Amazingly contrasting customer service

tom_e said:
Not really you buy a ticket for a specific train in the knowledge that that ticket allows you to get on the train printed on the ticket not any old train you feel like, the ticket collector was well within his right to ask him to leave the train and wait for the one he'd actually bought a ticket for.

You wouldn't buy a ticket to fly from Birmingham to Edinburgh at 0850 and decide to use it to try and get on the 0750 and get bent out of shape when they told you to do one would you?
You also wouldn't turn up at a hotel a week earlier than your booking and demand they gave you a room because "Well I've paid for a room and I want it now not in a weeks time"
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Both of which are completely different, since both flights and hotel rooms are booked to take into account the number of people flying or staying. So if you tried to get on a fully booked flight without a ticket, you would be taking the place of someone already booked on that flight. If you tried to take a room in a fully booked hotel without a booking, you'd be taking a room from someone else booked into that hotel.

The fact you can buy open tickets for trains means neither of your examples are relevant. By Kindai getting on that train instead of the next one, he wasn't preventing anyone else from getting on, the only "reason" it's against the rules is greed.

I'm all for having rules in place for a genuine reason, but when it's something as arbitrary as "because we said so", then I don't tend to agree with their existence, especially when the party making the rules seems to have very little regard for keeping up their side of the agreement.
 
Why does the bus driver even care, you'd think they lived on the bus or something. Do the bus companies run through all the cctv to check that drivers haven't been letting people on with food?
 
OP, have you still got the ticket? Might be worth popping it under a scanner or take a photo of it, and that will have the route ID, time etc on it. Then attach it to an email to First Group's customer service (if it exists lol!)
 
Haggisman said:
The fact you can buy open tickets for trains means neither of your examples are relevant..
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no idea about buses, but trains charge more at certain times of day; peak times, which makes no logical sense, in that if they are 'peak times', then the volume of customers is higher, and therefore cost to serve/passenger is drastically reduced. open ticket prices (around here at least) are almost always higher than the worst case scenario (peak times) would cost if booked with designated times.

the only exception I can think of is the 'cheap day return': purchase off peak, but return journey can legitimately be made during peak hours
 
tom_e said:
Not really you buy a ticket for a specific train in the knowledge that that ticket allows you to get on the train printed on the ticket not any old train you feel like, the ticket collector was well within his right to ask him to leave the train and wait for the one he'd actually bought a ticket for.

You wouldn't buy a ticket to fly from Birmingham to Edinburgh at 0850 and decide to use it to try and get on the 0750 and get bent out of shape when they told you to do one would you?
You also wouldn't turn up at a hotel a week earlier than your booking and demand they gave you a room because "Well I've paid for a room and I want it now not in a weeks time"
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I buy a ticket, go to platform at roughly the time my train is due and see a train pulling in with London Marlybone on the front of it so get on. I dont think many people would be anal enough to check their ticket to make sure its the "exact" right time.

FWIW the carriage I was on only had me and 1 other person in it the entire journey there, the guy was just being a dick for the sake of being a dick. If he had asked politely I would have had no issue of getting off at the next station to wait 5 minutes for the next train.

A stark contrast to the return journey a few days later after having surgery I only had my cards with me (no cash) and wanted a drink as I was getting through a ridiculous amount of water that day and the card machine was broken on the train, the "attendant" (i dunno what you call those guys who come through with the food and drinks trolley) gave me a bottle of water for free as he could see I was suffering.

I have a thankyou card I take with me whenever im on that service incase I spot that guy again with a tenner inside it.

Respect goes both ways, and it starts by showing respect, not demanding it.
 
Hold on, what, people still get the bus?

/trollmodeoff

Driver sounds like a total goon. Whilst tbh I don't have a problem with the no food/drink policy to not have any signs and only inform you second time around is just not right. Also he probably could have at least been flexible and noticed you're not a hobo/chav scrote with a greggs pasty.
 
dirtychinchilla said:
You're a good man :)
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You have no idea how appreciated it was. I was not feeling well and he bent the rules to make me more comfortable, potentially risking his job, yet ironically its those exceptional acts of customer care which enforce customer loyalty.

No I dont expect them to go giving out bottles of water to everyone who asks, but thats what a judgement call is, and when used correctly, are priceless customer relation tools.
 
kindai said:
You have no idea how appreciated it was. I was not feeling well and he bent the rules to make me more comfortable, potentially risking his job, yet ironically its those exceptional acts of customer care which enforce customer loyalty.

No I dont expect them to go giving out bottles of water to everyone who asks, but thats what a judgement call is, and when used correctly, are priceless customer relation tools.
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Precisely, if they want to be treated with human decency then they need to treat their customers in the same way. Act like a robot programmed to follow the rules to the letter no matter what, and don't be surprised if people lack respect.
 
I once got on a bus as a 17 year old and paid only for the driver to come up to me once I'd sat down demanding another 10p, apparently one I gave him was fake (I didn't know this). Luckily I was able to scrounge off a mate but the guy was actually going to chuck me off over 10 measly pence. ******.
 
godinman said:
I once got on a bus as a 17 year old and paid only for the driver to come up to me once I'd sat down demanding another 10p, apparently one I gave him was fake (I didn't know this). Luckily I was able to scrounge off a mate but the guy was actually going to chuck me off over 10 measly pence. ******.
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When I was 17 the fare was only 35p ish anyway 10p would have been a whole 1/3 of the fare....
 
I can't remember the last time I got a bus, this reinforces why it will never happen. Last time I looked the bus costs more than parking in town these days
 
Closure! Hope he got fired.

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Bus drivers are the worst for customer service. I understand everyone has bad days and does a job to survive but bus drivers the most feel as if they are so much more worthy. I dont see why they feel obliged to be dicks when the rest have to actually put up / a face on and get on with the job. so many bad experiences through years of getting to college in previous years. the service sucks and its too expensive. I sometimes catch one now and then to meet friends for a drink, when I hand them a 5 quid note they moan, its legal tender you tit get with the times and drive the ****ing bus.

However, I suppose they motivated me to learn to drive.
 
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