Unsafe servicesfrom national companies

| In Articles - Rights | 1st May 2022

Nothing to trust this days. Is all marketing and a run for money.
National services who suppose to be most trusted, disappoint customers and you don't usually see this because all the problems other people have will be hidden by confidentiality policies..and yes..people will be a little be afraid to speak laud about the problem they have with such companies. And is also the fact that, most of the times you don't meet the person who has a particular problem in which you have interest in a certain time in your life.

So, information does not go where it should because of media which is full of crap and most of the time fake news or just usual news said in big words.

In my life time I had all kind of problems, as anybody else I suppose, but in the last 2 years, 2 problems created by national companies, who suppose to help the customer, the people.
One is Royal Mail who is pretending that in case you change your residence, if you pay for the service, they will redirect your mail for the next a few months to the new address. I had this experience and I found out later that I was not the only one who had it, when the redirection was not happening even if you paid for the service. I do understand human error exist...but isn't a bit to much human error or who knows what type of error?

A most recent problem I had recently is about DPS (Deposit Protection Scheme) - a government agency. You don't pay for this service but is given for free to protect both tenants and landlords who rent, from this UK. I am sure, a similar service is in your country too.

I moved in Feb this year from one address to another. The landlord where I left from done a complaint about a few things in relation with the place where I left from. He asked for money compensation which I didn't agree, because I left everything as it suppose to be.
Now, because we didn't agree with money, DPS was asked to step in and help.
In this time, even if DPS send me an account number they had, on my email, telling me to give more details about the conflict, after a few days, I got an email saying to reset my account password. The form to do that was actually telling me to register again. I didn't do it because registering again means to mess all their data have about me and they will never know where I lived and nothing abut the previous or the new deposit protected with them. But all this experience made me feel unsafe. And this is a national service which has the purpose of protecting tenants.

Now, what can we do in this type of situations?
Not to much.
In the case with DPS, they have the power. Even if they had batabase problems, still probably nobody will mess with them as it can cost to much.
In the problem with Royal Mail is the same. When you pay for the service you also tick a box for Term and conditions. And this file you agree with, which is extremely long, and you don't have time to read it all, will cover any problem might arise for the company, including when you don't get what you pay for.


Basically, you don't have to much power as a buyer, customer, or service user. No rights to do anything to help yourself, because companies like this one will always have a lot more money to protect themselves with good lawyers, and you will end by paying to much money to get a compensation for your looses. The cost of a lawyer will be different for you than for them. You will hire one lawyer for one case which will make things expensive, when they will have their own lawyer, full time employed (which will always need something to do, to fight with somebody), or a contract with a lawyers company...and for them things will be less expensive. Plus, they will always be protected by policies that you sign when you start using their services, and this will give you really small chances to win the battle.