You have to understand, in modern Britain bureaucracy is the point.

Everybody is lazy, nothing works, and nobody is going to do anything about it because doing something would require fighting an army of bureaucrats. And, dear reader, who would blame you for not doing that?

I had British Telecom around to fix a wiring issue. The rental agency said they'd be coming by on Thursday or Friday and I should pick. Simultaneously, I get a text from BT that they'll be by on Wednesday. The gent shows up Tuesday. I ALSO get a call on Friday (while I'm at work): "Mate, I'm about 15 minutes away from your house...".

Everything is like this. Everything.

Nothing you've said is abnormal in other parts of Europe though, I've been in Germany for work a lot, and bureaucracy there is a significantly higher. Yet it's still wealthier.

We waited once for German Telekom‘s technician 4 months to get a stupid confirmation, that wiring is ok. So we got dvd player and lots of dvds from flea market.