...and yet firms still take our money!

HOW arrogant and detached from ordinary people must you be to peddle the same excuse on a recorded message for six months?

We are not answering our phones because of Covid. Go to our website or email, instead. Try sending an email and that, too, is likely to go unanswered.

So many businesses have pulled up the drawbridge and left their customers staring at the castle walls.

But we are entitled to ask: why should someone answering a phone and staring at a computer at home be any different from them doing so in a call centre?

Businesses expect us to pay our bills on time, yet, when we want firms to provide even basic customer service in return, they wheel out the Covid excuse.

Nearly every friend and family member has a ‘because-of-Covid’ tale of failing customer service.

One, who runs a veterinary business, was told by HSBC he could no longer use the BACS system to pay staff wages.

His attempt to see the local HSBC manager was rebuffed ‘because of Covid’, so he emailed. Two weeks later, all he has received are standard emails saying they are too busy to respond. The business has used the bank for 60 years.

I have been emailing my energy company, Tonik, to address a complaint since April. Its phone line still says, ‘we are only accepting emergency calls’.

But should we be surprised at this, when treating us with disdain has its rewards?

Money Mail readers twice awarded TalkTalk a wooden spoon for providing the UK’s worst customer service while Dido Harding was in charge.

It also suffered a massive data breach, which cost the company £60million and lost it 95,000 customers.

Now Baroness Harding is in charge of Covid testing.

In the dark, desperate days of March, we accepted that Covid prevented businesses operating normally. But, now, it is autumn. Major companies tell of the efficiency and productivity of staff working from home. So when some businesses choose not to answer the phone or respond to an email, it is a wilful snub to their customers.

It is a sign of directors who are more concerned with pocketing bonuses and perks than building customer faith, trust and loyalty.

Companies can only survive while we provide them with custom. If they can’t be bothered to serve us, we must take our money elsewhere.