Northern again - is this a record??

[TBirdFrank]

On the 14th October as per a thread on here I had arrived at Blackpool only to find that our intended return train was cancelled, albeit that Journey Planner had not shown it, and contacted Northern to obtain an assurance that here would indeed be a service, bus or otherwise at the intended time of travel.

There was - we used it - the matter rested.

Then last Saturday 9th December we received an email from Northern bless them - they appear to have discovered their email reader and found my message sent to them almost two months previously. They apologised for being unable to advise our journey request and advise us if we wish an immediate response to in future contact the "Customer Experience Centre" where "Our staff are only too pleased to offer assistance"

They just don't say when though!

Seriously though - another gun foot bang moment from DB German Rail!

 

[55z]

Customer services etc are outsourced to a firm in Sheffield. At least they replied as Arriva buses NEVER reply. The problems that occurred were that the previous firm under the old franchise fudged the figures down so the new franchise and the new firm had insufficent staff to cope with the customer contact but hopefully this is being sorted and sould have been sorted out by now.

 

[northwichcat]

It's worth remembering the old franchise only paid compensation for delays of 60 minutes or more. Anyone complaining about a <60 minute delay would have got sent a generic response apologising and informing them they only pay compensation for delays of 60 minutes or more. Now it's 30 minutes so the number of Delay Repay claims will have increased significantly.

 

[Kite159]

It's worth remembering the old franchise only paid compensation for delays of 60 minutes or more. Anyone complaining about a <60 minute delay would have got sent a generic response apologising and informing them they only pay compensation for delays of 60 minutes or more. Now it's 30 minutes so the number of Delay Repay claims will have increased significantly.

And under the old franchise it was only paid due to events within the control of the rail industry, whereas now it is paid out for more reasons

 

[northwichcat]

And under the old franchise it was only paid due to events within the control of the rail industry, whereas now it is paid out for more reasons

Not quite. For singles, returns and weekly tickets there was no exclusion for 'events outside of the control of the rail industry' but punctuality figures (which were used to calculate compensation for monthly and longer season ticket holders) did exclude incidents for 'events outside of the control of the rail industry'

http://www.midcheshirerail.org.uk/uploads/Northern Rail Passenger Charter - Nov 2004.pdf

I think old TPE excluded 'events outside of the control of the rail industry' for singles, returns and weekly tickets.

 

[WelshBluebird]

Now it's 30 minutes so the number of Delay Repay claims will have increased significantly.

In which case I would have hoped there would be more staff employed considering the increased workload!