Customer Setvice

[malvolio]

Which is why our seas get raw sewage pumped into them and the fines placed on the companies are passed on to the customers, rather than hit the profits/dividends.
Public services shouldn’t be fully privatised, or at least laws should be in place to make the company and shareholders actually responsible for the service, and not just to live off the profits. (I realise that many on here believe everything should be privatised and anything that might be good for the country should be avoided for the the sake of profits)

It's a difficult one, isn't it. Thatcher privatised them so that they were run by people with commercial experience rather than ex-public schoolboys with a degree in PPE, which was a good move. However someone - probably some ex-public schoolboys with a degree in PPE - forgot to ensure that profits went toward service delivery and not shareholders in the first instance, and only when service levels hit the targets could dividends be paid out. There are clauses in the contracts to make that happen, but they are badly drafted and superseded by other clauses. And the current owners - many of whom aren't bound by UK law anyway - won't change them and so upset their shareholders.

Hence we are where we are. And you can't pass some kind of generic law to cover that without buggering up a lot of other things.

[WTFH]

It's a harsh truth but one that is routinely ignored - companies (even our tiddlers) exist solely to make money for the shareholders. They have no other purpose. Products and services are merely a means to an end.

Which is why our seas get raw sewage pumped into them and the fines placed on the companies are passed on to the customers, rather than hit the profits/dividends.
Public services shouldn’t be fully privatised, or at least laws should be in place to make the company and shareholders actually responsible for the service, and not just to live off the profits. (I realise that many on here believe everything should be privatised and anything that might be good for the country should be avoided for the the sake of profits)

[malvolio]

The names in the article are a great reminder that companies don't give a toss about customers, all they care about is money and shareholders.

It's a harsh truth but one that is routinely ignored - companies (even our tiddlers) exist solely to make money for the shareholders. They have no other purpose. Products and services are merely a means to an end.

[edison]

The names in the article are a great reminder that companies don't give a toss about customers, all they care about is money and shareholders.

[Snooky]

Or not.

HMRC are in there.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...r-service-are-

I was amazed not to see Currys in there, until I read some of the stories and realised that, appalling as they are, their failings can't have quite the same effect as the likes of E.ON

[SueEllen]

Or not.

HMRC are in there.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...r-service-are-