After a rather good run of form with the Virgin Trains service from Macc to London; I do that trip maybe 8-12 times a year, I had a rather unfortunate experience last week.
I was due to take the 10.55am from Macc on Tuesday 9th February to get down to London in good time for a conference (The #Hashjacking of #BR140 in the blogroll). Only the previous day my Twitter stream informed me that all trains from Manchester to London had been cancelled due to ‘overhead cable problems’ at Milton Keynes. Being a dutiful traveller I checked with the official information online and it declared the trains would be running as normal from 10.00am. With that reassuring information in mind I made my way to Macc station. Being as I work with a super-efficient HR lady, my ticket had been booked well in advance (bargain) including a seat reservation.
So a bit like a giddy kid on a school trip to the British Museum I hopped onto platform 2 with 10 minutes spare. Only to realise that there was only me and one other bloke waiting. I inquired of the station announcer to ascertain the circumstances who advised the 10.55am had been cancelled. ‘When’s the next train’ I asked slightly concerned, ‘we think 11.55am, but can’t be sure’ was the helpful reply. I would still just about make it in time for the 2pm conference start, in fact, a good excuse to miss that very stressful British experience of ‘networking’ before an event. So I popped down the road for an espresso, made a couple of calls and tut-tutted about the state of Britain with my fellow Virgin traveller.
Anyway, the 11.55am arrived pretty much on time, although was as packed as a cup final football special. I found my way to the carriage with my reserved seat, it was occupied. Realising that most of these people were also suffering from the cancelled train I decided not to take up my allocated spot, but found a single seat in a draughty corner between two carriages. On doing so I realised that there was no plug socket for my laptop so I would struggle to get more than 1/2hour out of my battery.
So most unusually I decided to make further enquiries with the Train Manager in an effort to get ‘upgraded’ to First Class which I had noticed had enough room to swing several cats, a Leopard and probably an Arctic Tiger. I found the manager’s little office and described my plight as sympathetically as I could and asked what he could do for me in the way of an upgrade. I wasn’t coming on the ‘big I am’ although I did mention my company spends an awful lot of money with Virgin, I would like to think that whether I was Mrs Miggins or Lord Richard ‘effing’ Branson himself I’d be treated fairly and with some sympathy. He busily tip-tapped away in some sort of handheld device and declared quite unashamedly that it would be £150 for the pleasure. I again reiterated my situation with full-on puppy dog eyes and asked if he could do me a deal?.
‘Nah can’t do that’ he said,
‘Why not I said, you’re in charge of the train, you could run a herd of wildebeest through first class and know one would notice’.
Nervous blank look from Simon the Train Manager (I knew that cos he had a badge).
‘I want to speak to you’re boss’
‘You’ll have to speak to Customer Services’
‘I don’t want to speak to them I want to speak to your boss’
‘No, I can’t even get to speak to her’
‘What’s her name, email, or telephone number?’
‘Not telling’
‘Yer what… I want to complain about you and won’t tell me the name of your boss?’
‘Just send a letter in to customer service’
‘No I want to send an e-mail to your boss right now, why can’t you let me have her e-mail address’
‘Not allowed to… it’s the system’
Exasperated I walk off get a coffee and settle down in the seat in the draughty corner.
I wasn’t going to let this lie, so tweeted my displeasure using the #virgintrains hashtag in the hope that somebody might be bothered to respond. Nothing.
I whinged on about Virgin at the conference via Twitter. Still nothing. Then the next day I got a tweet from a Virgin train driver saying that @virgintrains were on Twitter and I should try my luck there. So I sent this tweet
‘@virgintrains I want to speak to Simon's (train manager 11.55am from Macc 9th Feb) boss, I want to discuss you're appalling customer service’
To date not a dicky bird. I really don’t know what I’m expecting now, not a lot really but if Virgin think I’m going to use their so-called customer service channels to make a complaint when I can use more convenient routes they’ve got another thing coming.
I’m beginning to think this is Branson’s revenge for getting his fingers burnt for buying the publishing rights for our songs for a tidy sum back in the day. If it is, it’s one of life’s real mash-ups.
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