Wednesday, November 11th, 2026, 5:45 am
Manchester City Council Report Card – Part 9 – Services Phased Out
Filed under: Out of service
day ago I mentioned how staff at “Customers Service” or “Customer Services” at Manchester City Council was just chatting casually to pass time while flinging at actual “customers” (residents) useless options, not facilitating paper complaints either. They were busy with themselves and just pointing to the same “services” that had already failed. I am told this is common. It happens not just at Manchester City Council, it seems to be part of a worldwide trend. I wrote about this earlier in this series.
When I finally got on the line – as in queue – to speak to an “Advisor” (you go in person just for them to put you on the phone, imagine that!) it was also rather awful, clearly understaffed. I had observed the same awful service 2 weeks earlier.
At a later point I’ll give some data collected by my wife and I.
Based on pace of queue progression, there are only at most 2 people taking calls, maybe 1. They were taking calls while a huge queue was forming, with maybe 20 people on the line at the same time (telephone companies/carriers make a fortune this way). With more advisors needed, plus the above-mentioned under-occupied staff at “Customers Service” or “Customer Services”, there’s clearly an imbalance or misallocation of “human resources”. While waiting on the line for nearly an hour both my wife and I saw 3 people doing virtually nothing in the deception-type desk. Chatting mostly.
Watch them closely enough and you will received blank stares. If you want to raise a concern about this, good luck… there’s no way to send any feedback, no forms one can fill. Complaints aren’t easy to file.
Given that we pay their salaries, this is even more troubling. Make sure you have money in the bank, pay a couple grand a year, get no service, and you cannot even complain.
