Pulled a tooth out of tiger's mouth
Yesterday I received a letter from London Underground with a 20-pound cheque, which came as a kind of late surprise.
Back to two month ago, I planned to catch an early flight back to Glasgow from London. Having made great effort to get up at 5am, I slept walking to the tube station. As I went to the ticket machine, an officer came over and said there was no train today due to uncompleted engineering work from the weekend. I jumped at the news but there was nothing I could do. Rushing out of the train station, I was desperately looking for cabs when I found a couple standing outside with luggage apparently going to the airport as well. I asked if I could share a cab with them and they were really nice. After a few attempts, the mini cab person told us it was too early to arrange a cab for us and our only chance was to walk to a bigger station and took a black cab from there. OMG, I wasn't ready for such a morning work out! Half running half walking, the three of us managed to throw ourselves into a black cab after 10 minutes. The taxi driver repeatedly confirmed there was enough time and we could then calm down. However, misfortunes never come singly, there was an accident on the motorway and we were struck in the bloody queue! I was lucky to be in a cab. The cab driver managed to squeeze his way out of the queue magically and arrive at the airport just in time! That was the first time I liked a cab driver from my heart. Oh well...good service comes at a price. We paid 46 pounds for the black cab while a mini cab would only cost 18! The cab driver also 'forgot' there was a credit card transaction fee! Anyway, after all this ordeal, I managed to board my flight on time.
I decided to make a complaint although people kept telling me it would be in vain cause it was like pulling teeth out of tiger's mouth. The poor couple I was with were going to a holiday in France and it almost ruined their holidays. They were less lucky than me (by comparison): they went to the tube station, bought ticket, waited for 10 minutes before someone went over and said there wasn't any early services. I used their experience to write a letter to London Underground expressing my disappointment in their failure and forgot about it. Guess what, I got a reply from them a few days later AND they would give me 20 pounds as a compensation! Of course I was a happy person and forgot about it again. Two months later, I finally got my cheque!
I was very satisfied with their customer services and would definitely use them again! (oh well as if i have got another choice :-) )
Dear Miss Zou
Thank you for your feedback form. I am sorry to learn of the difficulties
you
experienced on 8 August 2005.
Customer service is important to us and all complaints are taken seriously.
I do
understand your frustration when the service is disrupted.
I have looked at the Piccadilly Service Report. There was late running
engineering work due to a signalling problem at Chiswick Park. The
Piccadilly
line service did not start running until 05.42hrs. The first train from
Ealing
Common is scheduled to leave at 05.32hrs.
I am sorry that there was no information available when you arrived at the
station. Over recent years we've been working hard to improve our
communication but we know we still have some way to go. All our staff
receive
training to make sure everyone on the network is kept as well informed as
possible.
Under the terms of our Customer Charter our liability is limited to a refund
of the
single fare for any delay of 15 minutes or more in excess of the scheduled
service interval, caused by a failure on our part. A completed form should
be
returned within 14 days of the delayed journey.
We do our best to avoid delays and I am sorry that you had to get a taxi to
Heathrow because of the problems on the Piccadilly line that morning.
In view of the circumstances, as a gesture of our goodwill I would like to
send
you a ticket refund voucher for twenty pounds. Please supply me with your
home
address so that I can send you the voucher as soon as possible.
Thank you for taking the trouble to bring this matter to my attention.
Every effort
is made to provide a reliable service. I apologise for the inconvenience
you
experienced on this occasion. We are doing all we can to improve the
service
we give to our customers.
Yours sincerely
Customer Service Advisor
Customer Service Centre