With the saga of bad customer service that is Skygate still raging, I thought I would post an example of how to do it right:
Irish Rail isn’t always known for its good customer service, tales of rude Irish Rail workers and bad communication abound, but I’m pleased to report that if that was once true, perhaps things are changing.
Yesterday I had to take the 8:20am train to Castlebar in Co. Mayo to photograph the launch of a new cafe/restaurant in Foxford (a lovely place it is too by the way, I strongly reccommend you pop into “It’So” in the Foxford Woolen Mills for a coffee and a bite to eat if you’re ever in the area!). When I arrived at the station I noticed that the 7am Cork train (conspicuous by it’s sleek fancy newness) was still sitting at the platform. I soon discovered that it wasn’t the only delayed train, in fact an announcement was made shortly afterwards to say that no trains were leaving or arriving anytime soon because of an incident on the line. A very friendly and patient Irish Rail worker, who showed no signs of being frustrated at what must have been his hundredth time doing so, explained to us that there had been a fatality on the line at Sallins and until they were given the all clear our trains would be delayed. He apologised for any inconvenience and we all sat down to wait. When faced with something like a fatality on the line, it has a tendency to put petty things like delayed appointments into perspective.
My train eventually left at 11:30am, a little over two hours late. We were merged with a couple of other routes like Galway and there was plenty of switching and changing. In the end we had to take a bus for the final 40 minutes of the journey. All along we were kept well-informed and everyone was very patient and helpful. I arrived in plenty of time for the launch and all was well, I put it down to “just one of those things.”
This morning I found the following email in my inbox:
Dear Passenger,
I would like to apologise to you for the disruption and inconvenience caused to you by the delays to train services to and from Heuston Station yesterday 21st June 2007.
Early yesterday morning, we became aware that there was a fatality near the rail line at Sallins in Co. Kildare. Gardai and emergency services were called. The scene was not very accessible by road and as a result it took some time to clear the site. All services were required to be stopped during this operation and delays of up to 2 hours were experienced by passengers. Whilst these delays were outside of our control we worked closely with the emergency services in order to get trains running again as quickly as possible.
I do understand that whatever the cause, delays of this length are highly inconvenient, so as a gesture of goodwill, I have credited your account with € 15.00.
Thank you for your patience on this occasion.
Yours sincerely,
Steve Murphy
General Manager
Southern and Western
I’m impressed with this because they weren’t to blame and I felt no need for compensation. I do appreciate that they are concerned with giving the customer more than they expect and I applaud them. I will be writing and telling them it’s not neccessary…I just don’t feel right about getting money because somebody died and inconvenienced me. Still I think Irish Rail are to be commended for how they handled the situation and it’s always nice to hear the good customer service stories as well as the bad ones.
