and have unlimited washes per month. And with that, I get to do my own unlimited cleaning. What a deal!
Next was self-checkout, where for no salary you become a temporary employee of Home Depot or your favorite grocery store. You can scan your item’s barcode and package it up before paying. If you have an orange that doesn’t have a sticker or the barcode won’t scan, a real employee is hopefully nearby to assist you. I don’t know about you, but I entered the store as a customer and didn’t ask for a job.
Then the Swedish furniture store giant IKEA trapped you inside, bribed you with meatballs and had you pay for and gather parts of your chosen furniture pieces. If you survive that, you have to take it home and play assembly person, following the little stick figure directions. There are no help phone lines or written directions.
The arrival of AI (Artificial Intelligence) has made this situation worse, not better. We have all grown accustomed to the frustration of a phone tree system, where you press 1 for x and 2 for y, and so on. The trick has been to find out what to press to speak to a human.
Ashley Furniture has taken this one step further into a dystopian nightmare. They now have Jennie, a chatbot who tries to converse with you via phone, text and email. You can eventually reach a store or a human if you want to, but good luck finding someone who can help you with a problem.
I purchased four countertop bar stools from Ashley that were defective. Despite two attempts, they would never stay level and were always off kilter. I finally drove to the store and spoke with the manager to get a refund. This took about two hours.
Service people come on the wrong day or at the wrong time, sometimes late, sometimes early. Some, but not all, provide text updates. One company was scheduled to install something, and I waited an entire day, but they did not show up. There was no phone call, text, or email as an explanation. I finally had to contact the salesperson to sort it out, and even he was baffled. They eventually got it correct, but not until after more scheduling mistakes.
If my wife and I were both still employed and not retired, I have no idea how we would manage to do real work for a job. And the worst part is that you have to keep “birddogging” companies to get a response. I mean, I am giving them money for a service, and it’s like no one cares.
However, the dubious achievement award for the worst service goes to Bassett Furniture. We ordered new living room furniture from them in April after the saleswoman assured us they could “hold” the pieces for us if our new home was not ready for occupancy. In early July, the company told us they were ready to ship. Our home was still weeks away from completion. I had to have the saleswoman abort the shipment.
Sadly, we later learned, after multiple phone calls and emails, that she had never reordered the shipment. It was still in the waiting status. I found this out after their Southeast manager in Atlanta finally called me, following my submission of a scathing complaint on their website. She apologized and said it would be “two more weeks” before delivery. That will be two weeks ago tomorrow. And so far, crickets.
This only scratches the surface of how bad service has fallen. Yes, our healthcare system is indeed broken, with poor service, excessive bureaucracy, and inadequate communication. But they are not alone in this regard. And the most ironic part is that they want you to give them five stars on a survey stating how great they are.
Some companies, however, deserve gold stars. Apple is one example. I called their toll free number to resolve some issues with a new Apple TV device. After quickly bypassing the chatbot, I was immediately connected with a human who was easy to understand. She did not need models or serial numbers, as she already knew these after purchase and installation. We spent almost half an hour on the phone, and then everything worked perfectly.
I suppose our fear and anger about these changes stem from a loss of control over external things. But it is also the loss of human contact and connection that I miss the most.
All of this reminds me of a cartoon about that ridiculous phone message that says, “Your call is very important to us.” I always think to myself, “No, it’s not. Because if it were, you would have a person answering this call.” In the cartoon, an old man is staring at the phone as the computer voice says, “Your call is very important to us. Please continue on hold until your call is no longer important to you.”
I am a retired MD passionate about health, medicine, gardening, culture, and food.
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