Is true at my toc. We use a taxi, not a bus, as there have been too many instances of staff abuse whilst in uniform on buses. Plus TOCs know the buses are so unreliable that the trains will be late if drivers get them.
-
Our new ticketing site is now live! Using either this or the original site (both powered by TrainSplit) helps support the running of the forum with every ticket purchase! Find out more and ask any questions/give us feedback in this thread!
Twitter-the train driver's enemy
- Thread starter bezzer
- Start date
- Status
Is true at my toc. We use a taxi, not a bus, as there have been too many instances of staff abuse whilst in uniform on buses. Plus TOCs know the buses are so unreliable that the trains will be late if drivers get them.
Sponsor Post - registered members do not see these adverts; click here to register, or click here to log in
R
RailUK Forums
Ahh, but you have to work out which his company is first!
Just contact all of them or those working locally.
Sent from my HUAWEI U8815 using Tapatalk
Of course it doesn't help if you have someone asking if they can get a train from London Bridge to Brighton today and being told via Twitter there are no services on that route. Whilst that might be true, it might mislead the customer to think there are no services they can get at all and that certainly isn't true.
Sometimes I do feel moved to comment via Twitter if I think I can give a helpful answer that hasn't been given out. I certainly wouldn't have ago at staff though, although I admit to having ago at the system not providing information but again politely. I feel if staff are not providing the information then it is due to the fact they are not being provided the information to provide, when they should be provided it.
Last edited:
I can be pretty certain they don't. I imagine a high view summary of tweets is perhaps fed back to a junior or middle manager at most on a frequent basis.
My approach is not to complain about any member of staff in any job. I am not qualified to do their job and have no training so I don't know if they are doing it right or not. Waste of time complaining about a member of staff being rude as nothing a company can do as no evidence to proof this for the company to investigate.
It was meant in regard to the OPs description of the radio/phone and no announcements incidents, seen on Twitter and even considered.
Last edited by a moderator:
TOCDriver
Member
- Joined
- 24 Jan 2013
- Messages
- 609
People have nothing to worry about as long as they're doing their assigned duties, following the rules at ALL times, and are polite to any requests for information that may come their way, wearing company uniform or not.
Until you get managers who decide you are guilty until proven otherwise you mean and who make little effort to investigate...
Such as a new platform being built at a north London commuter station, let's say near wood green. Driver pulls in and opens doors CORRECT side. Passengers without tickets see RPIs and force doors open on WRONG side which is still being built. Driver reported for opening doors wrong side by observers. Driver suspended for wrong side opening BEFORE CCTV or OTMR have been downloaded. And I don't mean taken off track, I mean suspended for disciplinary offences. Driver insists he did nothing wrong, backed up by downloads and is reinstated without so much as an apology...
I know of at least 2 TOC Managing Directors who are on Twitter so you never know with social media who is watching.
thelongestroad
Member
- Joined
- 4 Dec 2011
- Messages
- 594
They all got £10.00 vouchers due to the delay.
Wivenswold
Established Member
Unfortunately there are a lot of ignorant, selfish and/or plain stupid people out there. Twitter gives them a platform to vent their ill-informed opinions.
Usually a quick look at other "tweets" by that person can allow a reasonable person to decide whether they are dealing with a nutter.
Usually a quick look at other "tweets" by that person can allow a reasonable person to decide whether they are dealing with a nutter.
But what is wrong with them checking twitter ? They don't sit there answering all the twitter complaints and comments personally. Those who do equally have absolutely no say on how the railway is run.
I'm a driver for UPS and know full well that members of the public love nothing better to do with their time than to call up & make complaints (whether it's customers or road users.) I've been the victim of 1 or 2 ridiculous complaints but management seem to take the guilty until proven guilty attitude instead of telling these morons to politely go away, twitter & Facebook can get folk into a whole load of unintentional trouble
One thing that really annoys me about the TOC I work for is the way they answer comments on twitter. I often have a look to see what's going on and quite often people will say something like "I f*****g hate the s**t that is your train service" kind of thing and our control will say "I'm sorry about that is there anything we can do to help?"
Anything with bad language and aggression should be immediately ignored. Yet here are our control pandering to aggressive trolls. It happens daily.
