T&W Metro complaints procedure.

[Kryten2340]

Hi

Does anyone know how to raise a complaint against a metro driver? I'm currently on a South Hylton Train and boarded at Regent Centre about 15 mins ago. I'm at Gateshead now Before the train arrived I noticed an airport train with the front headlights on the rear car and as there was no answer on the help point I thought I would report it to the drier of my train when it arrived thinking he could radio it in but I was met with a shrug of the shoulders and a I don't give a s**t attitude. I thought about texting control but didn't see the poit as by the time they got it the train would have been at the airport and thy driver would have realised his mistake.

It just infuriates me that you try to do a good deed and that's what you get.

 

[ralphchadkirk]

Yes, it's not an ideal reaction - but people automatically become defensive over being told they've made a mistake (it doesn't make it the correct reaction however).

But, is it really worth making a complaint? Having the driver's manager spend hours working out who it was, spooling through CCTV to find evidence, and then haul the poor driver in who made a mistake to explain himself for something? The driver probably knows he has made a mistake (having a passenger point it out can be very embarrassing), and almost certainly won't do it again.

 

[Kryten2340]

It wasn't the driver of the train I was on who made the mistake. The complaint is over the attitude. We all make mistakes at the end of the day and I thought I would just try and report it as I don't know the problems having the wrong set of lights on can cause. He had the correct set of lights on at the front so I guess that's something.

 

[ralphchadkirk]

It wasn't the driver of the train I was on who made the mistake. The complaint is over the attitude. We all make mistakes at the end of the day and I thought I would just try and report it as I don't know the problems having the wrong set of lights on can cause. He had the correct set of lights on at the front so I guess that's something.

Oh right, sorry, I misread your post. Again, his attitude isn't perfect admittedly, and it's your decision to decide whether to make a complaint or not, but I'd think carefully about it.

 

[Kryten2340]

It's probably not worth it. I work in complaints myself and if we get a complaint regarding a member of staff we just advise it will be dealt with as an internal matter as employment law does allow you to reveal the outcome of any investigation to someone outside of the employer. So I'm told anyway.

 

[12CSVT]

I don't see what would be achieved by making a complaint. From what I can see, there is no evidence that the driver you spoke to had actually done anything wrong.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

Please just let the matter pass.

There are thousands of more hazardous acts of foolishness every day, (many of them committed by members of the public at large and many of them involving motor vehicles). Life would be safer if these could be controlled!

But what on earth can be gained by making a complaint about either of these Metro staff?

 

[142094]

Feel free to PM, although there could be a few reasons for why the Airport train had the lights the wrong way round.

 

[BuhSnarf]

I cant believe the attitude on here of just leave it!

I work in the complaints department of a large bank and we take bad attitude by our staff very seriously. I used to work in retail where we also did the same.

Unfortunately it seems the way in transport industry that bad attitude is something that is allowed. Bus driver ignores you when you board? That's okay. Bus driver drives off while laughing at you? It was your fault for not getting to stop on time. Bus driver leaves a ninth month pregnant lady stranded because won't change a £10 note for a £3.80 fair? Not our fault.

If bus/tram/train travel wants to replace the car it also has to offer a service people want to use. Getting abuse or ignored when you board is not that.

Most customer facing roles take this kind of thing seriously and not just so that they can sack people but so they can help a person improve. They might not even know that is wrong.

 

[Greenback]

I cant believe the attitude on here of just leave it!

I work in the complaints department of a large bank and we take bad attitude by our staff very seriously. I used to work in retail where we also did the same.

Unfortunately it seems the way in transport industry that bad attitude is something that is allowed. Bus driver ignores you when you board? That's okay. Bus driver drives off while laughing at you? It was your fault for not getting to stop on time. Bus driver leaves a ninth month pregnant lady stranded because won't change a £10 note for a £3.80 fair? Not our fault.

If bus/tram/train travel wants to replace the car it also has to offer a service people want to use. Getting abuse or ignored when you board is not that.

Most customer facing roles take this kind of thing seriously and not just so that they can sack people but so they can help a person improve. They might not even know that is wrong.

But what is the complaint here? There is no mention about the employee being rude, abusive or mocking, they were just not as interested in what the OP had to say as the OP thought they should be. The OP was not left at a stop, not refused travel, and not even ignored. They just feel that the employee had a bad attitude.

