Well, seems our old friends at V/Line are at it again, with a display of “customer service” that one must stand back to behold!
This evening’s 17:29 Southern Cross to Marshall was cancelled. So what you ask? Well, it’s more the circumstances that caused it’s cancellation, and the subsequent “customer service” experience that’s really gotten up my nose.
Once again, here’s the sequence.
The 17:00 service to Bendigo was delayed. No announcements – it just didn’t move. The 17:13 Geelong service – (which most people avoid due to the propensity of the older locomotive hauled trains to break down) – was let go on time. At 17:25, four minutes before the 17:29 is due to depart, no train had arrived, and the 17:00 Bendigo was still waiting to leave.
Hark! An announcement. “Due to points failure in the yard, the 17:00 Bendigo and 17:29 Marshall service will be delayed.”
Oh great, but hang on? Wasn’t the Bendigo train delayed from it’s normal 17:00 departure time? V/Line must have known about the points failure at that point, right?
Of course they did! So why did they let the 17:13 Geelong go on time, but not let the passengers waiting for the 17:29 know about the problem until 17:25?
If they had, at least some of us could have gotten on that train. No, it would have been sensible to do that.
At 17:33, they announced that the 17:36 Marshall train would be the first train out. Of course, by now it’s completely full and they won’t let any more passengers on it.
So, another announcement. Head for the 17:47 service, which “will be held for Geelong passengers to board”. Nope! They refused to allow anyone on it, because it was “full”. Not! “We’re organising road coaches!”. Yay!
So instead of doing the “responsible” thing and advising people to board the 17:13, we get a road coach at 18:03, home almost an hour late.
The most frustrating part of all, however, is when I quizzed a “customer service” attendant as to why the 17:13 was let go when the problem must have been known about at 17:00, the answer was “nobody told us!” I laughed, then stormed off in disgust when I heard his two-way radio discussing the problems.
Communication guys. It’s the 21st century. Get with it!