Customer Service frustration

[whole diary]

[Ollie]

Justin,

The existing help point is an older style so no spare versions. So requires complete replacement. The new one is coming from Switzerland. Not sure why it comes from them, guess that's where the supplier is.

[JayMac]

That would explain the 5 months then. Those Swiss are so inefficient. 

Is it being delivered over the Alps by pack horse?

[thetrout]

Justin, do you know if the Parking Ticket Machine at Clifton Downs is still out of action after also being vandalised (Probably snatch and grab for cash)

I head up that way about once a fornight for an evening event. Normally take the Train having come in from Bath if the connections are right. Otherwise it's a bus.

Anyhow I've noticed in the past 3 months that it's still not been replaced or repaired. That being said I haven't been there for nearly 6 weeks so it may have changed. Not normally an issue for me as I would normally already have a ticket.

But as is often the case at Trowbridge (for Bath Spa) if I couldn't get a ticket on the train. I would be pretty peeved to arrive at Bristol and then have them delay me by queuing up for say 20+ minutes (which does happen at Bath Spa all too often) for FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to take measy 75p from me!

I appreciate a fare should be paid if a prior oppertunity were available (In this case not). But to have FGW delay you by more than 15 minutes I personally think is unacceptable. Now if the train was 45 minutes late and you spent 17 minutes queuing for a ticket to leave the station, thus taking 62 minutes for a completed journey, would you be entitled to compensation?

[bobm]

But as is often the case at Trowbridge (for Bath Spa) if I couldn't get a ticket on the train. I would be pretty peeved to arrive at Bristol and then have them delay me by queuing up for say 20+ minutes (which does happen at Bath Spa all too often) for FGW^▸ (First Great Western) to take measy 75p from me!

There's a note on Journeycheck this morning saying Trowbridge has limted change today!   

Trowbridge Facilities: The ticket office has limited change.
At Trowbridge station.
The ticket office has limited change.

Additional Information:
Please purchase tickets at Ticket Vending Machines, where applicable or ticket barrier or on-train where no other means of purchasing is available.

[Brucey]

Apparently they are short of 10p and 20p coins.  Very strange message to show on JourneyCheck...!

[Ollie]

That would explain the 5 months then. Those Swiss are so inefficient. 

Is it being delivered over the Alps by pack horse?

Just letting you know what I was told.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Apparently, those particular Customer Information Screen units are no longer stock items but any such individual replacements have to be made to order by the supplier in Switzerland. 

[thetrout]

Trowbridge Facilities: The ticket office has limited change.
At Trowbridge station.
The ticket office has limited change.

Additional Information:
Please purchase tickets at Ticket Vending Machines, where applicable or ticket barrier or on-train where no other means of purchasing is available.

[/quote]

I'll pluck a ticket from thin air in that case...

Trowbridge has not had a TVM^▸ (Ticket Vending Machine) Machine for a number of years after they were removed due to vandalism!

This is why this is a constant problem. I have no issue with paying my fare. But the ticket office is regularly short staffed and closes early. Guards often have problems with their avantix machines or seem uninterested in a few cases at taking the revenue after Bradford on Avon. (The next 2 stations: Bath Spa and Bristol Temple Meads are both gateline manned). This leaves you in a long queue for often over 15 minutes to buy a ticket and a part of me occasionally thinks: Why should I now have to waste MY time? Even asking to go through the barriers to the ticket office to buy your ticket where their are no queues at all, you get told a flat: "No". (I wonder if that is because the gateline staff are PF^▸ (Penalty Fare) trained.........) That I find incredibly frustrating and in one case I walked out of the back gate into the Down Main Side Car Park which at the time wasn't manned and walked all the way around to the ticket office to buy my ticket. On that same occasion I later heard a young chap tell his mother outside he'd queued for over 30 minutes to buy a ticket from Keynsham - Bath Spa and would next time be taking the bus (Which considering the Weymouth train was also delayed would have actually been considerably quicker!)

[swrural]

TheTrout, I believe the expression to use is 'I feel your pain' (and that of all the others you mention).  I'm told this blog is read by people who can do something about problems.  Surely the answer is to have travelling ticket inspectors (TTIs?) who could equip everyone with a ticket between Keynsham and Bristol.  In the old days, they used to have ticket platforms, I understand, outside the main termini.  Clearly people were held to have more time on their hands, unless a squad of TTIs got on and then got off at the terminus.  I don't know how they worked.  Keynsham seems to me to be an adequate ticket platform.

The notion of keeping someone waiting at the ticket barrier for longer than he could have taken by bus (or even cycled I suspect!) is absolutely appalling and inhuman too.

