Do I have ground for complaint (Cross Country Trains)

sam93_2

uktim29 wrote: »

It's like complaining about the way you were born.

"I wanted to come out feet first!!!!!!!!!!!

No, that makes no sense.

hollydays

It's irrelevant whether i think it was poor service.I sometimes get poor service from companies,but I don't always complain.Sometimes it just makes me laugh at their incredibly poor training methods. I think it was a problem caused by technical difficulties,and if I thought I had a chance to get money back,I would give it a try.

ClareEmily

sam93 wrote: »

I guess theoretically I could have swapped.

But when people are settled and there were about 10 or so people arguing for their own seats, I didn't really feel I could suddenly ask to swap because I didnt like facing backwards when people were more concerned about actually getting their reserved seats... you see.

In general it was poor service, surely you agree with that.


Ohhhh anyway I have simply put in a complaint, I am not bothered about the outcome you see, I am more annoyed by the pettiness etc from some of the posters on here.

Hi there

I believe you paid for a service which you didn't get, so yes I would be annoyed too. If I paid for my seat then found someone else in it I would have done the same, and even though some people might think you are making a fuss, I do feel for you 3 hours on a crowded train with no room for my feet or bag and feeling sick, not nice.

The letter was good, the only thing I wouldn't have included was your age, mainly because the letter was actually more articulate than anything I would have written at 15, and a letter from a teenager would probably be taken less seriously.

Good luck and welcome to the forum, there are some lovely people on here ...honest :rolleyes: .

Clare

JohalaReewi

sam93 wrote: »

I am disappointed with the service offered, because, on boarding the train I found my seat (reserved online a week in advance) had been taken by a fellow passenger, and was informed by this passenger that there had been double bookings on the seats, and problems with the reservation screens above the seats, and so, initially, she refused to give up her seat.

Did the lady already in the seat have a seat reservation ticket? How did she know that seats had been double booked? Best thing to do in this situation is find the guard, show them your seat reservation ticket and person in your seat. The guard will more than likely move you to first class.

I then found that there was no place for my luggage to go (a suitcase which conformed to your guidelines on case size) in either the overhead, under seat or extra storage areas, in fact the luggage which was already placed in these areas was overflowing, blocking parts of the walkway, making it extremely difficult for people to move around. The result of this was that I sat with a large suitcase in front of me for a three hour journey, with no footspace at all – thus meaning I had to block the walkway with my legs.

This is quite normal for trains. You might be better off raising this as a health and safety issue with your MP? Luggage space on trains has been reduced over the years to get more passengers in (remember luggage vans anyone?).

I would finally like to add that I had reserved a forward facing seat online, and instead was greeted with a backward facing seat , as I often get travel sickness when travelling backwards, this further added to my discomfort.

Long distance trains can change direction during their journey so a forward facing seat becomes a backwards facing one and vice versa. Perhaps the train was travelling backwards (I know it sounds silly) so your fowards facing seat had switched?

Therefore, I would like to know how this issue will be resolved for future passengers ,and also I would appreciate some token of apology from the company for this uncomfortable journey.

I look forward to hearing from you and to a resolution of this problem. I will wait for 10 days before seeking help from Passenger Focus. Please contact me at the email address below.

I wish you luck. Not sure what Cross Country are like for apologies. Don't try this with Southern, they are not interested.

Poppy9

sam93 wrote: »

No she did not have a seat reservation.

I am afraid if I book a seat, I have the right to sit there - in other carriages there were empty seats , and it is courteous to give this up when I have put the expense into booking it purposefully so I do not have to stand up.

If there were empty seats in other carriages why were people standing in yours . Also if you wanted forward facing due to travel sickness, why not move to the empty carriage and have forward facing. You are then in the position you paid for. You have a seat, it faces forward, you are not sick and if it's empty you have space for your case.

sam93_2

Picking up on what hollydays said about formality... I know what you mean but why then, do books following the national curriculum, set by the government and other officials, dictate that in fact when writing letter of complaint, or a letter to anyone you do not really know, you should write it formally?

Clare Emily.. thanks for your post, hopefully I will find the rest of these nice people like yourself soon... they all seem to have gone in hiding

JohalaReewi... thanks for your honest help, the kind I was looking for on this forum! No, the lady only had an open ticket, it certainly did not have my seat reservation on there anyway.... You say they would likely move me to first class, I doubt it , not a 15 year old complaining about his seat

Poppy you must understand that there are stops at other locations where more reserved seats had been made - I did check. So if I sat in those I would end up moving as more people came onboard... I would obviously move as soon as someone claimed their seat. The result being I could move 2 or three times, each with my luggage when I have already got a seat allocated for me the whole journey.

Finally, many people have said about finding the guards of whoever, but when initially boarding, they are nowhere to be seen! There are staff on the platforms but I imagine they work for the station, not the train company??
Whilst the train manager may come and collect tickets every forty minutes or so.. the rest of the time I do not know where he went?

pompeyrich

Just send in the e-mail and see what happens, they may or may not offer some sort of voucher. I have had varying degrees of sucess when complaining to train companies, usually about late arrivals, which are covered by laid down guidelines. I don't think you have any legal rights in this case and if the train company sends you a standard "things do go wrong" reply, then I would accept it and move on.

Please post back if you do hear anything back.

sam93_2

Pompeyrich - agree with you totally, sent the email and got an auto response, waiting for a real one.

No I don't feel I do have legal rights, was more about discomfort and lack of good quality service.

Half of me is a bit miffed for paying something i didn't get, but hey I can move on The other half just wants them to acknowledge their mistakes, hoping it wouldn't happen again



Of course I will be post back, either way

pompeyrich

Know what you mean, we were once late for a game at Sunderland, only 5 mins but missed ko and the Sunderland goal, so not that bad !! I complained and got the bog standard 25% refund for that leg of the journey but the guy who replied mentioned the game specifically and the fact pompey had won 4-1. Didn't get me any more of a refund but just the fact that he had bothered to personalise the reply made me feel better, the fact that I remember it 4 years later shows that.

sam93_2

I know.. its always nice when you get a personalised response!

What really makes me laugh (and i have seen it on here) is when people get more annoyed about the "not a lot we can do about it" bog standard emails /letter they get sent back as a result of their complaints!

:rolleyes: