RTFM? Or should it be "Run for the Hills"?

When I hear the answer to my question contain the phrase, "there is lots of information on our website", "we are just an (industry utility) and you need to work out what to do" or "we recommend you log on and start testing as soon as possible" I realise that any expectation of customer service I had needs to be heavily discounted.

Today's blog is a bit of a rant, but will be cathartic for being so. If you have no interest in hearing more I completely understand and the next blog will not be a rant......promise.

I know that life is becoming more complex with less and less time to make changes. Everyone is trying to do lots of things at the same time, but that is more reason to help each other, to share experience and knowledge and not leave each floundering in their own mudpool. Why do many people need to solve the same problem when the knowledge of one can help many?

Without giving incriminating details this morning has not been a good one and was topped off with a telephone conference that left me quite angry. I had asked for and until half an hour before the meeting I expected it to be a face to face meeting with a warm, speaking body where we would bottom out some confusing details. Instead I was then told that it was best for me (THEY decided what was best for me!) that we had a conference call. I was left with the option to have the call or nothing, well at least not for another few days when I have a deadline looming.

One thing I wanted to know was which legal entities I needed to "onboard" with the utility. The business we do and the way we do it is the same as hundreds or thousands of other firms so there should be a simple answer, but from the response you wouldn't believe so. Of course I could have been asking the question in some form of swahili patois, but I am pretty sure I was using English. When I was told to go to the website and that there was a lot of information there I definitely felt as if I had had my wrist slapped and told to go and read the f***ing manual. A great way to make me feel good and leave me no wiser.

For the record I had previously gone the website and despite an IQ and level of educational achievement I am quite proud of, I found it rather confusing. All I wanted was "for a firm/business like yours...this is what it takes......"

Following a previous conference call we had also been sent "the forms you need". In fact the forms came from three sources and included a number of near duplicates, ie almost the same, but different enough to leave one in doubt if to use both or one. When we raised this we heard that one was the old form - we were supposed to know that because an additional field on the "new" one. Well I guess the newer one could only be more confusing so it would not have had less fields!!!

We then established that three different forms effectively held 80-90% the same information, but each had to be filled in separately. Why????

OK well sometimes you just have to surrender and let the world flow around you. A colleague feels comfortable enough to "try it and see" to learn from putting things into the testing environment. Personally I feel uncomfortable because I cannot explain to anyone else exactly what is being done or why - at a detailed level that is - but if we are to meet our date then we have to do something. I was clearly making little progress but I won't run for the hills. Instead I will put my faith and support my colleagues.

Just in case the reader has not cottoned on yet, I really hate when my service provider tells me to RTFM, at least in so many words.

Rant over!