First class customer service

[ACE1888]

While in Penzance booking office purchasing two off peak day returns to Exmouth, the Booking Clerk (are they stilled called that ??), went out of his way and saved me money rather than just issue the two tickets. I got a Devon and Cornwall railcard for a Tenner, the two tickets, and still saved nearly £4 overall, I obviously get 1/3 off future local travel (off peak of course) for a year
Too many people just can't wait to jump on the 'negativity' band wagon and 'slate' the railways, today however made a very pleasant change! Nice chap called Graham he was, by the way...

 

[Johnny Lewis]

The staff at Huddersfield booking office are very good at advising passengers of cheaper ticketing options that may not always be immediately obvious to the unsuspecting travelling public:

For example, purchasing a Senior or Family / Friends railcard, which, depending on the ticket required, can pay for itself with just one journey

Advising two passengers travelling together to purchase a DayRover ticket, rather than two Cheap Day returns

Offering a return ticket where it is cheaper than a single, even if the passenger has only asked for a single ticket

I agree that there are far too many negative stories (e.g. the Richard Wilson "Dispatches" programme on Ch 4 recently) that serve only to beat the railways with a big stick. Whereas, in reality, there are hundreds of staff who, every day, go the extra mile to provide a good service to passengers, often in fairly trying circumstances.

 

[Greenback]

Penzance has always been a good booking office, even during my days working at Reading passengers spoke very highly of it - usually we compared very badly with them!

We did used to look for ways to save customers money with a railcard though, particurlarly Network ones, as we got 50p commission for selling one!

 

[DaveNewcastle]

I fully agree. There are many excellent ticket office staff, and I can't count the times when I've been given a more helpful or less expensive combination of tickets than I had expected (sometimes to my shame!).
I'll go further and state that I have never criticised any ticket selling staff, and don't expect ever to do so.

My criticisms, if there are any, are focussed clearly on the convoluted and poorly defined rules, terms, conditions and inconsistent policies adopted by the TOCs, and their pseudo authority, ATOC. The poor staff are hte folk who have to deal with this mountain of rubbish, and do so, with a smile and a laugh day in day out.

Our railways are operated by a great team - and it is the team-work that operates the railways.

The adminstrators and policy makers, meanwhile, are undermining that tradition of teamwork and service with their never ending patchwork of restrictions, spin, rules and, where the paperwork doesn't work, their attempts to govern by fear.

Staff = good. TOCs = bad.

 

[CardiffKid]

When I lived there the chap who ran (seemingly singlehanded), Newtown Station in Mid Wales was amazing and I heard that from other people too.

There are some jobsworth lazy staff out there (can think of one long serving staffer in Bridgend).

Bit like taxi drivers, postmen, teachers, MPs and well any type of job, some fantastic ones, many many average ones and some truly appalling ones

 

[ACE1888]

As I'm on holiday this week, I'm going to use Pz booking Office again tomorrow...day trip to visit the Gunnislake branch, even better with the forementioned 1/3 off with my new railcard!!

 

[LexyBoy]

I found the Penzance ticket office very helpful too, managed to play all the games to find me a very cheap Adv at short notice.

It's a bit unfair to compare such a ticket office to somewhere like Reading though - at a small station the clerk can spend plenty of time on each customer, safe in the knowledge that the next train leaving the station isn't for half an hour, whilst in a large station there will be people queuing who want to get trains immediately. I have met some very helpful folk at Reading though, with good advice on booking Sleeper tickets and one chap who became very chatty when he saw my Season was registered in SE24

 

[scotsman]

As I'm on holiday this week, I'm going to use Pz booking Office again tomorrow...day trip to visit the Gunnislake branch, even better with the forementioned 1/3 off with my new railcard!!

£7.80 for a Ride Cornwall ticket

 

[RPI]

I found the Penzance ticket office very helpful too, managed to play all the games to find me a very cheap Adv at short notice.

It's a bit unfair to compare such a ticket office to somewhere like Reading though - at a small station the clerk can spend plenty of time on each customer, safe in the knowledge that the next train leaving the station isn't for half an hour, whilst in a large station there will be people queuing who want to get trains immediately. I have met some very helpful folk at Reading though, with good advice on booking Sleeper tickets and one chap who became very chatty when he saw my Season was registered in SE24

I think its a fair comparrison, the footfall at Reading is much higher but it also has many more windows and TVM's, Pz has 3 windows and 1 TVM so each window could be just as busy. Pz gets very busy with timewasters as it's so close to the town centre (I.e. people who come in asking loads of questions but never any intention of travelling) and despite that the team down there are excellent.

 

[Ivo]

I just wish I could say the same of most staff here

The Advances Office at Bristol TM (which is separated from the main ticket office) is excellent in my experience.

 

[ACE1888]

£7.80 for a Ride Cornwall ticket

Great call, thanks for the info

 

[bnm]

£7.80 for a Ride Cornwall ticket

£8.30 for a railcard discounted Ride Cornwal Day Ranger. At least, according to NRE...

 

[Greenback]

I fully agree. There are many excellent ticket office staff, and I can't count the times when I've been given a more helpful or less expensive combination of tickets than I had expected (sometimes to my shame!).
I'll go further and state that I have never criticised any ticket selling staff, and don't expect ever to do so.

My criticisms, if there are any, are focussed clearly on the convoluted and poorly defined rules, terms, conditions and inconsistent policies adopted by the TOCs, and their pseudo authority, ATOC. The poor staff are hte folk who have to deal with this mountain of rubbish, and do so, with a smile and a laugh day in day out.

Our railways are operated by a great team - and it is the team-work that operates the railways.

The adminstrators and policy makers, meanwhile, are undermining that tradition of teamwork and service with their never ending patchwork of restrictions, spin, rules and, where the paperwork doesn't work, their attempts to govern by fear.

Staff = good. TOCs = bad.

Well said, Dave. Though I must admit I have encountered staff who refuse to sell em the ticket I want - but I always put it down to poor training rather than an unwillingness to help. As you say, the management cna often udnermine the front line.

I found the Penzance ticket office very helpful too, managed to play all the games to find me a very cheap Adv at short notice.

It's a bit unfair to compare such a ticket office to somewhere like Reading though - at a small station the clerk can spend plenty of time on each customer, safe in the knowledge that the next train leaving the station isn't for half an hour, whilst in a large station there will be people queuing who want to get trains immediately. I have met some very helpful folk at Reading though, with good advice on booking Sleeper tickets and one chap who became very chatty when he saw my Season was registered in SE24

I always thought it was a bit unfair. Two different stations with compeltely different sets of customers.

I think its a fair comparrison, the footfall at Reading is much higher but it also has many more windows and TVM's, Pz has 3 windows and 1 TVM so each window could be just as busy. Pz gets very busy with timewasters as it's so close to the town centre (I.e. people who come in asking loads of questions but never any intention of travelling) and despite that the team down there are excellent.

I disagree. In my day at least it was very rare that all of the windows would be staffed. Mostly we were lucky to have 5 windows open in the main ticket office!

I also think that the numbers using Reading are huge, especially in terms of season tickets. How many of those are issued at Penzance I wonder? Along with the seasons come all the work of updating the records, encode exchanges, changeovers and refunds. I did a spell in Swansea too, and there was no comparison with the volume of work. Like Penzance, you had more time to spend with customers as you weren't being stared at all the time by permanent queue! Yes, we even had queues at 2200!

It's also a bit irrelevant to bring the distance to the town centre into it. Reading is also very close to the town centre!

 

[RPI]

PZ issue loads of seasons, there is a big commuter market in West Cornwall as the fares in that part of the world are very cheap and work out far cheaper than bus or driving, there is also a lot of school traffic and the seasonal tourist traffic, it's not unusual to see the queue out of the door at Pz every day in summer between 0830 and 1400.

Obviously Reading is far busier but don't underestimate some of the Cornish stations, they are far from the little backwaters than some may think.

 

[ACE1888]

Different angle on 'Customer service' this week, while at Bere Ferrers (Gunnislake branch), waiting for an 'up' train, the FGW 153 arrives, the Guard gets off and explains that the train is 'losing power' and may have to be failed(it then was), the passengers had to get off and wait for road transport replacement/next train up (some 2 hours away), All but one excepted the situation, there was nothing anyone could do, the Guard (a nice Lady) apologised to everyone, and luckily there is also a small preservation centre there, who provided cool drinks. But the ONE idiot, who just had to 'mouth off' started ranting about how poor and unreliable the stock was, which we all basically ignored, the Guard took all names as she had been in contact with I assume Laira depot, and arranged for some form of compensation to be forwarded to the persons affected. She couldn't have been more apologetic or done anymore, too many people in this day and age just love moaning, bless 'em...NOT
T'was a lovely hot day for a breakdown though, has to be said.

 

[RPI]

You should write to/email FGW customer services, it's not often people write in with positive comments, all letters of praise get shown to the members of staff involved ang go on their personal file.