nourishing obscurity

I have just sent the following letter off.  In this post, I change all names to [rail] Company A, [rail] Company B, the Junction Station and the Terminus:

Dear Sir or Madam

The reason the same letter is being sent to both companies, Company A and Company B, is that the two matters are related.

This morning, Monday, August 23rd, was not a good day for many train travellers between the Junction Station and the Terminus and there was much frustration. At this point, I’ll separate the two issues:

Company A

The train breakdown at rush hour [ahead of the 8.16 a.m. Junction Station to Terminus service] was unfortunate and we could get into the question of the funding of the railway’s infrastructure but let’s move on. The fact of the matter is that the train ahead of us broke down and our service was cancelled.

At no time were the staff anything but helpful, even under pressure. So well done.

What the beef was about, as many disgruntled passengers crowding the throughway, the platform, the bus stop and the pavement in the pouring rain, said, was not that the service was cancelled, not that they had to take a slow bus service [40 minutes to the Terminus, calling in at all stations], not that they were herded like cattle and squashed up like sardines … but that what we’d been told would happen and what happened did not accord.

The station staff acted, in this matter, as if it had never happened before. They conferred and one phoned for buses. They told us that enough buses had been ordered to take us all to the Terminus.

In fact, one bus had been ordered or so it seemed.

Now, try to imagine, please, that successive trains were arriving at the Junction Station all the time. Our service was cancelled at 8.20 a.m. The first bus arrived at about 9.20 a.m. The next bus arrived about 10.00 a.m. By this time, four of us decided to get a taxi and Xxxx Cabs were charging £15.30 for the journey to the Terminus.

I am therefore out of pocket by £x.xx for the train fare and £4.00 for the taxi, which was the only way for the three ladies to make their connecting trains and for me to get to work.

There were numerous angry voices out there over this particular point – not the breakdown but that Company A had failed to lay on sufficient buses, especially in that weather.

Then there is the cost to us.

Company B

When we were dropped at the station by the taxi, those ladies had, respectively, 4 minutes, 30 minutes and a longer time to spare for their connecting trains. The one with 4 minutes to spare could not work out, in the available time, which platform she needed, the Company B turnstile man told her something quickly but she was still at a loss on the other side and I asked him to tell us again.

Admittedly, he was speaking to the second of our party but she had time to spare. The first lady didn’t.  Your employee turned to me and in a very sharp tone, said, ‘Excuse me, I’m talking to this lady.’

Misunderstandings happen and he probably thought I was making a personal enquiry for myself but as this was a matter of the lady catching her train, I asked again, ‘Excuse me, this lady needs to catch her train.’

He said: ‘I’ve already told her where to go, don’t be so rude.’

I replied, ‘I beg your pardon?!!! We have just got here by taxi because as you know, the Terminus 1 to Terminus 2 trains are all cancelled and it’s been a two hour wait.’

He then said: ‘I don’t work for Company A, that’s nothing to do with me.’

That’s the point where I became incensed, said in a loud voice, ‘I beg your pardon!’ and stalked into Costa to have a coffee.

This man was shortish, maybe 5’7”, with dark, close-cropped hair, in Company B uniform, he was obviously a long-time, senior employee, maybe about 40 years [I’m not too good on ages] and there was a young, taller lad with him. The time of the incident was about 10:28 a.m. at the Terminus turnstiles and he was standing at the one closest to the Costa coffee shop.

My issue is not that he misunderstood but that he:

1. Called me rude without bothering to ascertain why I was trying to get his attention;
2. Tried to claim that the rail experience, from the Junction Station, through his turnstile and out of the Terminus, was nothing to do with him;
3. Had no understanding of who was the customer and who was the one there to help the customer.

Being in customer service myself, there is an unwritten rule that the paying person is called the customer and that the salaried person is there to serve the customer. If I had been rude or unruly, then there might have been a case for his bluntness and poor attitude but in fact there was never any such behaviour or language – not from any of us four.

Even if there had been, it was not his place to be rude himself. He could easily have kept repeating the mantra: ‘Excuse me please, just let me deal with this lady,’ and then all that would have happened would have been a simple misunderstanding.

I am not seeking an apology from him, I am not seeking any restitution. What I am asking is that Company B speak with this man about what a customer is and what a Company B employee is and that courtesy is what Company B would expect from all its employees.

Thank you.

James Higham

23.08.10

Filed under: Leisure, travel & sport, Society & human issues