21 days on and the East Midlands Trains pathetic (& clearly standard script) response finally rolls into the station:
Ref: 177620
Dear Rachel Elnaugh
Thank you for your email of 22 May 2009.
I was sorry to hear that you were unhappy with the policy regarding our
First Class Lounges and I apologise for the inconvenience this caused.
Due to spacing restrictions the decision has been made to limit access to
the first class Lounges to First Anytime, First Plus Breakfast, First Plus
Parking, First Inclusive and First Class season ticket holders.
Holders of discounted First Class tickets will not be allowed access to the
lounges.
I hope you find this explanation useful, if there is anything else that I
can help you with please feel free to get in touch.
Kind regards
Donna Sallis
Customer Relations Officer
Tel: 08457 125 678 (Option 5, then 3)
Fax: 01332 263894
Email: getintouch@eastmidlandstrains.co.uk
Wasn't really worth them bothering was it?
PLEASE GOD let Virgin win the contract next time it's up for grabs.
Rachel
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10 comments:
"Due to spacing restrictions........", you said the place was empty, bar just one person, so WTF are they talking about?
I always thought First Class was First Class, but it appears that there are several classes of First Class, eh.
Basicly a right load of crap on their part.
Perhaps you should bid next Rachel :-)
thedlog
hello... hapi blogging... have a nice day! just visiting here....
I dropped her a little reply to which I received the following autoresponse:
"Thank you for your feedback. This has been forwarded to the Customer
Relations team at East Midlands Trains. If you have requested a reply, we
hope to get back to you within the next 10 working days. You'll definitely
receive a response within 20 working days though, as per our Passenger's
Charter."
Gosh it could take something like a year to have an email exchange with these people to get anything more than inane scripted meaningless responses.
R
Do not despair Rachel, I once had a complaint which ended up going to Hazel Blears, and guess what?
Her response to me was very similar, a meaningless load of crap.
So, perhaps putting these 2 issues togather, and giving them both some thought, then YES I think you should become an MP and speak YOUR MIND, both orally and scriptual.
It all comes back to being honest with the public, tell them the truth and you can turn a country round in no time at all.
thedlog
It's completely ridiculous isn't it? Why can't they empower their staff to make decisions on the fly? Then they would not get so many complaints, and then it would not take 10 to 20 days to reply and we could all live happily ever after...
*sigh*
Anne
Lol the amount of time and money they must spend sending out numerous generic replies before giving the customer a real response must be far more costly than if they gave a real reply in the first instance!
The same happens with Ebay, it generally takes 8 emails + to get a real response to the original email.
Not even taking into account the damage done by frustrating the customer!
Why are these companies so blind?
Hey Leona
Because they can. They know we need and will pay for their sh!t services. Because they will get away with it.
A1
So, let me get this right. You bought a cheap ticket then threw a hissy fit and demanded a service you hadn't paid for because the lounge was empty. Do you demand the right to sit in empty seats on trains without a ticket?
Do you give away your services for free whenever you don't have a paying customer?
Either First Class is first class or it isn't First Class. EMT are asking for bad online PR if they have a "not-quite First Class" policy. Needlessly creating a bad taste in your customer's mouth isn't smart business.
However, while they feel they have an effective monopoly, they'll carry right on doing it.
But the crime here isn't even a mean-spirited approach to their discounted First Class. It's their failure to communicate.
Well, that's what the wisdom of the crowd is about.
I'll just pop back to my blog, drop a post in with a good 'seo-friendly' title (something like 'East Midlands Trains Customer Service...') and presto, see where it is in Google in a day or two.
Power to the blogging / Tweeting customer, eh?
Give it a couple of days and search 'east midlands trains customer service'
:-)
Rubbish Cusomter Service sucks and companies like East Midlands Trains who dosh them out should be named and shamed.
Welcome to the internet era and the power of word of mouth.
A1
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