"Lunch isn't included" (in fare on 21 from Fort Worth)?

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OP here. Called Amtrak.

The Customer Relations Agent was abosolutely speechless as to why the LSA would say such nonsense. He confirmed Amtrak's website was correct in regards to meal times and I should've received meal service.

They sent me a voucher for future travel.

Seems this is a case of an LSA making up random rules at his own convenience.
 
I'm glad they confirmed the official policy and that they offered you a voucher to make amends. That being said, I would still expect any future meals to remain at the mercy of the LSA's whims. On the plus side you probably have a case for another voucher each and every time they refuse to seat you before closing time.
 
OP here. Called Amtrak.

The Customer Relations Agent was abosolutely speechless as to why the LSA would say such nonsense. He confirmed Amtrak's website was correct in regards to meal times and I should've received meal service.

They sent me a voucher for future travel.

Seems this is a case of an LSA making up random rules at his own convenience.
Excellent!
 
At least, it is documented and forwarded to manager for this train, so a paper trail is made. As I and others have mentioned, our new President IS serious about customer service. I have noticed changes, but it will take time.
 
Since we are talking about the inside of a work van, I really could have cared less. I asked if a tiny discount could be applied to the fabric purchase. When I said tiny, I was expecting 5% and would have been pleased with 15% and overjoyed with 25%. She gave me 75% off. Perhaps that comes across as good customer service to you; but speaking as a retailer, it comes across different: employer hatred. There is no reason to discount this piece anywhere near this much, especially given my attitude, needs, and nature (I look like a disheveled Young Santa Clause complete with overalls). The employee did not care about her employer or their profitability.
I'd be careful leveling such a charge without evidence. Seeing as how the piece had already been measured and cut, and had a defect, it would likely have had to been discarded had you declined the offered discount. Furthermore, she did not immediately jump to "here's 75% off". As such, it may very well be within policy (or even mandated) to offer a given amount to recoup SOMETHING off of what would otherwise simply be "sunk cost".

YMMV, of course.
 
At least, it is documented and forwarded to manager for this train, so a paper trail is made. As I and others have mentioned, our new President IS serious about customer service. I have noticed changes, but it will take time.
Yup, I'm sure a mean tweet will fix this right up!
 
At least, it is documented and forwarded to manager for this train, so a paper trail is made. As I and others have mentioned, our new President IS serious about customer service. I have noticed changes, but it will take time.
Yup, I'm sure a mean tweet will fix this right up!
It naturally depends on the company but there are some stories of critical tweets resulting in policy changes at major carriers. Although it's usually a tweet from someone important/famous/popular with a large number of followers rather than a random unknown customer.
 
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Or it has to include dramatic video of a passenger being dragged out kicking and screaming as the case may be. So far AFAICT, that is the one that has caused the most dramatic change in operating procedures at a carrier with significant immediate negative financial impact, but possibly net net very positive, since that kind of negative publicity is hard to compensate for in day to day operational efficiency.

And I am told, that the actions were taken against all legal advice from the corporate counsel on that matter, by the CEO overruling all such. The moral of the story is, you can trust the drones (even extremely well compensated middle and upper middle management) to do as little as possible to fix anything, since everyone is in personal rear end protection mode. It takes leadership at the top to effect real change.
 
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Employees need to know (and the message comes from the top) that they will not be taken to task by bean counters for making a decision that may not be strictly by the book, but is a common sense response to a situation. We learned that a passenger was told they should have been served a meal, that makes sense. But have we resolved whether or not employees get flak for giving meals to passengers who may not have them included in their fare basis? Or whether that is true or not. We don't know that. A system needs to have the flexibility built into it so that employees are encouraged to go the extra mile for their customers, in too many organizations, that is not the case. Different areas of management convey mixed messages, in many cases, the aggravation that results from doing what most of us believe is the right thing to do, just is not worth it. That can only change with strong direction from upper management.
 
Since we are talking about the inside of a work van, I really could have cared less. I asked if a tiny discount could be applied to the fabric purchase. When I said tiny, I was expecting 5% and would have been pleased with 15% and overjoyed with 25%. She gave me 75% off. Perhaps that comes across as good customer service to you; but speaking as a retailer, it comes across different: employer hatred. There is no reason to discount this piece anywhere near this much, especially given my attitude, needs, and nature (I look like a disheveled Young Santa Clause complete with overalls). The employee did not care about her employer or their profitability.
I'd be careful leveling such a charge without evidence. Seeing as how the piece had already been measured and cut, and had a defect, it would likely have had to been discarded had you declined the offered discount. Furthermore, she did not immediately jump to "here's 75% off". As such, it may very well be within policy (or even mandated) to offer a given amount to recoup SOMETHING off of what would otherwise simply be "sunk cost".

YMMV, of course.
I have been in retail a long time. I have been both a buyer and a damned good salesman. I also put myself through college largely by playing poker. I read people. I read situations. That employee had something along the lines of loathing for both her job and her employer.

I consider the evidence of my own eyes adequate for my purposes. I am not a judge at a trial of this employee; I dont have to prove my opinion beyond a reasonable doubt. I can simply draw from a preponderance of the evidence before me. I consider this adequate both for holding my opinion and posting the above story without naming the employee or the location of employment.
 
Yes, but you did all that in a different age, before policies were "Zero Tolerance", and when common sense was prized (nay, expected).

Nowadays, most corporations just want people who will "follow the policy".
 
On the bright side, I have had quite a different (and very nice) experience on the Silver Meteor when I have stayed at Winter Park. The southbound train gets there at about 12:30 and the northbound leaves about 2:00.

