Bad Cardinal SCA!

[Blackwolf]

It really was only a matter of time until a truly bad Amtrak employee was encountered.

For the record, demanding and entitled I am not. By the end of trips, it is not uncommon to have OBS staff grinning, shaking my hand and genuinely happy to me as a passenger; this trip in question was no different with half the crew saying goodbye as me and my wife stepped off in Sacramento on Wednesday.

But this particular person, Paulette, really pissed me off.

Bad manners, no respect for the appearance of her uniform, missing in action most of the trip, no route guide or train schedules stocked anywhere in her car, absolutely and stubbornly refused to make coffee (we had to go to the Cafe for coffee,) no juice, no bottled water ("Whats wrong with the tap, hmm?") Never answered the attendant call, only did meal service in our accommodation after I had to go and ask the diner LSA himself, and then it gets better. She was 'too cold' and shut down the entire air circulation system in the 5100 sleeper shortly before Culpeper, VA, and never started it back up again the rest of the trip. The final straw was, when it came time to sleep, she absolutely refused to put down our beds. "You're young and I'm old. Read the instructions and do it yourself!" She exclaimed before pushing past our room and disappearing into the Diner. Come the morning, she again refused to make up our beds. It was up to me to put our room back into daytime configuration, and then we were unceremoniously 'kicked out' of our car and into the diner 15 minutes before Chicago so she could do the proper makeup before bailing off the train.

I'm drafting a letter that I plan on sending off to several people: Customer Relations, Long Distance Services, and the New York Crew Base.

Just a small rant here on AU, don't mind me. And no, she did not get anything for a tip. She forfeited her tip for dinner with the other shenanigans. The tip for the food service went directly to LSA John in the morning.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Please also call CR about this Woman, that kind of "Service" calls for Termination! Hopefully the other People in your Sleeper also will File Complaints about this Negligence! :excl: :excl: :excl:

 

[Amtrak Cajun]

Blackwolf, that is horrible, and I am sorry that you had such a bad trip.

Definitely report this woman to whoever will listen, because she doesnt need to be working in a public position if that is how she is going to treat people!

"Im old and you are young!" Wow, if she cant handle the position maybe she should not have applied for the sleeper position.

Shutting down the whole air system because "she" is cold. No respect for the other passengers whatsoever.

I hope that the appropriate people do the right thing in this situation and get her away from the public.

 

[TVRM610]

I'm glad you are writing those letters. Even the laziest SCA I've encountered would put the bed down if asked.

 

[Blackwolf]

Update:

It took some time, and several calls in order to get through to Customer Service. With the holiday crush, the mudslide issues, the storm delays, and maybe a few other crew issues that are being conversed over here on AU, that department is pretty much getting slammed right now. The agent I spoke with was audibly stressed, and I did my absolute best to be relaxed as well as composed.

Either way, the ball is rolling and a case number has been cut. The letters are next, to be mailed out after the craze of the holidays as to not be lost in the jungle that is the USPS. I do not normally go so far out of my way, and 90% of my calls to CS are actually complements on individual employees. This case was an exception.

The Cardinal is the easiest LD train I can think of for an SCA to work. 3 trips a week, Viewliner equipment with far fewer rooms than a Superliner, and then at least 4 of those rooms are non-revenue for the crew. No public toilets to maintain, no luggage rack to monitor, and a much lower turn-over rate of passengers en-route, with many of the stops outside of major terminals hardly ever getting passengers embarking/disembarking from the sleeper. Maybe that is why Paulette is on this train: she has seniority (looks to be near retirement) and is lazy.

Good ridden, I say.

 

[greatcats]

I've never had an SCA that bad. Sorry you had such an unpleasant trip. I usually have good things to say. I don't think I would have waited to make phone calls and write letters. Maybe try to be nice and reason with the person first, trying to use some humor.....maybe. But it sounds more like I would have raised hell on the train. That job is not for everybody, but what you have described is inexcusable.

 

[Guest]

..., no route guide or train schedules stocked anywhere in her car, ...

Oh my! :angry2:

Actually, its been years since I had such, in my room. Use to be stuffed in with the emergency instructions, but not anymore. :wub:

 

[The Davy Crockett]

Actually, its been years since I had such, in my room. Use to be stuffed in with the emergency instructions, but not anymore. :wub:

Funny. In the 10 different rooms I had in this calendar year, they were present 8 or 9 of those times. :huh: Maybe you are looking in the wrong place?

 

[Railroad Bill]

After reading this report it was difficult to believe that any Amtrak employee could be this insolent. I would think that the passengers in your sleeper would have been ready for a mutiny . If Amtrak does not deal out some significant discipline on this employee, it would be a major mistake on its part. This SCA would probably cost the company way beyond goodwill. What if a passenger had been injured while trying to put their bed up or down? I suspect most passengers do not know how to do it anyway :angry:

It almost sounds like the attendant was not in her right mind--mind altering substance, etc. to act in such a manner while on the job. :unsure:

I suspect that perhaps this was her last trip before retirement? And hopefully Amtrak will make it a permanent discharge.

Hope the remainder of your trip went well.

 

[Meat Puppet]

Wow, I thought I had the worse SCA ever you have me beat.

 

[Blackwolf]

After reading this report it was difficult to believe that any Amtrak employee could be this insolent. I would think that the passengers in your sleeper would have been ready for a mutiny . If Amtrak does not deal out some significant discipline on this employee, it would be a major mistake on its part. This SCA would probably cost the company way beyond goodwill. What if a passenger had been injured while trying to put their bed up or down? I suspect most passengers do not know how to do it anyway :angry:

It almost sounds like the attendant was not in her right mind--mind altering substance, etc. to act in such a manner while on the job. :unsure:

I suspect that perhaps this was her last trip before retirement? And hopefully Amtrak will make it a permanent discharge.

