Information phrases which grate

[mrcheek]

"We apologise..." used when they really mean to say, "We are sorry"

On a side note, dont you hate it when on tv shows people say "I would like to apologise", and then they actually dont?

 

[43066]

"We apologise..." used when they really mean to say, "We are sorry"

Not sure I can agree with that one. “We apologise”, is subtly different to “we are sorry”, and more appropriate for when someone is apologising on behalf of an organisation, rather than for something they’re personally sorry about.

 

[norbitonflyer]

On a side note, dont you hate it when on tv shows people say "I would like to apologise", and then they actually dont?

I would like to welcome you........... I would like to apologise..........

I always imagine that they would welcome/apologise, etc, but some higher authority is forbidding them to do so, possibly on legal advice.

 

[142blue]

Any announcements in which the speaker uses the words "Ter" and "Fer" instead of "To" and "For". It irritates me intensely. Unfortunately it's becoming all to common now that even our PM "BJ" says it all the time and it is now prevalent even on Radio 4. It is seemingly spreading from Estuary English and has reached the North of England and Bristol. I'm dreading the day when I'll hear the on board announcement
" Fer trains ter Looe change at Liskeard; Fer services ter Newquay change at Par; Fer trains ter Falmuf, change at Truro; Fer trains to St Ives change at St Erth". Arrrrgggghhhh!

So an accent then?

When we started being called ‘customers’ instead of ‘passengers’, it was a portent that the end times were truly upon us!

I am of the vintage who still thinks a customer is someone who buys something in a shop.

Or pays for a service?

 

[Javelin_55]

When we started being called ‘customers’ instead of ‘passengers’, it was a portent that the end times were truly upon us!

I am of the vintage who still thinks a customer is someone who buys something in a shop.

My understanding was that a customer was someone who had paid for a ticket and was standing on the platform. Only once they got on a train did they became a passenger.

 

[trainophile]

My understanding was that a customer was someone who had paid for a ticket and was standing on the platform. Only once they got on a train did they became a passenger.

Yes, if you buy a ticket for someone else, e.g. a business colleague, you're a customer but not a passenger.

 

[owidoe]

Any announcements in which the speaker uses the words "Ter" and "Fer" instead of "To" and "For". It irritates me intensely. Unfortunately it's becoming all to common now that even our PM "BJ" says it all the time and it is now prevalent even on Radio 4. It is seemingly spreading from Estuary English and has reached the North of England and Bristol. I'm dreading the day when I'll hear the on board announcement
" Fer trains ter Looe change at Liskeard; Fer services ter Newquay change at Par; Fer trains ter Falmuf, change at Truro; Fer trains to St Ives change at St Erth". Arrrrgggghhhh!

I imagine this sort of complaint must have been common amongst stagecoach passengers at the time of the Great Vowel Shift. "Didst thou hear that ye proclamations at ye Elizabeth Coach Station now, for '/loːe/', instead say '/luː/'? Surely ye Englisch tongue shall never recover."

 

[43066]

My understanding was that a customer was someone who had paid for a ticket and was standing on the platform. Only once they got on a train did they became a passenger.

I’ve always understood passenger to be anyone travelling on a train who isn’t driving it or working on it in some capacity. A fare dodger or a member of train crew travelling “pass” would both be passengers, despite neither paying a fare. Neither would be customers.

I suppose passenger on the railway also implies someone subject to bylaws in a way a customer of your regular supermarket, pub etc. isn’t.

 

[physics34]

A few sputhern stations now announce " there are usually many seats available on this service". Totally irritating and unnecessary. I hope GBR reduces announcements and gets a standardisation going.

 

[Lloyds siding]

'You are not obliged to say anything, but anything you do say may be written down and used in evidence' etc.
I know my boss didn't like hearing it when an Inspector called. (not on the railway)

 

[norbitonflyer]

Not sure I can agree with that one. “We apologise”, is subtly different to “we are sorry”, and more appropriate for when someone is apologising on behalf of an organisation, rather than for something they’re personally sorry about.

