Elecman
Established Member
I have always found the VWC twitter team extremely helpful when I have asked them a query by DM, I get a fairly rapid response and accurate info or help including reserving seats on the day of departure
I would not rely on any information regarding fares & ticketing matters given out by the Virgin Trains EC account; check on this forum if in any doubt.If you're travelling on split tickets, and one of the trains is late, unfortunately you can't automatically get the next available train ^JC
I used to work with VTEC twitter team on a regular basis in a previous role and they are all decent human beings who try to add a human element to twitter. Not the standard droning noise others make.
I'm sure they are, but I have seen some of them mistreat customers, which is unacceptable. But that is likely to be the fault of poor training and instructions.I used to work with VTEC twitter team on a regular basis in a previous role and they are all decent human beings who try to add a human element to twitter. Not the standard droning noise others make.
There are many examples of incorrect, misleading, or anti-consumer information.
For example look at their disgraceful response to Deerfold in his recent thread; this was a clear breach of consumer law and the Conditions of Travel. After giving appalling advice they then decided to ignore him.
Some of them are an utter disgrace to the rail industry; they appear more interested in posting memes than helping people. In another thread they were compared to 12-year-olds but I know several kids that age who are more interested in helping people than time wasting memes and who communicate in a more mature manner.
They wouldn't get away with their poor behaviour on this forum so it is shocking that a train company is not only willing to put up with it, but even encourage it.
I am glad to see a dedicated thread on this matter, as their poor behaviour has been discussed in numerous threads, at the risk of taking other threads off-topic.
I'm sure they are, but I have seen some of them mistreat customers, which is unacceptable. But that is likely to be the fault of poor training and instructions.
The problems at VTEC are far wider than the social media team, with clear management failings at a higher level to blame, but the failings of the Twitter team are highly visible and are made worse by the company's policy of inappropriate and poorly timed use of memes.
"This can be done by paying extra at the station or on the train. Speak to the staff on arrival for a price"
That's right; if they try buy it on board they could be charged £89 for a "Super" (!) Off Peak Single.In cases where the Twitter team get it wrong what kind of authority does that give the passenger to deal with disputes?
This is an example from today...a passenger wants to change an advance ticket for travel today.
The response -
I am fairly sure that is wrong and likely to lead to a hefty fare on board (journey was Doncaster - London)..Do they have any recourse (beyond hoping for good will) in presenting the twitter exchange?
Half the time the social media departments are full of folk who don't give a flying anyway, just folk that get to sit on twitter and Facebook all day..
No it won't ^PA on VTWC is different to ^PA on VTEC which makes it funny when they're both on at the same time and they're passing people between the different accounts. People will think they're the same person and just being a bit jobsworth on insisting they post to the correct account.Look at the initials... that will tell you whether EC have taken advice/help/staff from WC...
Absolute nonsense and frankly offensive to the many decent people that perform this important role day in and day out.
Maybe you should try and work behind a Twitter account for one of the London commuter TOCs, and get sworn at or abused on a regular basis? While still trying to do your absolute best.
I manage the Twitter team (amongst other things) for a large TOC, and can assure you that my team take their jobs seriously and try extremely hard to be the best they can be.
You don't need Railway knowledge to be "good" at Twitter, you need to be a quick learner and know where to find the information being asked. I compare it to a librarian, if you went into a library and asked something about astro physics, would you expect the librarian to be a rocket scientist? Of course you wouldn't but I bet they would be able to help you find the answer you wanted.
Accuracy is important, and except when there's disruption VTEC don't get that many Tweets. Commute London shows the number of Tweets today compared to the average and then only some of these Tweets will be questions that need an answer.All very true and people forget that they get bombarded by hundreds of tweets a day and that they are only human at the end of the day so will naturally get things wrong from time to time - but I guess hanging out on twitter feeds then complaining about them on here is the new thing.
If you're not sure of the answer you should have the tools at hand to find the correct answer. Even if you know the answer it's still worthwhile to periodically check in case something has changed (many on there still think reservations close 18:00 the day before travel).You don't need Railway knowledge to be "good" at Twitter, you need to be a quick learner and know where to find the information being asked. I compare it to a librarian, if you went into a library and asked something about astro physics, would you expect the librarian to be a rocket scientist? Of course you wouldn't but I bet they would be able to help you find the answer you wanted.
I would expect a librarian to be degree qualified with a postgraduate qualification in librarianship which would enable them to take a professional and robust approach to research. Sadly people who failed to properly value decent research seem to have decided that a quick google is good enough, and the profession has largely ceased to exist. I doubt the expected level of training for the twitter teams is that high, but they could certainly start to make up for that with a few weeks training in the topic they're supposed to be answering questions on.You don't need Railway knowledge to be "good" at Twitter, you need to be a quick learner and know where to find the information being asked. I compare it to a librarian, if you went into a library and asked something about astro physics, would you expect the librarian to be a rocket scientist? Of course you wouldn't but I bet they would be able to help you find the answer you wanted.
Absolute nonsense and frankly offensive to the many decent people that perform this important role day in and day out.
