Rude/miserable station staff - Newport

[paulfoel]

Seems to have raised a number of different opinions here to say the least.

Yes OK I agree I should have said what I was doing. Yes I agree staff have got the right to draw my attention to something. However, unless there is imminent danger to myself or anyone else then I expect someone to be polite. No I dont expect to be called Sir - "Excuse me" is fine, "Oi mate" shouted at me is not.

On the subject of the barriers and fare dodging. 7am this occurred. Stations is not full at this time of the morning. Today at 8am (station is much more busy) barriers open no-one there.

Seems strange to make an issue and to get irate with me one day because I just "might" be trying it on, when today probably 1000 passengers are able to stroll into the station with no problems. Plenty of opportunity to dive onto a train surely.

Only way IMHO to stop fare dodging is to ensure tickets are checked onboard. On my journey, to be fair, it does happen 95% of the time (and before next stop). Not always but mostly.

Saying that last train from Cardiff at the weekend I'd be surprised if many people paid at all. No ticket barriers at Cardiff or newport. And the conductor doesn't bother because its packed full of drunk people (not that I blame them mind!)

 

[Mintona]

If you called me Sir I would consider you to be patronising, rude and probably sarcastic. Therefore I would ignore you.
I suggest that you are VERY out of touch, especially about the Welsh and their ways of speaking to people.

I believe I speak for a number of my colleagues when suggesting that it would be nice if you could call us Sir/Madam when conversing via the GSMR

 

[Llanigraham]

I believe I speak for a number of my colleagues when suggesting that it would be nice if you could call us Sir/Madam when conversing via the GSMR

Yes cur, no cur, three bags full, cur!

 

[zaax]

You said Oi mate (in that situation) in other public facing companies (including the police) you would be given a meeting with no coffee

 

[Darandio]

You said Oi mate (in that situation) in other public facing companies (including the police) you would be given a meeting with no coffee

Then for 1) I don't believe you and 2) The world needs to lighten up.

 

[Flamingo]

You said Oi mate (in that situation) in other public facing companies (including the police) you would be given a meeting with no coffee

And if you adressed a police officer in the manner I get adressed several times a week, you would end up in court on a public order charge.

Your point?

 

[bb21]

I don't think it's acceptable under any non-emergency situations to be calling a customer "oi". It is not difficult to address a customer as "sir", even in an elevated voice or through shouting to get their attention.

That said, it is quite clear the reason the OP was called back, because it looked suspicious, but it really could have been done in a better way.

 

[6Gman]

As someone who actually works as a train guard on everything from long distance services at peak times full of people in suits to Saturday night vomit comets and survives on my wits...

Some routes I work calling people 'sir or madam' is liable to get you thumped. I can quite believe that issue exists around Newport. Mate, bud, boss, duck and pal are the order of the day and hands off, easy banter and conversation at their level will see you through your shift in one piece in the former North Notts coalfield. Try calling a scruffy lad on the Oranjeboom 'sir' and see how many microseconds it is before you get accused of taking the Mick. I try and get a mix between jovial barman and friendly bouncer depending on the circumstances.

On the other hand if I'm taking a load of professionals into work in Manchester polite conversation, friendly manner and swift efficiency are the order of the day.

On the other hand if I'm throwing someone off a train you might even call me aggressive on occasion, and in an emergency I leave no room for debate.

I have a perfect record (customer service and safety) with no upheld complaints through my career so I'm going to assume my experience qualifies me to comment.

Also by the way I'm a servant of the company (in the oldest terms) and a customer service professional (in the new) - none of that requires me to act like a maitre'd in a 5 star restaurant on my Sprinter. I know what it does require though and what makes good customer service, and that's a) What counts and b) makes me a professional. What makes me more than that is keeping it together when it all goes wrong, whether that's dealing with a group of lads kicking lumps out of each other and terrifying their fellow passengers or keeping everything together when there's a dead person under the train and a distraught driver to care for.

Well said that man.

It would be a pleasure to travel on one of your trains.

 

[MotCO]

Well said that man.

It would be a pleasure to travel on one of your trains.

Seconded!

 

[Flamingo]

I always call passengers "Sir" or "Madam". It comes down to my accent that they sometimes think I said "Muppet". Can I help it if they misheard me?

 

[HowardGWR]

Seconded!

Thirded. I admit to a little TIC in my posting, but I note that when travelling on Dutch (and German) trains, even suburban ones, pax are addressed in announcements as 'Dames en Heren' as a rule. When personally addressed, 'meneer' or 'mevrouw' is expected. Same in shops.

I have heard 'ladies and gentlemen' on our trains and it is most pleasing and one feels really valued.

I did (repeated a second time) suggest that no address at all is acceptable and of course 'mate', etc, is acceptable when similalrly addressed by those who lost or never had acquired good manners.

 

[krus_aragon]

If you called me Sir I would consider you to be patronising, rude and probably sarcastic. Therefore I would ignore you.
I suggest that you are VERY out of touch, especially about the Welsh and their ways of speaking to people.

I used "Sir" (or "Madam") when working in a bookshop in Cardiff, but very infrequently. It might be when I needed to attract a particular customer's attention, and was trying to be more polite than "Oi, you! You forgot your debit card". I'm sure I'd also use "here you are, Sir" having found a requested title.

Several years previously, in my first proper job (Waitrose, Barry), I was thanked by a customer for locating the last aubergine in the shop on Christmas Eve. Their words were "Sir, you are a gentleman." Naturally, I took it as a compliment.

Now in the teaching profession, "Sir" is the generic name for a male teacher who's name you don't yet know or recall.

I don't dispute that people can be patronising or sarcastic while using the word "Sir", but they can equally do so without the word. I hope, if we were to meet, you wouldn't consider my use of the word patronising or rude.

 

[6Gman]

If I was passing through a barrier with a valid ticket in my paw then I'd expect "Sir" rather than "mate".

If I'd been let through as a favour to buy a ticket but then headed away from the booking office I couldn't really object to an "oi mate"!

As a staff travel card holder I often get a "thanks mate" from conductors.

Perhaps I should complain ...... :roll:

 

[LowLevel]

Ahh, you see, that's different - announcements I do do formally - good morning/afternoon/evening ladies and gentlemen. If only because as a technique for delivering information the first part that people miss because they aren't tuned in is an irrelevant nicety - it wakes them up for the important bit

I do love my job and that includes the challenge of working with people from every walk of life face to face - in most customer service industries you have a target market and you tailor your service to meet them - even things like the GWR Pullman service can achieve that.

I however have to think on my feet to effectively serve anyone from the lords and ladies of the land one minute to the opposite end of the scale the next, and judge how to make them feel engaged with and valued - whether that's by calling them sir and renewing their weekly pass as quickly as possible to leave them alone to get on with their work, or saying 'ey up duck' and getting into a conversation about how the football is going.

I find it all very fulfilling

 

[Llanigraham]

You said Oi mate (in that situation) in other public facing companies (including the police) you would be given a meeting with no coffee

Really?
I know plenty of Police Officers who use "Oi! You!" to grab the attention of people.

 

[Flamingo]

I still like (and on occasions have been tempted to use) the old one: "My lords, ladies, gentlemen and fellow peasants..."

 

[WelshBluebird]

I personally don't see the universal dislike of "oi" or "mate". It really depends how it is said.

As someone who actually works as a train guard on everything from long distance services at peak times full of people in suits to Saturday night vomit comets and survives on my wits...

Some routes I work calling people 'sir or madam' is liable to get you thumped. I can quite believe that issue exists around Newport. Mate, bud, boss, duck and pal are the order of the day and hands off, easy banter and conversation at their level will see you through your shift in one piece in the former North Notts coalfield. Try calling a scruffy lad on the Oranjeboom 'sir' and see how many microseconds it is before you get accused of taking the Mick. I try and get a mix between jovial barman and friendly bouncer depending on the circumstances.

Exactly this!

 

[paulfoel]

OK. Put it another way.

A foreign visitor comes to visit newport. Walks the wrong way towards the end of the platform. Member of staff shouts loudly "Oi mate!!!". What impression does that leave? Just saying. "Excuse me - I'm sorry but thats not the exit" is better surely. Unless of course the guy is about to get run over by a train but thats different!

If you went to another country and a staff member addressed you in a similar way, what impression would that give?

 

[Greenback]

I don't think it's good practice to shout 'Oi mate' at anyone, never mind best practice, but I also recognise that in some circumstances it may be necessary to attract someone's attention urgently, and in those cases it may be that shouting something, even this, is the most appropriate thing to do.

I have been shouted at in France, as it goes, and it was because I'd done something wrong, although I didn't know that I had at the time.

 

[father_jack]

From a friend who lives in the valleys..........

Merthyr Tydfil station. Mid afternoon. A well to do looking, 50-something couple alight the train with a collection of cases and uncertainly move towards the taxi rank. Awaiting them is an array of haphazardly parked compact minicabs, all bearing the badges of French and Italian makers and looking as if they might have a part time career in banger racing.
"Oh! Yur!"
The driver of the nearest, a battle worn puke chariot bearing a snappy name which constitutes a gross *******isation of the English language calls across to the couple. Clearly, he is at the front of the queue, if ever such a thing existed. The driver moved his white trainered feet from their resting position on the dashboard, finished picking his nose and wiped his fingers on his scruffy orange T-shirt before taking a quick rummage at his grey jogging bottoms. Half visible from beneath a jauntily resting baseball cap, his shaven head seemingly at odds with a chin that's had no such attention in days. God knows what he'd been watching on his smartphone, but it sounded like it might be porn.
"Over yur!" he called, as the couple faltered towards the cars.
Welcome to Merthyr Tydfil.

