Great Western Coffee Shop

I hope that my experience of complaining to FGW may benefit some other users and save them some time.  I have found the following to be the case:-

*  Emails sent to FGW frequently receive no response but you can try them on fgwfeedback@firstgroup.com

*  It is probably better to phone Customer Services on 0345 7000125 - at least they then have to talk to you

*  They will give you a case reference number.  If you don't have any success in getting your issue resolved then...

*  Email Jason Ness, Customer Relations Manager  -  Jason.Ness@firstgroup.com quoting the case reference number, he probably won't reply so also copy it to the MD  MarkHopwood.FGW-MD@firstgroup.com so when you send a chaser email at least his MD will see that he hasn't responded

*  If you don't get anywhere with Jason Ness then complain to Customer Focus advice@passengerfocus.org.uk.  They are more helpful.

*  Be aware that the Customer Services people you speak to on the phone are based in India.  In my case they sent a number of emails to Jason Ness who is based in Plymouth but didn't receive a response to any of them.

Good luck.

blimey thornebt, it sounds like you had a pretty dismal experience there. Sorry to hear that. I must admit, the one relatively minor issue I took up with FGW was resolved very quickly and with a minimum of fuss, but that was quite a while ago now.

Mind you, I notice from your email address that you're with virgin.net, so I'd imagine you have some considerable experience of being persistent when things go wrong, judging by the consistently bad press their customer service seems to receive! Really hope this gets sorted out for you sooner rather than later, anyway.

Hi Phil.  I've always had perfectly good service from Virgin.net, completely reliable service, but they have now decided to pass their non fibre optic customers to TalkTalk so I'm being migrated there.  TalkTalk seem to have a lot of negative press about customer service but I guess it's always the case that if you don't have any problems with the service then you never need to contact the Customer Services team and you're a happy contented customer.

The customer service from FGW is probably the worst I have ever received.  It's a shame as I have travelled by train for about half a century, even belonging to a railway club at secondary school which involved travelling all over the UK - to Crewe, York, Scotland, so many places, but I am now loathe to give any more money to FGW so will not travel by train again.  This might sound like an over-reaction but I just can't tolerate bad service.  I'm looking forward to some travelling on the SNCF in France this summer though.

I'm afraid that SNCF's reputation for customer service when things go wrong is woeful.

I must admit that when I want to communicate with FGW to either complain or compliment about their service my first method is to email fgwfeedback so I get a reference number at the beginning of the process. Although I question the quality of some of responses at least the communication is logged on the system.

And yes there have been several compliments when I feel staff have gone above and beyond their duties. A notable example of this is our local station master * at Thatcham who is always helpful especially when things aren't going as well as they should be

* I don't think that the official jon title for this person is station master - but to me that's what he is doing. Providing a good customer service and taking pride in his station

I've only complained once but it went to the top after a dissatisfactory and contradicting response, that took them about 8 weeks to issue a mail merge that didn't really address my issues.
My email to Mark Hopwood was responded to by his deputy Andrew Mellors, but only after I contacted passenger focus.

My experience with FGW customer service has been pretty poor by phone but actually pretty good (if a little slow) in writing.....couple of times I've been held up by colossal delays and jumped in a taxi I have had the cost refunded on writing in with receipts (despite the usual "no payments in respect of consequential delays" line being trotted out at the time).

So in terms of actions after the event I'd give them 8/10.

What I feel they really struggle with is dealing with customers during times of major disruption.......blaming Network Rail when signals fall over is all well and good however it's up to FGW to manage the situation for their customers and the perception is always that staff tend to become invisible whenever there are problems leaving customers to fend for themselves............for example yesterday during the chaos caused by the power failure at Exeter I have heard (anecdotally) that people were being put on the wrong buses (there was already bustitution in place which probably caused confusion), there were no staff available to help at Taunton, and a general failure to provide adequate information.

If they can improve help on the ground when things go wrong (and lets face it, these things are happening more often) they would get better ratings than those received in the recent survey, tricky though that may be.

Interesting complaints statistics from the latest ORR official figures:

Number of complaints per 100000 journeys: 

FGW/GWR: 28.7
Chiltern Railways:  102.2
Cross Country:  40.1
London Overground (the best): 3.3

What's going wrong at Chiltern? I thought they were one of the better performing TOCs or is it they've been too successful with overcrowding now a big issue?

Maybe we should ask our regular Chiltern advocate btline for a comment...   ;D

It surprised me that Chiltern were the third most complained to TOC.

Virgin's answer for bagging the top two spots was that they make it easy to complain!

How do they measure the complaints?

Does it include one line "sound offs" on Twitter as well as written/email complaints?

Data is compiled from complaints recorded in the following ways:

• Letter
• Webform/email
• Telephone call
• Meet the Manager
• Online forums (run by the TOC)
• Comments card

Excluded from the data are:

• Social Media
• Invitations to claim - including Delay Repay, Passenger Charter, Declassification, Legal Claims, Customer Surveys, Here to Help
• Complaints direct to Transport Focus/London Travelwatch

http://orr.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/3874/complaints-reference-guide-2015-16.pdf

Virgin as a whole proactively seek feedback, good or bad, and are acknowledged as leaders in Customer Service good practice, they want to "make it easy to complain" so that they can use the insight to improve their service......quite refreshing really....although whether it has any affect is another matter!!!

Ahh, but if they weren't giving people things to complain about...

They seem perversely proud to be at the top of the table. What they should be saying is, we will do everything in our power to be bottom of this table.

Customer Service focus should be on reducing complaints, not making it easier to complain.

I do agree with you but it's a bit chicken & egg......the more insight you gather, the better you can work on improving your offering, and seeking feedback is a fundamental part of this.....strategic approach rather than just kneejerk reactions....the proof of the pudding will be whether short term pain (loads of complaints) leads to long term gain (more positive feedback)

I have had a number of very negative experiences when complaining to FGW (as they were still known when I last complained)

Until recently I travelled a lot on FGW, and seldom had cause to complain. I usually went first class, and if possible on a train with a Pullman.
So far as possible I avoided events and circumstances that I knew would be liable to result in delay, overcrowding or other disruption.
On the relatively rare occasions when I DID have reason to complain, it seemed that my letter had not been read or understood properly, often the reply did not even make sense.

One particular Lady in FGW customer services always read my letter properly, and sent a considered and relevant reply.
This however was not the norm, and most letters from others in the department were clearly strung together from standard phrases. And not even standard phrases that were relevant to my complaint !

BTW, is it permitted to name the lady here ? I appreciate that we avoid criticising individual employees on these forums, but in this case I am offering praise for doing a good job, not criticism.

Outsourcing customer services enquires never works this is the sort of thing that happens whenever it is done whatever the organisation.  Companies should realise that their relationship with their customers when it has gone wrong is critical to the business. 

One company I know in another sector said that if they had done something wrong they always wanted their staff to be the ones who turn up and deal with it as only then would they have control over what was said and done!