NationStates Jolt Archive

Working in an office next to the Palace Theater (130 Shaftesbury), and living in a flat in Chelsea.

There are things I like about London, and some things I don't.

One thing I don't like in particular is the horrifically low level of service here - and the local expectation that service will suck.

This goes for everything - especially any public service.

Go to the area around Paddington Station for good ethnic Mediterranian grub. Mmm...

Working in an office next to the Palace Theater (130 Shaftesbury), and living in a flat in Chelsea.

There are things I like about London, and some things I don't.

One thing I don't like in particular is the horrifically low level of service here - and the local expectation that service will suck.

This goes for everything - especially any public service.

Does that really differ from large oversaturated urban enviorments in the US? Seems to me, that here in the US any service that does not have to rely on competition is pretty much substandard or worthless..especially public service.
If you want good service the key is to find someone seeking to increase marketshare and stay as far from authorized or government monopolies as you can.

things I don't.

One thing I don't like in particular is the horrifically low level of service here - and the local expectation that service will suck.



What kind of service?

I'm sure if you pop around to Soho, the service would be better :D

A good friend of mine went to teach in London for a year, and used to email me horror stories all the time about the service there. Even for us Canuks, who are used to bad service, it was unreal. She said that in particular, service at the banks was much different than she was used to. It took her two weeks to open up an account there, and an extra week to get a debit card. You can do that in under an hour here. I can't even recall all her various rants, but perhaps it is simply a cultural difference, and the English don't really notice it as being particularly bad? Who knows.

LOL, 3 weeks to get an account up and running? Well, you can't be too careful these days. Any foreigner could be a terrorist. Or so we are constantly told. :rolleyes:

As for the service, well, you just have to get away from the idea that anyone owes you anything, even if you're handing over money. I was in New York a couple of years ago, and I can't say I was particularly impressed. It's just like London in that respect - people don't care, you're in the way.

Try getting broadband here.

1. First you have to have a phone line. That takes three weeks, minimum, even if the jacks are already in the place, already hooked up.

2. Then another month for the broadband to be turned on.

3. Then, if you want Fusion, which is a wireless router that can feed your mobile, they first have to uninstall the broadband, and then reinstall it - another six weeks.

4. If during any of this time, any prerequisite craps out, add four weeks for any crap-out.

5. Oh, and you'll be sitting there with that router in your hand, getting billed for everything.

That's just for starters. The banks are as bad as your friend said.

Everything here easily costs twice as much as any US urban area, and everything that should take an hour or a day easily takes 7 to 8 times longer - or more - and will be completely unreliable once installed.

And I live in a damned high end apartment.

Try getting broadband here.Is broadband also a public service in the UK?

Erm, the above is not true of Manchester or even small market towns in Staffordshire. If the phone socket is there, broadband takes only days to connect.

snip.
Want some cheese with that whine? :p

As for the high prices, thank you for paying our taxes and subsidising our socialist ways. Owned. :D

Yeah, well I'm not going to harp on service in a country I've never been in, not when I can tell horror stories of dealing with government services here in Canada. Did I mention that I have to pay back about $15,000 in Maternity Leave because I didn't return to my job in the North? Yeah, that's fine...but it's been two years and they still haven't figured out what I owe, or set up a way for me to pay it. Two years. I wish there was some sort of statue of limitations on debt. Idiots. And don't get me started on Citizenship and Immigration...[/hijack]

Erm, the above is not true of Manchester or even small market towns in Staffordshire. If the phone socket is there, broadband takes only days to connect.
It's true in Greater London.

It's true in Greater London.
Well, glad I don't live there, and never will.

As for the high prices, thank you for paying our taxes and subsidising our socialist ways. Owned. :D

Let's see -
I fill out a little form, and I get all the VAT I paid back.
I don't pay any other UK taxes...

So, I got to stay here for months, and didn't pay a penny in tax...

Now who is pwned?

London is cool, but I am glad I don't live there. I like the little place I live way better.

Is broadband also a public service in the UK?
no. telecoms were privatised... very badly. by the tories.

no. telecoms were privatised... very badly. by the tories.Ah, okay, thank you.

no. telecoms were privatised... very badly. by the tories.

Sounds like they forgot to split them up when they privatized them. I remember when AT&T had their stranglehold here, it was much like that for regular phone service. The last time I ordered phone service, they said, "OK, try it now. Is it working? Yes? Thank you very much for using Everest Communications." Click
Genuine competition is such a wonderful invention. Mini Monopolies are a conspiracy.

