A frugal life is an easy life!

Life wears me out (being a 40 year old codger) having to battle against the business and government world every week, why does it have to be so difficult?

I don't want much, I just want to be treated equally, fairly and in a way that I used to be, where the mistakes of others don't cost me an hour on the phone, don't involve yet another 18 page form or complaints procedure, don't leave me waiting "3-4 working days" for a problem to be sorted out.

All the money spent on new technologies and passed on to us all via high prices for goods and services, we were told that life would be easier and more convenient for everybody.
Increased security costs (once again passed on to us) for new security systems like chip and pin or one time passcodes, which are designed to protect us, invariably end up costing us all more time and money and do not sort out the problems they were brought in to resolve.
The simple bank account:
Pay your bills using it, have your wages paid into it, manage your money they tell us and should it go wrong, they will fix it swiftly and accurately, or you can complain to yet another taxpayer funded body.
Sounds good? It never works out that way though does it.
To avoid employing many thousands of people, and at extra cost to the customer, the banks provide a 24 hour banking service - banking online (again at our cost) - or you can still go into the odd branch, if you can find one.

When something goes wrong though, it is a different story!
First you ring the telephone 24 hour banking, they cannot help and pass you to the ebanking department, who assure you there is nothing wrong with their systems (despite a clear problem with your account that they cannot solve) their investigation promises and the call back do not come. The next day, you are on the phone again, this time your information has been lost and they can't help, the result of another hour on the phone and three advisors later, is an email to another department to sort the problem out.
The problem is not resolved, so you are on the phone again for a third day running, sorting out THEIR faults.
They cannot help and now suggest a complaint is registered and that you the customer, travels to find a branch and try and resolve their problem.
There is no reply to the complaint (despite them telling you they will respond within 24 hours) after three days, the problem is not resolved, so it is back on to the telephone again and another hour (at cost to you) and another set of promises this time with an increased timescale.

Three weeks later and the problem maybe fixed, but of course "we cannot guarantee that it will be sorted out at this time"
When I asked the simple question, of why have 24 hour telephone banking (the clue is in the 24 hour banking terminology) when this service can never do anything to help a customer having problems, it is always "the system!"
So for all this technology that makes banking more convenient (costs passed on to the customer in higher charges) when there is a problem, noone at the bank can do anything except "understand your concerns" - it really isn't good enough!

The examples are endless, wether it's big business or official bodies, our lives are so complicated and our rights under law are often broken and we are fobbed off with pathetic excuses and blatant lies.
What ever happened to, "The customer is always right?"