Anything with bad language and aggression should be immediately ignored. Yet here are our control pandering to aggressive trolls. It happens daily.
Baxenden Bank
Established Member
- Joined
- 23 Oct 2013
- Messages
- 4,743
Social Media, much the same as Social Disease i.e. both ought to have 'anti' placed infront of them?
The problem with them checking Twitter is them seeing unsubstantiated claims against staff and then choosing to investigate it further internally or, as management call it, staff bringing the company into disrepute.
I totally agree. In my opinion if passengers get a response from a tweet worded like that then they're going to think its acceptable to speak to frontline staff face to face in the same manner.
Last edited:
In my line of work all of our conversations and actions are recorded by both CCTV and voice recorders, and I am quite happy about this as we get a lot of people complaining about how they perceive our comments as rude abusive etc, and those recordings have enabled us to know almost immediately the allegations are unfounded.
I realise railway workers are quite against such a thing from various other forums, but it is straight clear evidence proving innocence. The only realistic reason I can see people not wanting such recording is if they have something to worry about. In the age of social media with so many unfounded allegations it is instant protection against the allegations.
I realise railway workers are quite against such a thing from various other forums, but it is straight clear evidence proving innocence. The only realistic reason I can see people not wanting such recording is if they have something to worry about. In the age of social media with so many unfounded allegations it is instant protection against the allegations.
Last edited:
Not ignored. Replied to with a clear 'We will not engage with anyone that is abusive' or similar message.
Just try being rude to anyone in the US and see how far you get. They'll bend over backwards to be nice and polite most of the time, but there's a line you don't cross.
We cross it all the time here, and social media isn't always making people push their luck more online than they would in real life - as people 'on the ground' will know only too well.
If I managed a large retailer, I'd be kicking out anyone that abused a member of staff regardless of the problem. If they countered by saying 'I'll never shop with you again', I'd say 'that's good because we don't want you'.
See how long these people will continue being abusive when they suddenly realise they'll be ignored from now on when moaning online, and can't go to their local stores because they're barred.
TOCDriver
Member
- Joined
- 24 Jan 2013
- Messages
- 609
In my 7 years on the railways, I have never had a manager like that (I have had 3 in total) You need solid evidence to discipline somebody, and if you haven't such evidence, and you get harassed in such a way, you have every right to take it above their heads. I think most managers are more than well aware of this these days
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I agree, but those trolls may be paying customers and customer service is what it's all about, no matter how offensive they may be. You bite your tongue and take the hit.
Last edited:
The odd swear word used in frustration is entirely reasonable - foul mouthed attacks are another matter and should be met by a brick wall in terms of assistance being provided, possibly with a suggestion that such potty mouths are more than welcome to have a refund and use shank's pony to get about as their custom isn't worth the consequences.
On the first point it sounds like you are just lucky then.
As for abusive tweets I completely disagree with you. Customer or not swearing, threatening and abusing is never justified. It's not the fault of the twitter operator and tweeting offensively is the same as shouting offensively at staff on a crowded platform. Swear at staff and see what happens.
TheKnightWho
Established Member
Sorry to be a little pedantic, but I'm a bit sick of seeing the word 'troll' misused like that (mostly by the British media). Call them a flamer/abuser/rude/whatever, but they're not a troll, which means something entirely different.
I have had 1 manager like that, he even pulled me for wearing a wooly hat as I walked to my train, I was full of cold at the time and didnt want it to develope further but as it wasnt company issue I had to remove it. When I asked if I needed to remove my underpants and socks as well he just ignored it.
he also pulled somebody off track because he had overheard someone on the platform moaning about something.
he didnt last long but it took a long time for the new mamger to gain the workforces trust.
Any abusive messages on Face-ache or tw@ter should be ignored or just responded to in a "we do not respond to abusive messages" way, once these morons get an audience they will play to the crowd and they will assume it is acceptable to talk to staff in the same way.
Nobody should have to put up with verbal (or any other type of) abuse no matter if they are in a customer facing role or not and anyone who thinks otherwise needs to look at the state this country is in, everyone knows their rights but no-one knows their responsibilities and you cant have one without the other.
he also pulled somebody off track because he had overheard someone on the platform moaning about something.
he didnt last long but it took a long time for the new mamger to gain the workforces trust.
