GWR’s compensation scheme is all delay and no repay

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

Very easy - ticket office will add them to your next season renewal.

[t0m]

Very easy - ticket office will add them to your next season renewal.

I prefer the cash refund option. Regardless, where I renewed my season ticket (The Trainline) they had no knowledge of either of these arrangements and told me they had been misinformed by GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway).

[TaplowGreen]

I'd be pretty chuffed with 8 weeks.. can't think of a single claim GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) has settled with me from Q4 of last year yet..!

Very nearly 6 months on from this post, GWR are still advising 6-8 weeks for a response....a few weeks ago they were refusing to give an estimate for a response, but there is still no real improvement.

6 months is sufficient time to recruit and train an army of customer service staff, so there are no excuses, other than confirmation of the utter indifference (some might say contempt) with which GWR regards its customers.

[NickB]

I've had a different experience (note: not better) with gwr's service team over the past few months and I wondered if others have had a similar experience...

Basically, either deliberately or by negligence, gwr staff have lost the ability to read.

The past three letters and emails that I've sent in have all received responses (c8weeks) willfully ignoring what I've already provided in terms of information and requesting further information from me.  Is this their attempt to kick a can down the road by claiming that they've answered me within a predefined service window?

The most recent example is an absolute disgrace - I wrote in outlining a refund claim, stating simply the grounds for the refund, the dates and services involved, and even photocopied my season ticket. The response said I needed to tell them where I was travelling to/from, the type of ticket I had and asked me to send in the original ticket (cos I'm going to do that on an annual season ticket with 4 months to run).

Has anyone else experienced customer service lobotomy?  As I say, it's been all three of my most recent letters. I wouldn't mind so much if he turn around time was faster than glacial....

[t0m]

Has anyone else experienced customer service lobotomy?  As I say, it's been all three of my most recent letters. I wouldn't mind so much if he turn around time was faster than glacial....

My last response from them was completely incorrect..and was in March. I replied on the same day and haven't heard back since. And that's despite escalating via Mark Hopwood and Transport Focus..

[John R]

I've had a different experience (note: not better) with gwr's service team over the past few months and I wondered if others have had a similar experience...

Basically, either deliberately or by negligence, gwr staff have lost the ability to read.

The past three letters and emails that I've sent in have all received responses (c8weeks) willfully ignoring what I've already provided in terms of information and requesting further information from me.  Is this their attempt to kick a can down the road by claiming that they've answered me within a predefined service window?

The most recent example is an absolute disgrace - I wrote in outlining a refund claim, stating simply the grounds for the refund, the dates and services involved, and even photocopied my season ticket. The response said I needed to tell them where I was travelling to/from, the type of ticket I had and asked me to send in the original ticket (cos I'm going to do that on an annual season ticket with 4 months to run).

Has anyone else experienced customer service lobotomy?  As I say, it's been all three of my most recent letters. I wouldn't mind so much if he turn around time was faster than glacial....

Surely the arrangements for compensation if you have a season ticket are different (discount at renewal) so no compensation is due for any particular incident?

[NickB]

Compensation for instances where no first class seat was available (due to overcrowding, declassification etc). It's in the gwr customer charter.

[Steve Bray]

On Monday, there was yet another article by The Guardian's Consumer Champion concerning a GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) passenger who had been waiting since April for compensation due to a very heavily delayed journey.

I am waiting for a claim I made in mid-March.

I can understand there may have been teething problems when the system was relocated, but over 12 months on, surely the problems should have been addressed by now.

Is anything effective being done about it?

[JayMac]

No. Because GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) don't care. And because there is no-one with a big enough stick to beat them into shape.

They've lost focus on the main thing their business is about - passengers. More concerned with image and rebranding. A turd will only take so much polish.

What's needed is a Customer Panel with teeth and a regulator with that big stick.

Until then it's thinly veiled contempt, and meaningless platitudes, for passengers daring to claim.

You can understand why there is no desire on GWR's part to introduce Delay Repay. That, according to the Franchise Agreement, requires "good faith". An alien concept for GWR at the moment.

[JayMac]

Ever get the feeling you are being watched? My previous post was made at 2257 and I changed my forum signature straight after.

At 2307 the following email lands in my inbox:

Dear Mr ******

I am writing regarding your claim for compensation that we received on 05/07/2017 following your delayed journey with Great Western Railway.

I can confirm your claim is now processed and a payment of £50.00 has been issued in the form of cheque. If it’s not already with you, it will be very shortly and should not take longer than 2 weeks to arrive.

