I recently recieved an email from XC Customer Relations that's so obnoxious it borders on the hilarious. The background is a journey from Milton Keynes to Bolton changing at Birmingham International and Manchester Piccadilly. I missed the last train of the night to Bolton and had to be taxied from Manchester Piccadilly. I arrived at Manchester Piccadilly little after midnight and had to wait for over an hour for a taxi to arrive, my final arrival at the final destination well over 2 hours late. I had an Any Permitted ticket from MK to Birmingham, a Birmingham Int - Manchester XC ONLY Advance and a single for the final section.
I contacted both Virgin Trains and CrossCountry to explain what had happened and how unsatisfactory it was that I'd been dumped to deal with the situation by myself in the early hours of the morning at Manchester Piccadilly (no staff around, Network Rail reception unmanned). I didn't apply for compensation from Virgin Trains but did hint at it in my email to CrossCountry as they caused the key part of the delay.
Their response is very telling and absolutely laughable.
Call yourself professionals!? "We won't 'fork the bill' for your taxi - ha!". What on earth do they mean about it being the 'ownership' of another TOC? And I did not confirm it was anything to do with Virgin Trains, their train was not exactly on time but that did not mean I would have missed the XC train, so my interpretation of that was that it is XC's fault I missed the final train, and as they are clearly admitting they didn't care to pay for the taxi! They also mention that Network Rail should have paid for it, which is clearly nonsense as this sort of thing is not their responsibility.
I suppose it does a good job of showing their attitude 'we will pass the buck to anyone we can and shirk whatever responsibilities we might have' either to another TOC or onto the customer.
The grammar is also pretty shocking and doesn't appear to have been proof-read even once. Someone in Year 7 would be expected to produce work with fewer errors.
VT are yet to reply, but I doubt they will want to offer the full 2 hour delay compensation or make any apologies for not bothering to help me out in the small hours of the morning, just because CrossCountry couldn't be bothered to! And a part of me says why should they....
I contacted both Virgin Trains and CrossCountry to explain what had happened and how unsatisfactory it was that I'd been dumped to deal with the situation by myself in the early hours of the morning at Manchester Piccadilly (no staff around, Network Rail reception unmanned). I didn't apply for compensation from Virgin Trains but did hint at it in my email to CrossCountry as they caused the key part of the delay.
Their response is very telling and absolutely laughable.
Call yourself professionals!? "We won't 'fork the bill' for your taxi - ha!". What on earth do they mean about it being the 'ownership' of another TOC? And I did not confirm it was anything to do with Virgin Trains, their train was not exactly on time but that did not mean I would have missed the XC train, so my interpretation of that was that it is XC's fault I missed the final train, and as they are clearly admitting they didn't care to pay for the taxi! They also mention that Network Rail should have paid for it, which is clearly nonsense as this sort of thing is not their responsibility.
I suppose it does a good job of showing their attitude 'we will pass the buck to anyone we can and shirk whatever responsibilities we might have' either to another TOC or onto the customer.
The grammar is also pretty shocking and doesn't appear to have been proof-read even once. Someone in Year 7 would be expected to produce work with fewer errors.
VT are yet to reply, but I doubt they will want to offer the full 2 hour delay compensation or make any apologies for not bothering to help me out in the small hours of the morning, just because CrossCountry couldn't be bothered to! And a part of me says why should they....
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