TheBadPlaceundefined | Contributor: It's not just you. Being a consumer really has become hellacious by Diane Negra
Busy, distracted, and anxious, many of us have become oblivious to the growing amount of work we perform as customers. A 2025 U.K. report found that 78 % of respondents feel frustrated when dealing with customer‑service systems and that, on average, people spend between 28 and 41 minutes each week battling these interfaces. Even the simplest retail interactions have been transformed into new tasks: shops now hide their opening hours behind QR codes that must be scanned, exposing users to “quishing” attacks that harvest private data. Cost‑cutting measures that shift decision‑making away from front‑line staff onto consumers have turned banks, airlines, and other service providers into sites of predatory anti‑consumer policies, where “extras” are sold back to us as premium experiences.
Corporate language further masks the labor demanded of customers. Phrases such as “mortgage journey” or “thank you for your interest” give the illusion of choice while stripping real agency. On‑site staff with authority have largely disappeared, replaced by elaborate digital dispute‑resolution processes that require customers to supply exhaustive booking codes, reservation numbers, and other details before a complaint is even considered. Government agencies have adopted similar tactics; in 2024 New York Mayor Eric Adams’ administration required elected officials to complete a six‑page Google document before contacting city staff. This cultural silence—where people rarely share how much time they waste navigating opaque systems—helps maintain the status quo.
Outsourcing intensifies the problem by shielding firms from accountability, and the promise of “convenient” digital tools often masks new profit streams. As cash use declines, merchants raise prices to cover credit‑card interchange fees, while software engineers like Gergely Orosz note that “customer‑complaint handling at scale is broken in most tech companies.” The article concludes that the abandonment of functional, well‑resourced customer service is a fundamental flaw of contemporary business culture, a theme explored in Diane Negra’s forthcoming book *I’m Sorry You Feel That Way: The New Cultures of Customer Service*.
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