The Red Tape Recorder

Have you had a bizarre or frustrating red tape experience at the hands of a government department, local authority, large company or other monolithic organization?

Perhaps you have been patiently making your way up a telephone queueing system, only to have your call dropped unceremoniously after 20 minutes of lo-fidelity tape-loop, unnaturally perky announcements and the distinct impression that there is nobody actually in the building.

Or maybe you have been required to fill in a dozen pages of invasive paperwork, only to be told that it was "the wrong form". Sensing your difficulty with this pointless monomania, staff then treat you like a buffoon and issue you leaflets on how to fill in further leaflets.

Perhaps, like many people, you feel that not only is arcane administration getting in the way of things getting done, but that is actually its purpose?
Well, now it's time to speak out, and you can do it right here.

We are looking for Britain's most frustrating and anally retentive companies, authorities and institutions and to do that, we're collecting your stories of bureaucratic meddling up and down the country.

To tell your story, escalate your customer service issue or lodge your formal complaints, you should - appropriately enough - fill out the short form. There's an example below the form.

Example

Your email address

Your name

Nearest large town or name of county:

Subject:

Organization you dealt with:

Your story:
Reminds me of the train operator regulations, where they're fined for late trains (and have to pay compensation if delayed more than an hour) but fined even more for cancelled ones. The problem with this is, if the trains are hourly but running 50 minutes late, the sensible thing would be to add another 10 minute delay, because then trains would be leaving each station at the right time. But they'd be fined heavily for a cancellation, so they just carry on running 50 minutes late all day. People turn up on time for their train and find they've just missed one and then have to wait 50 minutes for the next one.

Conditions

By submitting material to us, you agree to its use on this website and in any subsequent published form.

We may amend or alter material that makes characters in the story identifiable in real life. In any publication of material, we will make it clear that such details have been changed.

To protect your privacy and anonymity, only your first name and general area (ie: the nearest large town or county name) will be used in any publication of the material you supply to us. Your email address will never be published. If you wish your material to appear under an alias, please supply an alias instead of your real first name.