Once going down, we were running early (yes, really!
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), and they told me to sign up for lunch anyway just in case there was a delay, and that if there wasn't, they would pack me a lunch to go. (I refused that, of course, because I didn't want to make extra work for them, and they had already been a wonderful dining crew.)

And several times on the trip north, the train was late into WPK--arriving at 2:30 or just a bit later, and the minute I boarded, the SCA said to go right down to the dining car and they would serve me lunch.

This was a few years ago, and I don't know if the OBS crews are still as good, but at that time, they should have been the model for other train crews to follow.
 
The Diner Crews on the Sunset Ltd. #2 are very good about serving Lunch to Sleeper Passengers that board in El Paso, as long as the Train is there by 330PMish/MT. ( Arrival time is Carded @310pm MT)

Central Time begins @ Sierra Blanca just down I- 10, so even though the Train "loses" an hour, they still try to feed their boarding Sleeper pax.

This is also the only LD Train on which I've been offered the Coach Passenger "To Go Special" Dinner. It was a Boxed Chicken Meal served by the Attendant @ your seat for $12 and was Very Good!
 
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Since we are talking about the inside of a work van, I really could have cared less. I asked if a tiny discount could be applied to the fabric purchase. When I said tiny, I was expecting 5% and would have been pleased with 15% and overjoyed with 25%. She gave me 75% off. Perhaps that comes across as good customer service to you; but speaking as a retailer, it comes across different: employer hatred. There is no reason to discount this piece anywhere near this much, especially given my attitude, needs, and nature (I look like a disheveled Young Santa Clause complete with overalls). The employee did not care about her employer or their profitability.
I'd be careful leveling such a charge without evidence. Seeing as how the piece had already been measured and cut, and had a defect, it would likely have had to been discarded had you declined the offered discount. Furthermore, she did not immediately jump to "here's 75% off". As such, it may very well be within policy (or even mandated) to offer a given amount to recoup SOMETHING off of what would otherwise simply be "sunk cost".

YMMV, of course.
I agree. The poster is making an absurd conjecture. He likely has no idea what the store’s policies regarding this are, and he most definitely cannot possibly determine that an employee, especially someone so nice, “hates their employer.” Clairvoyance would be required.
 
I hate to get off topic further, but... why is clairvoyance required to divine information from a persons body language, facial expressions, breathing patterns, and other such forms of non-verbal communication?

I, further, my not know the chains precise policies for doing things, but I am quite certain they would never want to take 75% off of a price when said customer was clearly not looking for such a large one. If a manager for a store I owned created such a policy, Id fire them for sabotage, and fire the person that hired them for incompetence at hiring.

Policies for customer satisfaction can go above and beyond what is required or expected, but not above and beyond all reason.
 
Clairvoyance would indeed be required. Unless the individual said something along the lines of “I hate my employer, and I’m doing everything I can to stick it to them!” you are making a huge leap of logic, based solely on your own personal views. She could have merely been having a bad day—though that seems unlikely, since your earlier post mentioned how helpful she was—but you’ve made an interpretation that is both subjective and illogical. Speculation about the thought process of strangers is always a shaky proposition, something that two people have now pointed out. If I were you, I wouldn’t attempt to defend it further.

Sent from my iPad using Amtrak Forum
 
I insist on defending it further. Just because you either can’t do a thing, or have not put in the time to try to learn how to do a thing because you simply assumed it was impossible does not mean that I can’t do it. Human beings are rather simple things, and extremely predictable and their faces read like a book, if you know how to look for it. Its kind of weird, actually. Studies have indicated that children can actually read people better than adults can; I kind of think that instead of failing to learn it, society tries to make us unlearn it with such asinine things as “you can’t judge a book by its cover”.

Maybe you can’t judge a libary book by the color of its cover, but you can sure judge it through other things. A book with well ruffled pages has been read much. One that has a worn cover has been treated with a lack of respect. A book with a stiff and pristine spine has never been opened; this actually reads as an no-read, because we don’t know how anyone reacted to a book they never opened. But if only the beginning of the book is heavily ruffled, we can then ascertain that it probably isn’t a very good book. If the title reads like click bait, it probably has no substance, since there was no other reason to pick it up. And so on and so forth. People are very much the same.

If you look at me, you can tell a lot. I have a broken nose, and a cauliflower ear- I have been in a lot of fights in my life. I am very overweight and have discolorations from scars on my skin- I am diabetic and not in good health. I limp and walk with a cane- same thing. My hands shake and I have flushed skin- because I am an alcoholic. The fact that I look unkempt and have a beard down to my chest is suggestive that I am not interested in presenting a good physical appearence. You couldn’t read any of this? I bet you could if you tried to learn.

As you said, and you are right, if the employee was having a bad day, she would not have been helpful to me, especially in a manner that precluded me spending more money on a more expensive material that would have also done the job, but made her employer more money. She also thoroughly criticized her employer to the customer infront of me in line. As did several of her co-workers. A culture of criticism of an employer is usually a bad sign.

I’m sure I have had employees who don’t like me; I know I have. Actually, its simply a balance of probability- almost nobody likes me. I don’t blame them; I am insufferable. But when they start telling customers such a thing, it is time for them to go.
 
Wow! I don't know why, had you pegged for much older.
Not sure how to take that. :Lol
I would also have pegged you as older. Grumpy beyond your years? :)

Nobody can peg my age online (I remember someone saying "Sometimes I think you're a 60-something, sometimes I think you're a 20-something".) In person everyone thinks I'm younger than I am.
 
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