There is also the "I am sorry if you are upset" - which puts the blame on the upset person for being too sensitive/dense/etc to understand why I was right to do the thing that upset you..

"I'm sorry you are upset that I ran over your foot" is not the same as "I am sorry I ran over your foot"

 

[43096]

When we started being called ‘customers’ instead of ‘passengers’, it was a portent that the end times were truly upon us!

I am of the vintage who still thinks a customer is someone who buys something in a shop.

In many ways I prefer the use of “customer” as it shows that someone has paid for a service and is therefore entitled to delivery of that service in return. “Passenger” is just someone on the train: what I have heard rail staff refer to as “self loading cargo”.

 

[Inversnecky]

Perhaps my preference for the term ‘passenger’ is simply a rather naive nostalgia for a less commercialised era, incorporating the notion that a passenger is treated as a guest, rather than simply a source of revenue, whereas the modern term customer, to me at least, seems purely transactional and a symptom of the increasing trend to ‘know the price of everything and the value of nothing’.

All semantics, of course, and all purely in the eye of the beholder.

Of course, anyone paying for a service can be termed a ‘customer’ as money is exchanged in return for a benefit, whether goods or a service. I guess in my earlier days, the term customer was more restricted to the purchase of physical goods, and less often, if at all, used for provision of services such as transportation.

 

[Undiscovered]

A fare dodger or a member of train crew travelling “pass” would both be passengers, despite neither paying a fare. Neither would be customers.

Ah, yes.
But, if a fare dodger is asked to leave a train, in the middle of the woods, does their complaint make a sound?

 

[norbitonflyer]

In many ways I prefer the use of “customer” as it shows that someone has paid for a service and is therefore entitled to delivery of that service in return. “Passenger” is just someone on the train: what I have heard rail staff refer to as “self loading cargo”.

I don't like "guest" as it suggests you are there at the invitation (and whim) of the operator, rather than because you have paid for a service.

There's hierarchy:
- client, to be cultivated and cossetted
- customer. to be humoured
- captive cash cow, to be herded

 

[Gloster]

I dislike the word ‘customer’, rather than ‘passenger’, as it is disconnected from what the person actually is there for. A passenger is a person to be transported (not to Australia) and that is what the railway business is about. A customer could be many things, but primarily refers to the payment of money, not what it is for.

 

[SCDR_WMR]

For me, you are a customer of the TOC.

Once you're on my train, you're one of my may passengers that I have a legal obligation to take care of

 

[43066]

Ah, yes.
But, if a fare dodger is asked to leave a train, in the middle of the woods, does their complaint make a sound?

If a tree falls over in the woods and squashes him, presumably not

I dislike the word ‘customer’, rather than ‘passenger’, as it is disconnected from what the person actually is there for. A passenger is a person to be transported (not to Australia) and that is what the railway business is about. A customer could be many things, but primarily refers to the payment of money, not what it is for.

Agreed. In the end it boils down to semantics and has precious little to do with the quality of the service offered. Quite the opposite, in fact, when you consider that it was BR who pioneered calling passengers customers and they weren’t exactly known for their sparkling levels of service.

 

[Pigeon]

I loathe "customer" because the change from "passenger" was such a nakedly transparent and undisguised instance of changing the name of something to make people think it's better without actually bothering to change anything else (you're customers! You're always right, and that! You get customer service! - just like calling Windscale Sellafield to make people think it's not radioactive any more, etc) - and of such an oily mendacious Thatcherite yuppie kind. It was so blatantly obvious that only a fool could hear the news and ascribe any genuine positive significance to it.

If it had always been "customer" I might simply accept it as normal, but as it is I can't hear the word on the railway without still visualising it being delivered with a hideous coked-up yuppie rictus grin, nor without still being annoyed at being taken for a fool by parasitic marketroid arseholes.

'You are not obliged to say anything, but anything you do say may be written down and used in evidence' etc.
I know my boss didn't like hearing it when an Inspector called. (not on the railway)

...but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court...

 

[Facing Back]

There is also the "I am sorry if you are upset" - which puts the blame on the upset person for being too sensitive/dense/etc to understand why I was right to do the thing that upset you..

