A Rant About Communication

I am, as I’m pretty sure everyone who has ever met me knows (and hopefully shows in my work!), one of life’s communicators. And I don’t know if it’s something to do with the current phase of life I’m in, or my lack of patience due to the stresses of being alive in 2026, or just… me generally, but poor communication is driving me absolutely insane lately.

We’re in the process of buying a house in the UK after moving back from the US last year. We found some fantastic people to help with the process. They’re doing a great job - but their communication is, not to put too fine a point on it, diabolical.

I sent a friendly email asking for an update. Nothing.
Followed up two days later. Nothing.
Followed up again after five days. Still nothing.

Finally, I got a little more forthright, asking politely (in that British way I have) for some communication. About five hours later, I received a massive email representing about twenty hours of work.

Naturally, I felt awful. I had been hounding these poor people, and they were clearly working their backsides off for me!

But reading through the email, I realised they hadn’t fully processed my questions - one key question remained unanswered.

“Thanks so much for all this,” I wrote back. “I really appreciate it - it’s incredibly thorough - but could you also answer the question I raised last week?”

Crickets.

Days ticked by. Three more days, I sent another follow-up: “I just wanted to make sure you had seen my email. I’m waiting on this information before I can do X.”

Nothing.

Two more days passed. I made a phone call (I really hate making phone calls).

The person who answered my call was offended that I was frustrated. “We’ve been working hard,” she says. “The searches came back really quickly - in three weeks. It can take twelve.”

“That’s great,” I replied. “Really great, but you see, I didn’t know that, because you haven’t told me ANYTHING.” (I didn't actually shout the word anything, I just felt like shouting it.)

Then there’s my Adobe subscription fallout from moving countries.

Fun fact for a Monday: you can’t hold a US bank account without a US address. So, when my US debit card expired I tried to update my payment to my UK card. Not possible - everything apart from the US was greyed out in the countries drop-down on the payment form.

Online chat informed me that I would need to change my region. I asked if I would lose access to my libraries and assets? “No,” they reassured me. The first step would be to cancel my account, then they would switch my region.

Of course (of course!!!!) once my account was cancelled, it couldn’t actually be transferred.

“That’s odd,” I was told. “We will figure it out and call you back,”

They didn’t.

The next day, unable to work, I called. I had the case number and the name of the person I spoke to. And yet, they went through the entire process again.

“It looks like you need a new account,” they said.
“No, I don’t,” I replied. “I need my old account reactivated. I just want to pay my bill.”

“Let me try this.”
“Someone already tried that two days ago,” I said.

They tried again (I had been on the phone with Adobe a LOT by this point) and concluded, to absolutely no one’s surprise, that the account couldn’t be switched to a different region. Their solution? “We’ll raise a ticket.”

Honestly, that felt like progress.

The next day I called again: “This is my case number. I haven’t heard back - just checking the status? I can’t work, you see?”

“Let me look,” they said… and we went through the entire process again.

Finally, a supervisor told me to start a new account with a different email address. I could use the seven-day free trial to keep working. The right people were working on it. I would get an email soon. “I’m worried the free trial will end and I’ll wind up paying for it” I said. I was assured that would not happen.

It expired on Saturday. No one has contacted me. And I’ve been charged.

Sigh.

So today I called again. “It looks like you need a new plan,” they said.

Let’s just say I had to take a very deep breath before continuing the conversation - and then I aggressively listened to spa music for about half an hour.

I feel calmer now!

Why am I sharing this, apart from (obviously) needing to rant?

Because it’s key. Communication - whether with clients or within a team - prevents people from going crazy and getting frustrated. Simply acknowledging an email, even if you don’t have time to respond fully, setting clear expectations about when you will reply, and updating people before they have to chase you makes a huge difference.

It also dawned on me that this is one of the joys of working with small businesses - and one of the reasons we should all be supporting them (and me!).

When you work with a huge agency or company, you’re often navigating systems, departments, tickets, and account managers. The person answering the phone may never have seen your project.

When you work with a small consultancy - whether that’s one of my clients, or with me at Beach Creative - it’s different.

There’s no ticket number.
There’s no “I’ll just transfer you.”
There’s just me. The person who designed your website, understands your brand, knows your goals, and can actually fix the problem.

Sometimes the best creative partner isn’t the biggest team. It’s the one who picks up the phone when you’re stuck, listens to your problem, and actually knows your project.

It’s the difference between hours of wasted time, repeated explanations, and growing frustration - and a partnership where things get done efficiently, clearly, and with a human touch.

Small businesses don’t have the luxury of layers of bureaucracy, ticket numbers, or endless handoffs. What they do have is focus, care, and accountability. And that’s exactly why they are so valuable.

At the end of the day, communication isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s what makes collaboration work, keeps projects moving, and, honestly, keeps all of us sane.

Ahh - I feel better now!