Sounds like they forgot to split them up when they privatized them. I remember when AT&T had their stranglehold here, it was much like that for regular phone service. The last time I ordered phone service, they said, "OK, try it now. Is it working? Yes? Thank you very much for using Everest Communications." Click
Genuine competition is such a wonderful invention. Mini Monopolies are a conspiracy.
mm i'm not entirely sure how it works, but any company is allowed to sell you broadband or phone services... but they have to buy their time wholesale off British Telecom, who in turn still own the entire national network of telecoms.... stuff.

it really doesn't work well and would work better if left nationalised... it'd even work better privatised properly, heh. it was really done as a political and money-grabbing move by the tories... big cock-up.

Can you get Good Korean food in London?

mm i'm not entirely sure how it works, but any company is allowed to sell you broadband or phone services... but they have to buy their time wholesale off British Telecom, who in turn still own the entire national network of telecoms.... stuff.

it really doesn't work well and would work better if left nationalised... it'd even work better privatised properly, heh. it was really done as a political and money-grabbing move by the tories... big cock-up.

So they didn't actually privatize it at all, they simply set themselves up as a wholesaler and allowed private resellers as their distributors? It sounds like they did nothing more than add a middle man.
There is so much competition in the my states communications market I now get telephone service (2 lines unlimited long distance)
Business Broadband (5 IP adresses with 7megs down and 2 up)
Cable TV (360 channels, Video on Demand, 80 music channels, 1 game channel & Tivo Box)
for 5 TV sets for 135.00 per month.

Across the state line in Missouri where my daughter lives they have Mini Monopolies where she pays this much for half the channels, none of the telephone or broadband or Video on Demand but the state makes a killing off their numerous little taxes and fees for allowing exclusive jurisdiction to a single company. We call this, anti competitive behaivor.

So they didn't actually privatize it at all, they simply set themselves up as a wholesaler and allowed private resellers as their distributors? It sounds like they did nothing more than add a middle man.
There is so much competition in the my states communications market I now get telephone service (2 lines unlimited long distance)
Business Broadband (5 IP adresses with 7megs down and 2 up)
Cable TV (360 channels, Video on Demand, 80 music channels, 1 game channel & Tivo Box)
for 5 TV sets for 135.00 per month.

America's obesity problem, explained!

So they didn't actually privatize it at all, they simply set themselves up as a wholesaler and allowed private resellers as their distributors? It sounds like they did nothing more than add a middle man.
Sorry, but how would dividing up a network between separate operators improve effciency? Seeing as how a single network cannot effectively compete with itself, nor will a divided network be able to comunicate with itself most effectively once there is more than one hierarchy of command. With the rise of mobile/celluar phones new networks have been built that run along side each other. With 76% of homes now having these phones the networks are of comparable size.

However these networks charge ridiculously high amounts for their service, despite not having as much cables to maintain nor legally obliged to provide public pay phones. For £25 a BT customer will recieve unlimited calls - peak or off-peak. For the equivalent price a mobile phone customer will receive 125 free anytime minutes, charged at 15p/min there after for landlines. The same BT customer will, also, pay a maximum of 18p/min and a minimum of 2.7p/min for calls to mobiles, whereas the equivalent mobile phone price is a flat 40p/min.

Unsurprisingly there has been a judical review into alleged price fixing by the mobile phone operators. Indeed, the example I used for the mobile phone customer above was Vodafone, which was order to pay fines for price fixing in Holland.

Another example of how a network cannot be privatised is that of British Rail. Operations cannot be privatised as the costs of building and maintaining a separate rail network would far outweigh any cost reductions gained from increased competition.

With regards to broadband development prices are fairly equal across the board. However, whilst ISPs provide their own networks, they only cover the 'last mile' of the telecommunications network and the majority of internet traffic is still routed by BT as they own the rest of the network.

<end of rant>

PS. Hope you have a nice time in London Deep Kimchi. Are you sure you get out of paying income tax? It's probably taxed at source and you don't realise... or maybe you're not 'paid' in the UK to avoid the tax problem. Still, I don't see how you could possibly claim VAT back as you are using the goods and services in the EU. I know you can claim VAT back if it's work related, but not all the stuff you buy will be work related... c.c

It's true in Greater London.
Just one more reason not to live there.

Along with the overcrowding, high prices of everything, and general rudeness.