So, #fgw I know we had our moments but I'll totally put out tonight.
Well. I'd like to say this is difficult but it isn't in the slightest, after the events surrounding that evening. I received a letter from First Great Western about my passenger charter claim form this morning.
Now, here is the first bit of being critical of the contents "The delay was due to a person being hit by a train on the track..." right, that's fine, in fact I would have been ok with this from the start. As any method of oversized public transport you can not do a bloody thing about somebody taking their life or an accident which resulted in an injury or fatality.
However, what you CAN do about it is communicate this to your customer base, at the end of the day people will understand, even in the most dire of weather that the circumstances of an extended delay is down to an act that can not be foreseen (and that isn't the wrong kind of rain on the line).
The end of this would be if FGW communicated the circumstances, even by the robotic sympathy droid, I would not have taken the time to fill out a claim form in anger, find and attach my expired ticket and send it across to their offices in Plymouth by freepost. They would not then have to pay for the postage, pay for the employee to spend time to review and respond to my claim form and then pay for postage back to me.
How FGW then redeemed themselves, is by not only addressing the issue, explaining the issue, explaining the passenger charter and how it doesn't (in a way quite rightfully) apply and how they are going to avoid the issue escalating further than it needs to be.
Now, here is the first bit of being critical of the contents "The delay was due to a person being hit by a train on the track..." right, that's fine, in fact I would have been ok with this from the start. As any method of oversized public transport you can not do a bloody thing about somebody taking their life or an accident which resulted in an injury or fatality.
However, what you CAN do about it is communicate this to your customer base, at the end of the day people will understand, even in the most dire of weather that the circumstances of an extended delay is down to an act that can not be foreseen (and that isn't the wrong kind of rain on the line).
The end of this would be if FGW communicated the circumstances, even by the robotic sympathy droid, I would not have taken the time to fill out a claim form in anger, find and attach my expired ticket and send it across to their offices in Plymouth by freepost. They would not then have to pay for the postage, pay for the employee to spend time to review and respond to my claim form and then pay for postage back to me.
How FGW then redeemed themselves, is by not only addressing the issue, explaining the issue, explaining the passenger charter and how it doesn't (in a way quite rightfully) apply and how they are going to avoid the issue escalating further than it needs to be.