T is notoriously difficult to curb the expansion of Malaysian Trumpet Snail (MTS) populations and they can adapt to a wide range of conditions with water as hot as about 50 °C (122 °F).

Rianne’s fishtank received only one such MTS and now there are dozens, only months later.

Seeing how fast life can spread is fulfilling, but it also fills up tanks. Short of culling, there can be diseases or parasites impacting large populations (overcrowding).

his is the third part of a short series (see first and second parts). Later today or tomorrow I plan to write a summary based on paper notes I had taken and then summarised.

One issue that in hindsight (not upon arrival) I came to discover was that some services were only offered over the phone. Worse yet, despite them having phones at the Manchester City Council Customer Service (across the pathway, opposite from the “customer” desk), those would go to nobody. Upon dialing 102 they would just say we’re too “busy”, then get off the line now or “try later”. Why no queue? Why no in-person contingency?

I tried this several times, minutes apart. I could replicate this.

Imagine what elderly people would need to go through.

I explained to the staff at the desk they are clearly understaffed (over the telephone). There were far too many people (all women) at the desk, not busy at all, and despite it being anything but rush hour (Thursday afternoon) there was nobody to take the call.

I informed them I’d raise the issue or asked if I could escalate locally (when you use a word like “escalate” you immediately get painted as an enemy; asking to speak to a “boss” or “higher up” is equally ‘rude’).

It sort of saddens me to see how much service at Manchester City Council Customer Service has deteriorated since I last visited (years ago).

I’ll try to revisit next month to check if anything has improved following my written feedback.

N the last (latest, but first) part which I published hours ago I spoke about the “root cause” of my visit to Manchester City Council Customer Service, where I very seldom go to.

In this part I shall focus on a rather dysfunctional issue reporting system. I spent a long time talking to staff about it (nearly an hour) to better understand what they were and were not capable of doing. I took some notes too (with a pen). I shall get to them at the end when I write up some conclusions (with notes at hand). I will follow up next month with another visit to see if progress was made (I’m pessimistic about it, but it’s unfair to rule out progress without actually checking).

Upon asking many questions (about 3-4 ladies at the Manchester City Council Customer Service desk) it seemed clear that everything was to be done “online” and the E-mail address they could provide – only after half an hour – was “ecitizen” alias or something like that (I assume electronic citizen). I said it would likely not be tracked (by time or code) and would therefore be a “one-way street” – not something that would provide solutions or prove fruitful a lot of the time.

To be clear, I never went to Manchester City Council asking for benefits, didn’t overuse any over-the-counter services. I’m like an ideal “customer”. I’m mostly invisible to them, I just pay my bills and sometimes use online services (e.g. to order bins). I only ever go there in person if something went very badly.

Manchester City Council Customer Service, according to itself, no longer has paper forms to issue complaints or to raise issues.

What’s remarkable about this is that two ladies at the counter attempted to find such a form, recalling that it did in fact exist. Then they said that apparently they no longer have that!

Amazing.

Does the Manchester City Council Customer Service assume everyone has a computer, has an Internet connection, and knows how to use a computer? Not only elderly people lack at least some of these things.

I will chase up with another visit next month to ask about this. There are accessibility issues at stake. I want to politely insist that this option prevails.

I explained to staff there that registering complaints online means pushing text into bots to make statistics and maybe slideshows, maybe even feeding them into large language models to deal with words in bulk, without anyone paying any attention to any of the text. If people chose their words carefully only to be fed or ingested as slop, than it is not respectful.

If done on paper, an actual person must open and read (then handle or redirect) the input.

Worse of all, they confessed to me there’s no way to get a reference ID/number for an issue reported. If that’s the case, then it’s a recipe for problems.

Since I was already there in person, with a technical bit of input at hand, why could I not speak to another person about it?

I explained to them that in some banks I reported similar issues and my input was better received/welcomed.

It would be really sad if Manchester City Council Customer Service became worse than banks.

In the next part I’ll deal with staffing and capacity issues.

To be clear, I left the place in amicable terms and it was all smiles as my envelope with input was placed in internal mail.

I recovered from what was becoming hostile and toxic (in my opinion) and what seemed like 4GS (or similar) stepping in to record the exchanges.

Why does the Council wish to make “incidents” or escalate (like police) where no intervention is needed, no bad words are used, and the solution is attainable by manners, communications, and understanding?

