With having to go down south to London earlier today, I went by train as I usually would. I have a young persons discount rail card, which I normally carry but this time forgot to take. I had booked my tickets in advance and usually I don't even get asked for my pass by the train staff but this time, a certain member of staff who also happened to be the train manager wanted to see it.
When I told him I did not have it, he said that I would have to buy another ticket, although this could be refunded later I simply did not have the available funds on me to pay and I could not use my card because there was not enough available credit. Regardless of the fact you should carry it, they should be able to check up to see if you have got one, maybe not on the train but later on then they could send out an invoice afterwards. I provided my details, but thinking about it now I should have not bothered because they don't have to give their full names.
Another lady on the train also stated to this member of staff that not it works both ways with providing details. He did not give me any. If I do get a letter from them, there is no way on this earch I will be paying for another ticket since I had one and if they had a proper system they could have easily checked the appropriate database to confirm that I do have a discount card which means that my discounted ticket was valid.
To top it all off, not only was this member of staff rude an unprofessional, he also took my return ticket as I gave it to him when he requested it thinking I was going to get it back. He would not give it me back. If I had of not been dressed in my suit, I probably would not have hesitating in giving this unprofessional staff member, to point it nicely - What he deserved.
I was not really annoyed anough to take it that far and being on train full of people as well as being smartly dressed I avoided that. I didn't even give him any verbal abuse however he was saying a lot of rubbish to me. He made a call, I thought he was checking my details but he did not while I was there. Apart from having a bad start to the day, the rest of it went well. Thinking about it I should have just given him bogus information since he did not have the decency to provide his full name.
I'm just waiting for the letter to come through now, if it does I really will have some fun. If their system worked, if there was even a proper system in place, what would happen now is nothing. Since they would check the appropriate database and find I was not in the wrong.
I'm sorry, I made the mistake of forgetting my young persons discount card. Yes, that is correct it was my intention to do that and I should be made to buy another ticket because they don't have a real system in place that allows this database to be checked either on the train or later on before sending out letters to people.
They had better not waste the paper and ink, it can demand money, a court date or anything really. The only place it'll be going after my reply is in the bin.
Innocent until proven guilty. Unless forgetting a discount card is a crime. They say that the terms and conditions state that you must have the card to make the ticket valid. Fair enough, I could have got a refund on another ticket later, but how was I meant to do this when I had no viable way of buying the ticket again on the train?
Virgin Trains and the other providers need to sort it out. They also need to sort out the reliability of trains, most of the time you simply cannot relay on a train in this country.
So this is another in the series of my debatable customer services series of posts, I'm sure it will not be the last. I'm not really one for complaining officially but I usually air my views. I've got some updates on some that have featured previously, where I have written letters and nothing has improved and my previous issues have still not even been addressed in some cases, more on those shortly.
Post ID: 602, posted by jase at 09:47 PMSomeone left an interesting comment, but I deleted it by mistake. I'm not going to recover it from backup as there isn't much point in doing so, but I'll address the comments that were made.
1. Any decent company does not tell their staff to withold their names. I don't care if they get trouble from people complaining, they should be providing full details of their staff when requested by the public.
2. Each case should be address individually, innocent until guilty applies in EVERY case, no matter what. The fact I FORGOT my pass is NOT a crime and does not automatically mean I do not have a discount pass. You should never assume anything.
Any half decent company would be able to check this information and send a letter later if appropriate. Either the train manager did not bother checking my details or he did and found that I do have a pass so all that trouble was for nothing.
3. He took my return ticket and told me I'll not be using that on the return trip. He was not meant to do that. I returned without a ticket anyway, there was no way I was buying another one. It's all about the principle of the matter.
The fact is, that staff member was rude, unprofessional and obnoxious. Enough other people on the train heard him.
He could have easily taken my details, checked up later and that would have been the end of it. Instead he showed himself up when he would have been taking my details to send me a letter to request a payment anyway, if I was found to not have a discount card.
He needs lessons in customer service, anybody that was there would agree. Terms and conditions are there to be met as much as possible. They are not somthing that is always achieved, just like an SLA agreement or contract.
Either way, I wasn't buying a return ticket and I wasn't paying any more for that ticket, I got the last laugh as always. It's not my fault he's in a dead end job and takes it out on customers.
Posted by: jasun at January 15, 2005 01:31 PMThanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
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