Maybe you should try and work behind a Twitter account for one of the London commuter TOCs, and get sworn at or abused on a regular basis? While still trying to do your absolute best.
I manage the Twitter team (amongst other things) for a large TOC, and can assure you that my team take their jobs seriously and try extremely hard to be the best they can be.
You don't need Railway knowledge to be "good" at Twitter, you need to be a quick learner and know where to find the information being asked. I compare it to a librarian, if you went into a library and asked something about astro physics, would you expect the librarian to be a rocket scientist? Of course you wouldn't but I bet they would be able to help you find the answer you wanted.
I personally don't understand how grown adults cannot interact with customer-facing staff without needing to yell and swear! The key word is "adults". As someone who is in a customer-facing role in a different industry, I'm regularly on the receiving end of shouting and swearing. Most of the time it isn't directed at me personally, and I let most of it go by, but there are some individuals out there who are just nasty pieces of work. I certainly cannot repeat on here some of the things people have said to me. Occasionally you will get the odd day where it seems that all you're getting is abuse, and no matter how well trained you are to deal with it, it's hard not to let it get you down.I personally struggle to understand how grown adults can get upset by other strangers swearing on a Twitter feed they are responsible for updating.
I personally don't understand how grown adults cannot interact with customer-facing staff without needing to yell and swear! The key word is "adults". As someone who is in a customer-facing role in a different industry, I'm regularly on the receiving end of shouting and swearing. Most of the time it isn't directed at me personally, and I let most of it go by, but there are some individuals out there who are just nasty pieces of work. I certainly cannot repeat on here some of the things people have said to me. Occasionally you will get the odd day where it seems that all you're getting is abuse, and no matter how well trained you are to deal with it, it's hard not to let it get you down.
While that would stop the confusion that happens between the two accounts, in reality it probably wouldn't work well due to the sheer number of tweets they would have to handle. Even as separate accounts the large number of tweets can cause some to be missed, and combining the two would essentially double the amount of tweets the twitter team has to handle.Virgin group should make one rail account which responds to West and East coast operations.
Sorry, but I disagree. The words are the same regardless of how they're delivered. If someone is being threatening or abusive it doesn't make it any less threatening because it's just "words on a screen". I'm on the end of a phone line, so I'm not actually physically face-to-face with my customers, but it still shakes you up a bit if someone is really nasty. The problem with online media is that it is just words at the end of the day - you don't get to see the person you're dealing with, nor hear their voice, so it's easy to forget that there is still a human being at the other end.Face to face abuse is different in my opinion to online "abuse". I can see why some people would get upset if its face to face, just struggle to understand when its just words on a screen.
I manage the Twitter team (amongst other things) for a large TOC, and can assure you that my team take their jobs seriously and try extremely hard to be the best they can be.
You don't need Railway knowledge to be "good" at Twitter, .
If you are giving information to the public on behalf of the railway then you bloody well do! I don't doubt that they try hard, but this is yet another example of an employer ignoring its responsibilities and blaming "enthusiastic but inexperienced" staff. Please tell us who put them in the seat and authorised them to act on behalf of the company?
I don't give a toss how good they are at twitter, if they are allowed to answer questions about anything contractual then how can the employer pretend it is any kind of an information service if they haven't been trained in the actual conditions of carriage (i.e. rules that can lead to prosecutions if infringed) or timetable and operating realities
We see here examples of completely wrong answers to basic questions on (e.g. ticket validity or routing) which will only lead that customer into conflict with someone "official" a bit further down the line.
A prime example of this is when you have to refuse to give information because of the Data Protection Act. I had one particular nasty individual ask me to quote all the principles of the act verbatim.A very naughty selective quote there, leaving out the part where he explains that basically you don’t need to be an encyclopaedia, but rather have the knowledge and confidence to seek out the right answer when you don’t know it.
The job of a Twitter handler is not to know everything (despite them being asked about everything!) No employee can hope to know everything.
I did this job for several years and had a very good working knowledge of the railway. Nonetheless I couldn’t recite some obscure Conditions in the NRCoC, but fortunately you’re allowed to look at it at work.
Virgin group should make one rail account which responds to West and East coast operations.
This gives a new angle on the old chestnut "the man on the platform said I could"
Now to add to that we can have "the man on the computer/my phone said I could"
If the system works then how come there are these complaints then? (and not just trivial complaints, but about important things.) The twitter people clearly don'tA very naughty selective quote there, leaving out the part where he explains that basically you don’t need to be an encyclopaedia, but rather have the knowledge and confidence to seek out the right answer when you don’t know it.
The job of a Twitter handler is not to know everything (despite them being asked about everything!) No employee can hope to know everything.
I did this job for several years and had a very good working knowledge of the railway. Nonetheless I couldn’t recite some obscure Conditions in the NRCoC, but fortunately you’re allowed to look at it at work.
I started my career giving out railway information and first I was trained and after that there was almost always a supervisor who could help with more obscure things."have the knowledge and confidence to seek out the right answer when [they] don’t know it"