A response!
Received 27th October 2014
Dear Steve,
Thank you for your recent correspondence to Ian Bullock, Lynne Milligan and Customer Relations. Ian and Lynne have read your email and I understand Lynne has also suggested a meeting with her to discuss the issues you have experienced. In the interim I thought it may be useful to respond to some of the concerns you raised in your original correspondence.
It is unfortunate that you experienced a compromised level of service last week. We have experienced performance issues; some within our control and some outside of it. Monday 20th October was a particularly challenging day for both us and our customers due to planned engineering works over-running. We are in ongoing discussions with Network Rail, who own the infrastructure and carry out the engineering work, to discuss how pre-planned engineering work can be improved to minimise the impact on our customers if an over-run occurs.
On Tuesday 21st and Wednesday 22nd, due to unexpected train faults we did need to adapt our service to keep disruption to a minimum overall. This unfortunately affected our capacity levels too, which is why you experienced only 2 carriages on Tuesday. However this service does usually run with 4 carriages, and whilst I fully appreciate the frustration to customers if they are not able to board a train as planned, when things do go wrong, the regularity of our service means that only a short wait is required until the next train arrives. That said, I fully appreciate that this should not detract from the inconvenience any delay can cause to customers.
Additionally we do have a journey check app, to keep customers updated with timely service information, and you can also sign up to free email alerts so you know in advance of an issue and can make an informed decision to amend travel plans if necessary. You can find further information herehttps://www.journeycheck.com/
We are also improving the information provided to customers at stations via the electronic customer information screens, and over the next few months you should see improvements in this area. You also outline that on-board staff did not apologise to customers on Monday 20th. Although this was a challenging day for all concerned, I am disappointed this was the case as our staff receive robust customer service training, and are expected to be empathetic towards customers in these situations and offer an apology where appropriate. Consequently I will be discussing this with our Head of Conductors.
Regarding our compensation policy, which I understand is what caused you the greatest concern. As you outline, we do not provide compensation for individual journeys made if using a monthly or longer season ticket. Customers who hold a season ticket benefit from discounted rates compared with daily rates, so instead our compensation policy outlined in our Passenger Charter entitles customers who have a season ticket of one month or longer to compensation, in the form of a discount upon renewal. This is applied if the overall performance of the service group on which customers travel falls below our published standards for punctuality or reliability (for information your service group is Cardiff Local and Valleys, somtimes also termed as ‘Valleys’). Our performance figures are published on our website http://www.arrivatrainswales.
You can also find a copy of our Passenger Charter at any staffed station, or alternatively please follow the link outlined here: http://www.arrivatrainswales.
I hope that my email outlines the reasons for the service you received last week, and addresses the concerns which you have raised. I would also like to take this opportunity to apologise for any frustration you have experienced, and I hope that you find the proposed meeting with Lynne useful.
Yours sincerely
Angela Wetherall
Customer Relations Manager
Arriva Trains Wales
So, it seems progress is being made!
I look forward to hearing from the Head of Customer Services - I think I'll invite her to come to me...
It's all about the preparation now. Forearmed is forewarned.
I love the phrase "our staff receive robust customer service training". Well I hope Arriva got their money back from the company that provided the 'training' because when things go a bit wrong, instead of patiently explaining to customers (aka nuisances) what is happening, this largely neanderthal breed seem to hide in their offices and cabs.
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