UNRESPONSVE GOVERNMENT AGENCIES

 

UNRESPONSVE GOVERNMENT AGENCIES

Before the internet and mobile phones came along, we could only contact the government agencies using landlines. The problem with using landlines is that almost always, the person “in-charge” is not always available, and even if he or she is available, we have to talk to so many people before we could talk to him or her. Almost always, the person on line will just tell us to go to their office instead, which defeats the purpose of using a communications device.

Nowadays, it is ironic that despite the fact that very few people have access to landlines, many government agencies publish only their landline numbers, thus making it impossible for the public to contact them via mobile, email or social media. Believe it or not, there are many government agencies that do not even have a social media presence at all.

The sad thing is, even if some government agencies would publish their mobile numbers, email addresses and social media accounts, they hardly ever answer at all, and if ever they do answer, all we get are auto-replies or some chatbots giving us robotic and impersonal messages.

I wonder if our government officials realize that it is more expensive to call a landline from a mobile phone? That it is actually cheaper for our people to contact them via text, email and chat messages? Even Viber, WhatsApp and Telegram are cheaper to use than a text message. So why don’t they use these three platforms too? IKE SENERES/03-22-2024

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