One lady there at the desk deserves credit for approaching me nicely and offering a partial solution, whereas her colleagues lacked these interpersonal skills.

omorrow there’s a football match that’s hard not only because it’s an away match. This weekend will also be a daylight saving time (DST) event. It’s the worst invention made by humans. It causes many problems and solves no actual problem.

We’ll soon get an extra hour of day (or sleep).

I’ve long opposed DST.

If enough people realise how stupid DST is, we’ll get rid of it.

his past summer I decided to write more in this blog. So I did. I kept true to that promise.

In retrospect or upon reflection it was a good decision that is rewarding in many ways, not limited to “traffic” (which really isn’t the goal).

I should have done this sooner.

I said something similar in 2022 when quitting all social control media altogether.

Should have done that much sooner.

What a waste time that was.

Writing more here means keeping the s/n ratio higher in other sites.

He also goes back to sex.

ARLIER this week I said I would visit (in person) Manchester City Council to discuss issues with browser compatibility in their Web site.

I finally did so yesterday afternoon. As planned, I brought pen and some papers in order to take notes.

I arrived at about 1PM. Prior to that I went to Heron House (registration office) to ask for directions. As a slight divergence, because Heron House also houses GCHQ, I couldn’t help but notice about 4 people, some with heavy firearms, at the front entrance (I assumed due to high perceived threat from Russian or Islamic terrorists). I don’t think I saw anything like that before in Heron House. Worrying? Maybe.

Back on topic, so the folks in Heron House kindly and politely directed me where to go (another building, just across the road). The person at the entrance was just some useless (unaware of what his job was) contractor, but once at the first floor their staff was very helpful. There was hardly a queue. That’s good!

Heron House was OK, unlike before. The other building was more hostile, as they seem to interpret complaints (about service/disservice) or unhappy customers as a threat and then prematurely escalate in order to intimidate ‘dissenters’. To their credit, they quickly deescalated owing to staff that realised they had over-reacted. I’ll come back to this point at a later point. Also to their credit, there was no queue and quite a few people at the desk (3 ladies).

The “final destination”, Manchester City Council Customer Service, wasn’t technical and that’s fine. I tried to ask where I can speak to technical staff or, if feasible, file a report about the site. They insisted this was not possible and that was obviously a lie. It was either laziness or obstruction.

I explained to them, politely, that both my wife and I didn’t use Chrome or Chromium-based browsers and thus, like “disabled people”, we were excluded or left out. I explained to them that tens of thousands of people in Manchester alone probably find themselves in the same position as us and being technical and willing, I wished to do something to correct this. I moreover explained that what the Manchester City Council does – even if by contracting a rogue or clueless third party – leads many people to frustration and forces many users to abandoned perfectly capable Web browsers. I added that unwittingly the Manchester City Council helped American monopolies cement monoculture on the Web and this was easily fixable (if only I could raise this issue with the correct person/department).

This led nearly nowhere. I told them that those companies were “hiding” from feedback as it would be “costly” to handle it. I said that certainly someone at Manchester City Council (which is where I already was) could handle this but layers or bureaucracy or procedures prevented them from being contacted.

In the next parts I’ll explain two attempts to reach the right department and why it’s anything but assured.

Customer services everywhere have deteriorated. Impersonal authorities and companies would become the ‘norm’ unless challenged.

omorrow there are some events here, not limited to a concert many young girls (now in their 40s or even 50s) have longed for. There is also a match in Birmingham around midday the following day. ManCity is still undefeated this season, no draws either. How long can this winning streak be sustained?

Aston Vila is ranked second in UEFA Champions League, so an away match in Birmingham will be a huge test for EnzoFC.

Meanwhile Manchester United (Man Utd) is in a state of crisis.

I feel bad for Manchester United.

They used to be so good.

HE fight against British racism and corruption (fought by Daniel Pocock in his capacity as a political candidate) is not over. He’s still pursuing a case in the United States, having lodged an appeal there.

In the UK, when lodging an appeal, the process can be slow and cumbersome. That’s partly by design.

oday it’ll be another cold, rainy day. That’s fine, we could use some more water and the fish are OK now (heated up water, just in time for winter).

I don’t suppose we’ll go to the park today (to feed the birds). With umbrella and coats it won’t be the same.

I guess it’s really winter already, except in Japan.

In the Techrights site we have progressed further with a long series that might interest Linux users. This series will last until next month, maybe even December.