Hope the remainder of your trip went well.

The rest of the trip was great, actually. Like all trips on Amtrak, you give and you take as the unpredictable reality of modern North American railroading doles out the adventure. The lateness of our two trains home contrasted with the earliness of our two trains out-bound. The Cardinal was not a bad train; one ripe for improvement, absolutely. But not bad. The Zephyr is one the Amtrak's best, but is also ripe for improvement as a slightly better menu, real china, linen tablecloths, thicker pillows and plusher blankets (ala, PIP recommendations.) Outside of Paulette here, and the nearly missing our Cardinal from WAS due to a lack of announcements in the ClubAcela, combined the cluelessness of the CA staff that the train was even in the station and boarding (it was 2 hours late into WAS because of a fire on the NEC last Sunday) it was a great trip. I'd take the Cardinal again, but only after it gained a crew dorm/baggage and a real diner.

 

[Railroad Bill]

We very much enjoyed our Cardinal trip last year from Chicago to Washington. A young crew that was still learning but they were personable, hard working, etc. The food was o.k. but the scenery in West Virginia was great. I agree that they need more space in sleeper and a larger dining car to go with it. I think more people would ride this train if its reputation improved. Glad to hear the rest of your trip was a good one.

 

[dlagrua]

We've taken many trips on a number of Amtrak routes but the only time we ever encountered anything like this was on the Autotrain. We've taken about 8 trips on it and just about every time we met SCA's that were helpful, accommodating and did their job well. Some were even cheerful, smiling and friendly. The route is easy on SCA's as they can get a full nights sleep so they should be happy to be assigned to this train.. Only once did we have a SCA that was disinterested, unmotivated, and unavailable most of the time.He went about his work with a frown but did put our bed down at 10 and then disappeared for the remainder of the trip. In the morning we went to breakfast and when we came back, the beds were still down. We can only guess that he went to sleep and never bothered to get up until we reached Sanford where he had his hand out again. What a worthless POS.

We never encountered him again and thank God that we didn't. On a more positive note, most of the SCA's and LSA's on our trips have been satisfactory. Some better than others, a few outstanding, but no stinkers among them. Next time we do get a stinker, we will definitely complain. We are easy friendly, polite people to deal with and I see no excuse for rudeness or for anyone not doing their job.

 

[AlanB]

It was up to me to put our room back into daytime configuration, and then we were unceremoniously 'kicked out' of our car and into the diner 15 minutes before Chicago so she could do the proper makeup before bailing off the train.

After that morning, and the night before, my response to her would have been "Sorry, if you had done your job this morning when I asked you to put up the beds, they would already be made now."

 

[Phil S]

It was up to me to put our room back into daytime configuration, and then we were unceremoniously 'kicked out' of our car and into the diner 15 minutes before Chicago so she could do the proper makeup before bailing off the train.

Huh? Packing up the bedding before we get to the station happens all the time. I just stand in the aisle or sit in an empty room. I would have asked her to call the conductor.

 

[rrdude]

Check the emp service manual RE: making up rooms. May be surprised as to what u find. Damn good thing this SCA wasn't on a train I was riding. RE-READ some of the responses, a few border on being called "apologist". I'm the first to admit/ack that every comp has it's "bad apples", but her conduct was so far beyond the norm. I swear, if I was younger n had more time, I'd compile the "best" and the "worst" stories of Amtrak employee/trip-experiences and publish and promote a separate web page, and use SEO's to promote the Hell out of it, and use every social media to further. (of course there may be some mis-reporting, and other mistakes, but we live in THAT kind of world now......)

 

[henryj]

I rode #50 December 8th and 9th and had Jan for an SCA. She had 30 years experience with Amtrak and was professional in every way and fun and entertaining to talk to. She took care of her passengers. Sorry you got the other one. She did state that the Cardinal was her choice and that she could get it because she had the seniority. She lived in Philly.

 

[Guest]

Sounds like a lot of the TA's who work the Texas Eagle and Sunset Limited (Chicago based)...

 

[amtrakwolverine]

I think maybe they should do away with bouncing employees from job to job based on how much seniority you have. It should be put in a bid for a train and if someone leaves or gets fired then you get it for as long as you want etc. might make for better employees also and might get more consistently with employee behavior. Whats the points of bidding for a job if your only going to be bounced off when the next bidding time comes cause you don't have enough seniority to hold it. Not very good for employee morale if they get bumped from a train they love to one they hate cause then they take it out on the passengers.

 

[Guest lsa]

Not really . Sunset and Texas eagle portion from LA to SAS are LA base

 

[Linda T]

Check the emp service manual RE: making up rooms.

Okay, what's the emp service manual?

 

[AlanB]

Check the emp service manual RE: making up rooms.

Okay, what's the emp service manual?

Employee service manual.

 

[The Davy Crockett]

Check the emp service manual RE: making up rooms.

Okay, what's the emp service manual?

Link:

Amtrak Service Standards Manual for Train Service and

On-Board Service Employees, Version 6, 2011

 

[Phil S]

Check the emp service manual RE: making up rooms.

Okay, what's the emp service manual?

Link:

Amtrak Service Standards Manual for Train Service and

On-Board Service Employees, Version 6, 2011

Wow. Thanks. I think much of the discussion on this forum can benefit from quotes from the manual.

 

[Ryan]

Yes, it can. I post screenshots from it often.