East Coast - Ignoring Complaints - ** RESOLVED **

[Andrew-P]

I have written to east coast on a couple of occasions recently to complain about some shocking staff behaviour which, in view of the fact that many of their staff are excellent, I am not going to describe here.

 

However, I have not had anything other than holding responses to these letters / e-mails.

 

The question is what do I do next - no response from Passenger Focus either!

 

East Coast need to be freed from the control of the DfT as soon as possible in my view as, although better than when they were part of National Express, they are not a patch on GNER.

 

Thanks in advance.

[firstclassx]

I have written to east coast on a couple of occasions recently to complain about some shocking staff behaviour which, in view of the fact that many of their staff are excellent, I am not going to describe here.

 

However, I have not had anything other than holding responses to these letters / e-mails.

 

The question is what do I do next - no response from Passenger Focus either!

 

East Coast need to be freed from the control of the DfT as soon as possible in my view as, although better than when they were part of National Express, they are not a patch on GNER.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

A couple of points.

 

1) They are complying with Section 4.1 of their passenger charter by providing you "holding" updates at least every 10 days. They will continue to contact you at least every 10 days until your complaint has been fully concluded.

 

2) However, according to Section 4.2, During "busy" periods, which they are currently experiencing, (due to the recent flooding/infrastructure damage/Christmas arrangements etc), those response times may be increased.

 

3) It is fairly typical for a response to take 20-30 days for a minor complaint. For one that requires more detailed investigation, 30-40 days is reasonable IMO. You have to inform the manager, speak to the member of staff involved, perhaps involve union reps, manager writes report, customer services reviews and composes relevant letter, letter sent to you. Annual Leave, sickness, dispute as to facts etc can all take time to resolve.

 

4) I would rather they took their time to investigate rather than just provide me with a quick, generic letter.

 

If they are aware of your complaint, you do not need to take any further action. If action is required against one or more members of staff, you will not be informed of the specifics.

 

What are you hoping to get from them? Most likely outcome is a generic apology letter from them.

 

If you aren't prepared to tell the forum what happened, we can't really help you. Different problems require different strategies.

 

Passenger Focus cannot investigate until East Coast have concluded their own internal investigations. Even still, PF have no powers to actually do anything to East Coast.

Edited December 5, 2012 by firstclassx

[Andrew-P]

Thanks for getting back to me:

 

A couple of points.

 

1) They are complying with Section 4.1 of their passenger charter by providing you "holding" updates at least every 10 days. They will continue to contact you at least every 10 days until your complaint has been fully concluded.

 

They have not been doing this - I have had one holding letter

 

2) However, according to Section 4.2, During "busy" periods, which they are currently experiencing, (due to the recent flooding/infrastructure damage/Christmas arrangements etc), those response times may be increased.

 

It has not been busy all the time since late August - I understand what you are saying and completely agree but the time they have had my complaints is not acceptable

 

3) It is fairly typical for a response to take 20-30 days for a minor complaint. For one that requires more detailed investigation, 30-40 days is reasonable IMO. You have to inform the manager, speak to the member of staff involved, perhaps involve union reps, manager writes report, customer services reviews and composes relevant letter, letter sent to you. Annual Leave, sickness, dispute as to facts etc can all take time to resolve.

 

They have had longer than this

 

4) I would rather they took their time to investigate rather than just provide me with a quick, generic letter.

 

Completely agree with you but they should at least give some form of update

 

If they are aware of your complaint, you do not need to take any further action. If action is required against one or more members of staff, you will not be informed of the specifics.

 

I understand this - I just need to know it has been or is being fully investigated

 

What are you hoping to get from them? Most likely outcome is a generic apology letter from them.

 

The points on the rewards scheme which they failed to credit restored, a refund for the mis-sold ticket and a full apology.

 

The simple fact is their staff should not accuse you of lying when you are right and can prove it. Their staff should not upset you and lie to you by saying things like, and I quote "computers never make mistakes"

 

If you aren't prepared to tell the forum what happened, we can't really help you. Different problems require different strategies..

 

What I need is advice on how to escalate this - it looks to me like I have been ignored. I simply need to know where to take this next not the specifics.

 

It is rare that I write into any company regarding customer service but I am just as quick to praise as well. However, east coast ignore these too - unlike cross country who send replies (in one case the put a staff member up for a service award).

[firstclassx]

From what I know about the reward scheme, I think you are wasting your time.

 

Nobody else will get involved, like Passenger Focus, because the issue isn't really about the railway, but rather, a promo scheme operated solely by East Coast as an incentive.

 

You could probably try and submit a MCOL claim against them, but within the scheme terms and conditions, it probably says that each point is worth something silly like 0.001p.

 

To be fair to the rail staff, they have nothing to do with the scheme, and can only go by what the computer says. They can't just give you the benefit of the doubt because of the obvious fraudulent implications of doing so.

 

In addition things like:

 

3.3 The Scheme is offered at the discretion of East Coast and East Coast may refuse or withdraw membership to any Member at any time.

 

9.2 East Coast reserves the right to discontinue the Scheme or any individual Rewards at any time.

 

13.3 East Coast cannot be held responsible for lost, stolen or damaged Rewards once issued.

[many straits]

awful company, old carriages, erratic service and expensive

[Grotesque]

...So what would you do about it?

[timbo58]

ditto on the above and for the OPs point: you would NOT know if the complaint has been fully investigated as they won't give you specifics on what they will do.

 

It's not really ignoring your complaint unless you have had no communication whatsoever yet know your complaint was received and is now being deliberately ignored.

 

Unless you can prove that, then you'll have to accept it's being/been fully investigated and you will probably end up with a note saying briefly 'sorry about that and it's been fully investigated, thanks for the complaint'.

 

Any response by you asking for further information would probably get a 'cut n paste'

response and THEN you would be ignored.

[Andrew-P]

I must apologise but I thought I had responded with this as to how the matter was closed.

 

Well this is what happened.

 

I did end up contacting Passenger Focus again explaining both the original incidents and the poor response from East Coast. Following my letter I was phoned by them and explained the situation and was told they would contact East Coast. The next thing was an apology, which didn't seem cut and paste, from East Coast and £240 in vouchers (my issue was about the staff not the money although that was nice anyway).

 

Since this I have used East Coast many times and have had no cause for any complaint and am the first to say they have some excellent staff and have written to them praising some individuals and their actions (If you are quick to complain you must be equally quick to commend).

 

I am sure these were isolated incidents but the person from Passenger Focus did say they were getting a lot more complaints about East Coast

[honeybee13]

Hello again and thank you for reporting back.

 

I'm pleased at your outcome and you sound positive now. I'll amend your thread title.

 

My best, HB

[Andrew-P]

Thanks for changing the title.

 

I have always been generally positive about East Coast and most of their staff and have always treated these as isolated incidents (I travel with them many times a year and good service is more common than any problems).