Comment

Barry Doe, RAIL Fares and Services Expert

I am not surprised that customer satisfaction has declined. Yes, the timetable chaos, unreliability, poor performance and strikes have all contributed, but I feel that the root of the problem is dire customer service.

It’s made far worse by the industry constantly saying that “customers are at the heart of everything we do”, because that is so obviously untrue.

Passengers are fed up with weak excuses for late refunds and (worse) having refunds incorrectly calculated, especially where the journey was with more than one operator.

Then there’s the appalling attitude I have described so often in my Fare Dealer column, of a failure to provide promised onboard service being met with the “it’s complimentary therefore you’re not entitled to it, so hard luck” attitude.

Often, customer services staff are poorly trained and provide incorrect information. Only recently, a reader showed me a response he had from an operator when his through ticket to Edinburgh Airport was not honoured.

The response began: “I hope you are doing good today” - so the operator isn’t even employing people who can write English. It then went on to give totally incorrect information because, clearly, the agent knows nothing about railways.

Then there are awful websites selling the wrong tickets and giving outdated information (and here even the National Rail website is sometimes guilty). Add to all this new rolling stock which is often far less comfortable than previously enjoyed.

There are some jewels, but overall I am ashamed of the way many operators act on a daily basis. Customer service is the worst I have known in my lifetime, so to me it’s no surprise that satisfaction is down.