 

[Antman]

It's common practice in most walks of life to call customers sir or madam and certainly not mate or whatever.

I recall a particular incident at Bromley South some years ago when a well dressed gentleman opened the door of a slammer as it was pulling out and almost came to grief in the process, one of the platform staff shouted "Sir, you're an idiot". Very well put I thought!

 

[HowardGWR]

It would be illuminating to hear from staff as to what instructions are given to them. I assume that staff may still be instructed, or is that not on nowadays?

 

[Flamingo]

Speaking of accents, foreigners command of language, and how people are addressed, a colleague was telling me today that he found cause to sell a foreign gentleman a new ticket. After explaing to the gentleman that he needed to buy a new ticket, the conversation went:
Passenger - "You can't"
Guard - "I can"
P - "You can't"
G - "I'm telling you sir, I can"
P - "I'm telling you, you are a can't"
G - "Ohhh, ok..."

 

[LowLevel]

It would be illuminating to hear from staff as to what instructions are given to them. I assume that staff may still be instructed, or is that not on nowadays?

Instructions are given on a myriad of things but I don't believe I've ever been given them on how to address a passenger/customer. You do, I suppose, hope that people recruited into an industrial such as the railway that pays well and has fairly rigorous assessment etc would have a knack for that anyway.

I make it up as I go along but mate, duck, and even dear are certainly valid, as are sir, madam, and on occasion, idiot/fool/scum etc depending on the circumstances.

If you've seen me on a Saturday night breaking up the brawlers while trying to avoid the passcom being pulled you may understand the latter selection.

 

[Flamingo]

It would be illuminating to hear from staff as to what instructions are given to them. I assume that staff may still be instructed, or is that not on nowadays?

Oh, as Low Level says, we get LOTS of instructions on how to deal with customers / passengers. Most of it from people who have never worked the last one from Cardiff on a Friday or Saturday night, or tried to get standard class ticket holders out of First Class between Reading and London, or had somebody trying to open a door after the train started moving.

Some of it is well-meaning. Some of it is an ass-covering exercise by management. Some of it is contradictory. Some of it is teaching your grandmother which end of the egg to suck, and how hard to suck it. A small proportion of it is actually useful.

 

[LowLevel]

I would also suggest that the position of issuing instructions without understanding is unfortunate - happily we generally just get told to do the right thing with is open to sensible interpretation.

I don't know of many customer service industries where, as I have, the frontline staff have done everything from hold their customers in their arms when they feel their world is ending, to pick them up off the floor blind drunk and covered in puke or blood, to physically body check and shove them as the situation demands.

The railway and other transport operations, but particularly the railway as it's all things to all people, should never be judged in general terms of anything.

 

[6Gman]

OK. Put it another way.

A foreign visitor comes to visit newport. Walks the wrong way towards the end of the platform. Member of staff shouts loudly "Oi mate!!!". What impression does that leave? Just saying. "Excuse me - I'm sorry but thats not the exit" is better surely. Unless of course the guy is about to get run over by a train but thats different!

If you went to another country and a staff member addressed you in a similar way, what impression would that give?[/QUOTE]





That he wanted my attention!

But your analogy is questionable. You were not a foreign visitor on the platform. The guy had done you a favour by letting you through to go to the booking office. You then headed in a different direction!

 

[Michael.Y]

Next time, take five little minutes and walk over the (passenger) bridge and go in the PROPER side of the station!

 

[Flamingo]

The trick is to sound like a sergeant at Sandhurst putting the officer cadets in their place.

As in the pep-talk from the Warrant Officer on day one:
"I will address you as Sir - and you will address me as Sir. The difference is, you will mean it!"
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Next time, take five little minutes and walk over the (passenger) bridge and go in the PROPER side of the station!

Well, if you want to end up dealing with the case when it ends up in the ECHR...

 

[paulfoel]

Next time, take five little minutes and walk over the (passenger) bridge and go in the PROPER side of the station!

What are you on about?????? I was planning to do this....

Unless you get through the barriers at the car park entrance you can't walk over the bridge. Only option is to go all the way around the road (even longer now with the road bridge out) or go the other way (towards the post office) and use the subway tunnel. Both ways a good 10-15 min walk around.