"I'm sorry you are upset that I ran over your foot" is not the same as "I am sorry I ran over your foot"

If somebody put their foot under the wheel of my car and I had no way of seeing it and then ran over it, I would be sorry as a human being for the pain and upset, but I would not apologise for it. If I say "I am sorry I ran over your foot", or "I apologise for running over your foot", that would be me accepting blame and responsibility for it when I am doing neither.

The person hopping around in agony with broken bones probably won't stop to parse the situation. It also drives my wife mad - "just say you are sorry and stop being an arse" would be her view, she doesn't care about fault and it is not a situation where an apology is tantamount to an admission of liability so there are two sides to this one - lol possibly mine and everybody elses...

 

[py_megapixel]

I shall nominate the announcement on the Croydon tramway to "Use all available overhead handles" - what, should I carry some huge contraption onto the tram with me so I can hold every handle along the entire length of the tram?

 

[GordonT]

The written information phrases which I find particularly irksome are those explanations crafted in a kind of doublespeak which leave you no better informed. One I read on the national rail website today concerning a cancelled service from Scunthorpe to Doncaster: "This Train Has Been Cancelled Due To A Short-Notice Change To The Timetable."

 

[Meridian richard]

Could be reassuring, if it's their way of saying they have water as well as soap!

Isn’t that expected for a toilet?

When the announcement lasts from Stockport to Hazel Grove... it’s clear there’s too much drivel


...And then the automated announcement repeats everything!

 

[norbitonflyer]

If I say "I am sorry I ran over your foot", or "I apologise for running over your foot", that would be me accepting blame and responsibility for it when I am doing neither.

"I am sorry your cat died" is not the same as "I apologise for your cat's death".

"I am sorry you are upset about your cat's death" is different again.

 

[trainophile]

Isn’t that expected for a toilet?

When the announcement lasts from Stockport to Hazel Grove... it’s clear there’s too much drivel


...And then the automated announcement repeats everything!

You've never had the experience of pumping soap into your hands and only then finding there's nothing coming out of the tap? Makes for a very messy operation, trying to wipe it off with toilet paper which inevitably disintegrates and sticks to your skin. Oh and that's if the paper hasn't run out too!

 

[py_megapixel]

You've never had the experience of pumping soap into your hands and only then finding there's nothing coming out of the tap? Makes for a very messy operation, trying to wipe it off with toilet paper which inevitably disintegrates and sticks to your skin. Oh and that's if the paper hasn't run out too!

I usually get my hands wet before putting soap on as I feel it makes the soap irritate my hands less. Of course I'll therefore notice if the tap is not working before I have soap on my hands.

 

[Oxfordblues]

At Preston Powerbox in the 1970s we had the ideal station announcer: Frank King. He was clear-voiced, authoritative and had the rare knack of being able to corral passengers like an experienced sheepdog. He somehow made his Preston accent sound "educated" and the signallers knew they were working with a professional. He could even anticipate a platform alteration before the supervisor was aware one was needed.

Unfortunately Frank was an unreliable attendee and would often go off sick without notice. So he was finally stood-down and soon got another job, at Dick-Kerr's tram factory on Strand Road. He was replaced by someone with a poor voice who had difficulty pronouncing place-names, was unsure of how the station operated and would sometimes announce trains after they had departed!

 

[Skymonster]

Unfortunately Frank was an unreliable attendee and would often go off sick without notice.

it’s the ones who give notice they’re going to be sick you really need to worry about!

 

[GoneSouth]

A class 195 announcing that you are now arriving at hebden bridge when you’re leaving Chester.

And the continuous announcements on the 195s that say “this is a northern Service to…” then no place name is announced, “the next stop is…” again no station is announced! Come on Northern sort it out!

 

[Efini92]

And the continuous announcements on the 195s that say “this is a northern Service to…” then no place name is announced, “the next stop is…” again no station is announced! Come on Northern sort it out!

Closely followed by it telling you the train is too short for the platform even though it’s only a 3 car and the platform can accommodate a lot more