Any abusive messages on Face-ache or tw@ter should be ignored or just responded to in a "we do not respond to abusive messages" way, once these morons get an audience they will play to the crowd and they will assume it is acceptable to talk to staff in the same way.
Nobody should have to put up with verbal (or any other type of) abuse no matter if they are in a customer facing role or not and anyone who thinks otherwise needs to look at the state this country is in, everyone knows their rights but no-one knows their responsibilities and you cant have one without the other.
TOCDriver
Member
- Joined
- 24 Jan 2013
- Messages
- 609
I have never been trained in confrontational situations but my taking would be (twitter or personal) to just ignore it and let them calm down. You don't want to make a bad situation even worse
Is your response the same to some moron mouthing off on the platform?
I dont see why there should be any difference!
TOCDriver
Member
- Joined
- 24 Jan 2013
- Messages
- 609
That's the way I would deal with the situation. Ignore them, twitter or in person. There is also the possibility of violence when in person, so even more important not to make the situation even worse by being confrontational. That's my take on this subject, like it or not. Subject closed as far as I'm concerned
Rather than just run away from this can ypu answer a question please-
You have 20 peolple around you and 2 of them are being very abusive, what do you do in that situation?
1/ Ignore them which winds them up even more.
2/ tell them to stop being abusive which winds them up even more.
3/ walk away which winds up the other 18 people,
4/ just accept it and deal with the gobby tossers first which sends the message out to all the others that being abusive will get you to the front of the queue.
5/ Some other magic method!
Over to you!
You have 20 peolple around you and 2 of them are being very abusive, what do you do in that situation?
1/ Ignore them which winds them up even more.
2/ tell them to stop being abusive which winds them up even more.
3/ walk away which winds up the other 18 people,
4/ just accept it and deal with the gobby tossers first which sends the message out to all the others that being abusive will get you to the front of the queue.
5/ Some other magic method!
Over to you!
My confrontational training I received said to never interrupt someone having a rant and let them get it all of their chest. Only when they have finished do you speak to try and resolve the question.
87015
Established Member
Head above parapet: I do twittering for our TOC feed (we don't have dedicated twitter staff)
If it is pointless, aggressive abuse then we will either just block with or without reply stating that most of the time. During disruption I tend to have more patience if you can see its poor service, will generally warn and ask them to ask again nicely. Keeping them 'entertained' can work - better to have them directing anger at the computer screen than platform staff.
Direct complaints against staff are difficult - many are petty matters that has just got someone back up top which they just want an apology for, and can avoid a formal complaint being made - we try to get as much info as possible and either collate for sending to local manager. But on the flip side you do get praise which is passed straight on to the local manager (if it's general we can email the station/staff member direct too) - that would probably not get back without twitter. We now have a relationship with driver managers for sending in praise about PA (DOO) during problems which is the most common complaint and complement!
Especially during disruption though you can't reply to all incoming tweets so some abusive ones will just slip through the net and not be blocked as you tend to just ignore and move on rather than wasting time on them when the screen is constantly refreshing with more messages than it can display in one go!
If it is pointless, aggressive abuse then we will either just block with or without reply stating that most of the time. During disruption I tend to have more patience if you can see its poor service, will generally warn and ask them to ask again nicely. Keeping them 'entertained' can work - better to have them directing anger at the computer screen than platform staff.
Direct complaints against staff are difficult - many are petty matters that has just got someone back up top which they just want an apology for, and can avoid a formal complaint being made - we try to get as much info as possible and either collate for sending to local manager. But on the flip side you do get praise which is passed straight on to the local manager (if it's general we can email the station/staff member direct too) - that would probably not get back without twitter. We now have a relationship with driver managers for sending in praise about PA (DOO) during problems which is the most common complaint and complement!
Especially during disruption though you can't reply to all incoming tweets so some abusive ones will just slip through the net and not be blocked as you tend to just ignore and move on rather than wasting time on them when the screen is constantly refreshing with more messages than it can display in one go!
- Status