I don't know

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Don't you sometimes wish that you would be told "I don't know" rather than incorrect information ... just yesterday two reports on the forum of significantly incorrect advise being given (admittedly one being an old story).  And I know that's just the tip of the iceberg - I could come up with a dozen personal incidents to add to the catalogue. Of course "I don't know but I'll find out" would be even better if a rail team member gets a question they cannot answer.

Now there lies a tale.  When I booked my berth the clerk tried to convince me I'd be turfed out at Plymouth.

Took a bit of explaining that wasn't the case.

... a new young lady tried to tell me I couldn't get from there to Coventry without going via Watford or Euston. She initially told me that the station wasn't served by Cross Country and was very surprised when I proved that there were two trains a day.

[LiskeardRich]

Or when staff don't think what they've just sold.

One day last week I bought a 0900 time restricted ride cornwall ticket and a ticket from my home station to the first station after 0900. I bought the home station to 0912 station first then asked for ride cornwall. She initially refused to sell the ride cornwall at 0715, until I pointed out to her she was selling me a ticket to preceeed it that the earliest it will run out of validity was 0912. She then lectured me on the validity of ride cornwall. She has a lengthy queue and all this unnecessary rubbish took up around 2 mins when she could of served the queue.
Clearly I as a customer was aware of validity or I wouldn't be buying a single to get me until 0912.

To me common sense is missing in some people  these days not just on the railway,

[Western Pathfinder]

Common sense these days is becoming increasingly uncommon 

[Bmblbzzz]

Yes. When you're asked a question and you don't know the answer, the answer is "I don't know". It's always less unhelpful than some false information and it's often helpful in its own right.

So why don't people admit to not knowing? I don't think it's just a railway issue. I reckon it's partly down to pressure on employees to be seen to be helpful; pressure from their bosses but also expectation from the public. And it's partly due to a general human tendency to dislike admissions of ignorance. But of course I'm just hypothesizing the reasons; I don't really know.

[Western Pathfinder]

Some of you may know that by way of earning my living I work in the garage busisnes
Customers expect me to have a christal ball sometimes 
So these days I've got a usefull tool in my reception area it's a ball of string which can be unraveled to any length as required
So next time you take your vehicle into your friendly local garage and wish to know what's wrong with it  and the man who's going to put it right for you says I don't know maybe you could give him chance to have a look at it first ! 

[bobm]

My boiler packed up on Saturday with an E4 error flashing in the display.   As a result no heating and no hot water.

Engineer came round at 7pm on Saturday night and after tinkering with it then spent half an hour reading the manual I helpfully provided him with - I suspect that's as close as you are going to get along the lines of "I don't know".

I am out tomorrow - so hopefully it will get fixed on Wednesday.  The excuse of drinking Whisky Macs to keep warm can only last so long.....

[grahame]

My boiler packed up on Saturday with an E4 error flashing in the display.   As a result no heating and no hot water.

Engineer came round at 7pm on Saturday night and after tinkering with it then spent half an hour reading the manual I helpfully provided him with - I suspect that's as close as you are going to get along the lines of "I don't know".

I am out tomorrow - so hopefully it will get fixed on Wednesday.  The excuse of drinking Whisky Macs to keep warm can only last so long.....

Chr*** - they're synchronising their withdrawal of labour.  We had boiler pack in over the weekend ... and we expect it to be back in service on Wednesday too.   Who's the third member with a boiler failure?


Another case today of where I wish I had been told "don't know" - not on the rails.  We're doing a print run of some 50 programs for tomorrow but have been having problems with the printer and rather that struggle, I took the into the local print shop who promise same day service.  "Yes, we can do full bleed, colour double sided"; either they got it wrong or lied, and when I went to collect at end of day I found they had indeed got print to the edge of the page by the rather brutal means of trimming to the print area after printing.   Didn't tell me, of course - handed me the job nicely wrapped up in the hope I wouldn't notice until I got home, and that's something they did get right - I didn't notice till I was home!

[Western Pathfinder]

Best of luck for tomorrow Grahame hope all goes well for you and that is a fitting send off for your Father I will raise a glass of something too him .

[trainer]

I have to call a heating engineer as the hot water part of my combi-boiler is not living up to its description.  There you are Graham...the third one.   ... no, I mean 

[bobm]

My boiler packed up on Saturday with an E4 error flashing in the display.   As a result no heating and no hot water.

Engineer came round at 7pm on Saturday night and after tinkering with it then spent half an hour reading the manual I helpfully provided him with - I suspect that's as close as you are going to get along the lines of "I don't know".

I am out tomorrow - so hopefully it will get fixed on Wednesday.  The excuse of drinking Whisky Macs to keep warm can only last so long.....

Engineer arrived at 8.25 this evening and within 25 minutes I had heat!   Temperature in my office was 15.9C - it is now 16.6C and rising!   Hurrah!!!!