[JayMac]

I have just had word from Ollie that the replacement CIS^▸ (Customer Information System)/Help Point for Shirehampton will be arriving in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) from the manufacturers in Switzerland on 27th February. How long it takes to get from the Telent warehouse to the wall of the shelter at Shirehampton station is anyone's guess.

It was late August 2012 when the CIS/Help Point at Shirehampton was trashed by vandals. Although that was outside the control of FGW^▸ (First Great Western), the ordering and fitting of a replacement wasn't. In this day and age, should it really take 6 months for such an item to be manufactured? If it does, then the original order for these combined CIS/Help Points should have factored in the need for a stock of replacements and replacement parts.

[JayMac]

The replacement CIS^▸ (Customer Information System)/Help Point at Shirehampton barely made it past its first birthday. Killed overnight. It appears to have been a violent death.     

Here's the sight that greeted me this morning:




Out of shot was the 'murder' weapon. A piece of masonry from the disused platform face. So we can add railway tresspass to the charge sheet. As before, I've reported the damage to the relevant folk - BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) and FGW^▸ (First Great Western). Credit to the Customer Information staff at Temple Meads this morning who informed me that they'd ensure someone got out to the station as soon as possible to clear up the broken glass.

I'll also be letting the Severnside CRP^▸ (Community Rail Partnership) know about it (hopefully they already do) tomorrow, when I shall again be asking about CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) coverage for Shirehampton. With these CIS/Help Points costing 12^ grand a pop I think CCTV could well be a wise investment. I know Bristol City Council funding was limited and CCTV was thus only installed on the Inner Zone Severn Beach Line stations (Clifton Down - Lawrence Hill inclusive), but it's time this decision to leave out the remaining stations is revisited. I fully intend to badger my local Councillors about this as well. And I shall be speaking to the local BTP Community Support team to enquire (once I have their contact details) about extra patrols at night.

CCTV may just deter the pond life from further criminal damage and trespass. Or aid detection of the crimes. I know its not a panacea but something needs doing.

Scrotes. Toerags. Low-life scum. There is much stronger language I'd like to use.

[IndustryInsider]

With these CIS^▸ (Customer Information System)/Help Points costing 12^ grand a pop I think CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) could well be a wise investment.

Or possibly replacement with one of the overhead LED type displays we've recently seen get installed at many of the Oxfordshire station to replace/complement these computer monitors in a box?  Then you could just have the traditional help point with no screen.  Both of those are far less tempting to vandals, with the LED being out of reach and the help point much cheaper to repair or replace.

[JayMac]

Well, I've heard from Ollie at FGW^▸ (First Great Western) that this CIS^▸ (Customer Information System)/Help Point may be replaced as early as next week. So that would mean there is some spare parts or units available this time.

Fingers crossed.

[JayMac]

Earlier today at Shirehampton:



A speedy replacement this time. Thanks go to FGW^▸ (First Great Western) and their suppliers/contractors for replacing the CIS^▸ (Customer Information System)/Help Point at Shirehampton in record time. This is now the third unit. These units cost over ^12,000 each. That's ^36,000+ FGW have spent at this one station.

Really does highlight the short-sighted decision not to include Shirehampton in the CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) roll-out on the Severn Beach Line.

I'm told that late night patrols by BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) and their PCSOs will be stepped up at Shirehampton in the coming weeks. Particular attention will be given over the Easter school holiday period. That's good news. But I think a long term solution should be to have an information display out of scrotes reach. Yes, that'll still leave a tempting basic help point for the gits to target, so CCTV is a must.

In the mean time I'd like to reiterate my thanks to FGW for getting the unit replaced so quickly. I'd also like to offer thanks to the local BTP team who, I'm assured, are taking the issue of anti-social behaviour at Shirehampton seriously.

As it happens, there was a group of youths at Shirehampton this evening when I got off the last Severn Beach bound service. Emboldened slightly by the few beers I'd had earlier, I asked them if they were travelling. The gobby one of the group said, "Yeah, we're going to Stapleton Road when the train comes back. You gotta problem with that?"

I retreated.

But I did make a non-emergency call to BTP to let them now about the group congregated at Shirehampton. Overreaction? Maybe. But there's that slight chance I may have prevented further vandalism.

[Chris from Nailsea]

I'm told that late night patrols by BTP^▸ (British Transport Police) and their PCSOs will be stepped up at Shirehampton in the coming weeks. Particular attention will be given over the Easter school holiday period.
...
I'd also like to offer thanks to the local BTP team who, I'm assured, are taking the issue of anti-social behaviour at Shirehampton seriously.

Shirehampton station is quite high on the agenda of the Severn Beach Line PACT (Police and Communities Together) team ...