Companies isolate themselves from customers

SIR – My estimated bill from British Gas arrived on Wednesday. I always give my own meter reading quickly and easily by telephone, and searched in vain for a number to call. Three numbers on recent bills are now unobtainable.

The only method of contact provided on the current bill requires online access. How do those without such access ever obtain accurate bills or arrange a house move?

Vanessa Travers

Epsom, Surrey

SIR – “Customer service” has now all but disappeared from the common lexicon.

Over the past week I have been struggling to reach various technology companies. Most of these want you to contact them online, but half the time their systems are not working fully. Telephone lines are continually busy.

I am now considering attempting to live without any technology at all – a prospect that may be forced on me as my contracts run out and I’m unable to sort anything by talking to a human.

Ann Wright Cambridge SIR – If other City of London

institutions follow the lead of JP Morgan and permit staff to work from home permanently (report, August 26), then what will happen to all the coffee bars, sandwich shops and newsagents that depend upon the custom of office workers?

KL Parsons

Heston, Cornwall

SIR – The Government’s drive to get more people back into offices is out of kilter with modern working practices.

Presenteeism is often the enemy of productivity and empowerment, and workers should be allowed to do their jobs remotely through mutual agreement with their managers.

Of course we need balance in the workplace, and wholly home-based working isn’t good for people’s mental health, organisational well-being or career prospects. What we need is balance, and less scaremongering about jobs being outsourced to offshore organisations. In fact, over the last decade many firms have transferred their operations back onto sovereign soil because of wage inflation and better working conditions in other parts of the world.

Fred Lynch Lytham St Annes, Lancashire