Making a complaint about this would be a waste of everyone's time. And I really don't think the banking industry does take complaints very seriously, otherwise the queues would not be so long at every branch I have the misfortune to use!

 

[142094]

Another thing is, we almost always never get the other side of the story. I know for a fact there are a few people out there who hate staff so much they'd love to invent a story such as this (although of course I am not saying that this didn't happen).

 

[BuhSnarf]

As he's a member of front line customer facing staff then bad attitude in my eyes is very much worthy of a complaint. And they are not at all a waste of time. My complaining to our local depot might not have made the buses turn up on time but has seen a huge increase in drivers actually acknowledging that passengers exist. Certainly makes my trips a lot more pleasant.

I think that the transport industry sometimes forget that they are also customer service at the same time.

As for the banking industry, sadly as we have to meet very strict FSA set guidelines we do indeed take them very seriously. Of course queues are a little like late running buses - without investment of extra staff or ones that don't need breaks not always easy to fix. Sadly most queues occur between 11-2 and then they are dead for the rest of the day but as staff will tend to work 9-5 and not many want to work for just three hours a day this is also when they want a lunch! Hopefully if branches opened longer then early / late shift overlap would cover it. But branches love that 9-5 - even though contact centers open 24/7. One day though!

 

[notadriver]

Not specific to this case but sometimes train drivers have other things to do and can't get into a lengthy discussion about something. If I'm approached at work I will give a quick but polite answer. I don't have time to have a full blown conversation about privatisation of the railways and I will cut passengers off if they talk too much and I need to go. Same applies to bus drivers I expect

 

[Greenback]

As he's a member of front line customer facing staff then bad attitude in my eyes is very much worthy of a complaint. And they are not at all a waste of time. My complaining to our local depot might not have made the buses turn up on time but has seen a huge increase in drivers actually acknowledging that passengers exist. Certainly makes my trips a lot more pleasant.

I do not disagree that complaining is useful when staff are rude, or the service received is poor. Indeed, I do complain myself where I feel the circumstances warrant it. Here, though, the question is a matter of scale. The fact that the OP was not impressed with the response of a driver does not mean that a 'bad attitude' has actually been demonstrated.

Of course you are free to have a different viewpoint, but most of the views here are that it isn;t worth it.

As for the banking industry, sadly as we have to meet very strict FSA set guidelines we do indeed take them very seriously. Of course queues are a little like late running buses - without investment of extra staff or ones that don't need breaks not always easy to fix. Sadly most queues occur between 11-2 and then they are dead for the rest of the day but as staff will tend to work 9-5 and not many want to work for just three hours a day this is also when they want a lunch! Hopefully if branches opened longer then early / late shift overlap would cover it. But branches love that 9-5 - even though contact centers open 24/7. One day though!

I was last at a branch on Wednesday at 1040 - double figures in the queue with only two positions out of five staffed. If that was the railway, I would have been pretty unimpressed too!

The fact is that, whatever the industry, things don't always go exactly as we would like them, but if we made a complaint every single time such a thing happened we would be constantly writing letters, or emails and making phone calls!

Not specific to this case but sometimes train drivers have other things to do and can't get into a lengthy discussion about something. If I'm approached at work I will give a quick but polite answer. I don't have time to have a full blown conversation about privatisation of the railways and I will cut passengers off if they talk too much and I need to go. Same applies to bus drivers I expect

Exactly, though this could well be taken as a bad attitude by some.

 

[142094]

As he's a member of front line customer facing staff then bad attitude in my eyes is very much worthy of a complaint. And they are not at all a waste of time. My complaining to our local depot might not have made the buses turn up on time but has seen a huge increase in drivers actually acknowledging that passengers exist. Certainly makes my trips a lot more pleasant.

I think that the transport industry sometimes forget that they are also customer service at the same time.

Drivers do not generally deal with the public very often, frontline staff is more customer service assistants and other station staff.

One thing to remember is that if the driver was busy doing something else - such as a radio conversation with control, then he cannot give his attention to a passenger. This is similar to other roles, such as dispatchers who will not answer questions until they have safely dispatched a train.

 

[Strat-tastic]

Maybe the driver you spoke to was closing ranks, not wanting to be involved in shopping a fellow driver.