Please accept my apologies for the time taken to handle your claim. We have experienced some high contact volumes, but despite that we aim for a faster response than you have experienced.

Should you have a query please contact our Customer Support team on 03457 000 125 (available between 0600 and 2300, 7 days a week) quoting the reference number at the top of this email and we’ll be happy to help.

Thank you for your time and for travelling with GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway).

Yours sincerely

***** ****

Customer Support Manager

Great Western Railway

Now, I've had dealings with ***** ****, Customer Support Manager, before. Catalogued elsewhere on this forum, viewable to established members. Those dealings included a face to face meeting with said CSM^▸ (Customer Satisfaction Monitor (FGW^▸ (First Great Western) Survey every quarter)) after some shockingly poor treatment by FGW (as was) front line staff. To receive an email from him (from the general GWR Customer Service address, but late at night, and personally signed), immediately after a post critical of GWR can be no coincidence.

So, hello *****. I hope you are taking onboard the criticisms in this thread, and in the press,  and doing something about them. In truth, I hope you are regretting the decision to hand over one of the most important parts of any business, customer services, to the woeful outfit that is Crapita.

I hadn't made any follow up query as to the status of my claim from early July, nor complained about a delay in paying compensation. It was only made on 7th July 2017 and five weeks is nothing compared to some of the waits people have had for a meaningful response from GWR Customer Services. As catalogued here and in the press.

I now feel guilty that, because I'm "known" to GWR Customer Services, I've been given preferential treatment.

Now, that cheque. I've moved since I made the claim. So there will have to be a phone call to Customer Services tomorrow. Hopefully not yet issued. And again, some guilt that I'll have to name drop when quoting the email.

To those still waiting a meaningful response. I empathise. And please don't hate me for what seems like queue jumping. Neither sought nor wanted. 

Oh and *****. This forum is open to everyone. You have the right to reply. 

[Chris from Nailsea]

Ever get the feeling you are being watched?

Administrator comment:

Yes, we know that senior members of staff at Great Western Railway do read this forum.

This particular topic must be of particular interest to them, and I am delighted to see that it has prompted such a positive response in your case, Justin.

It will be very interesting to see whether other members of the Coffee Shop forum receive similar attention to their claims for compensation.

Chris from Nailsea. 

[t0m]

Administrator comment:

Yes, we know that senior members of staff at Great Western Railway do read this forum.

This particular topic must be of particular interest to them, and I am delighted to see that it has prompted such a positive response in your case, Justin.

It will be very interesting to see whether other members of the Coffee Shop forum receive similar attention to their claims for compensation.

Chris from Nailsea. 

Not I.. think I must get the reverse..they bump my Nov 2016 void day claim back to the bottom of the queue each time I post something!

The Transport Focus stats are revealing - for 2017 (I assume YTD^▸ (year to date)) GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) top the league tables for most complaints.. 26% of the complaints have been about GWR (and that doesn't include unresolved complaints), where only 6% of passenger journeys were on GWR. http://data.transportfocus.org.uk/train/complaints/tocs/

I can't possible imagine why.

Edit to clarify quoting - grahame

[grahame]

To confirm - we know that the GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) team read "The Coffee Shop" from time to time.  It's a resource for them; organisation have traditionally taken a keen interest in how they're covered in the press, and in some ways the forum is a modern day piece of press from that angle.  So their reading is natural. At 26,000 user sessions in the last month pages read, with the average session being 6 pages long, 19 out of 20 being from the UK^▸ (United Kingdom), there are lots of other readers too!

Now ... forum names can be used to separate your identity here from your real life identity.  And where someone used that capability in such a way that it hides their true identity, the posts become in some ways anonymous to the reader.  And, alas, if the reader has the authority and tools to actually sort out an issue reported, that anonymity can prevent the issue being sorted ... just a thought.   Might it be, tOm, that your post has been read but the reader has no way of knowing which of 1000 Toms you are in the queue, even assuming your real name's not Colin?

[JayMac]

In my case my forum name and real name are known to the person who emailed me last night.

That link was made when another forum member, a GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) employee who knew me off forum, forwarded posts of mine to GWR management. Without permission and against forum rules.

[didcotdean]

Dealing with customer relations is one area where the competence and ability of the operating company can shine through (or otherwise).

Some operators seem to shower you with vouchers for the slightest observation on their services; GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) has difficulty replying at all even in areas where they have a contractual obligation.