Reply from Southeastern

I got a letter back having send them a link (via their website) to this post.

Here is the reply to the letter they sent:

Dear Mr D’Eath,

Thank you for your reply.

Firstly, I would like to point out that your disingenuous expression of sorrow about the scant information I was given is underlined by your patronising statement “For your information I have enclosed with this letter a ‘Season Ticket Guide’, which outlines our policy.” and the inclusion of said guide, which is tantamount to saying,

“Well, if you’d have read this… we wouldn’t be having this conversation would we? No. So run along and we’ll say no more about it, there’s a good boy.”

You are correct in noticing that a form was recently filled out at Marden station. I completed the form at the suggestion of the ticket seller after he informed me that simply having receipts for my ticket purchases was not in and of itself proof of ticket purchase. He suggested that I fill in a ‘comments’ form explaining the situation and attach the receipts. This I did.

As I explained on the form, the reason I did not have the actual tickets was because;
a) The ticket machine at London Bridge took one of them and,
b) I reasonably expected the receipts of the ticket purchase to be sufficient.

If you had read the form you would probably not be asking me to confirm whether its’ intent was to request a refund or to send you some ‘comments’. Incidentally I take issue with the use of the word ‘comment’, as I would describe this entire process as a ‘complaint’.

With regard to your questions about the form being correctly handled, signed, approved, authorised or otherwise – this is not my concern. I do not know, and to my knowledge have not met, the Marden station manager. It is not my responsibility to ensure that the labyrinthine complexities of your internal bureaucracy are adhered to.

I have a third ticket I would like a refund on (this time I kept the actual ticket), but for this one I was told that I can only have two refunds in a 12 month period. It was this that made me write to you via the website.

If your response to this is that more than two refunds in a 12 month period incurs additional admin costs, my answer would be – consider the cost saving implications of allowing the ticket seller at the station to issue refunds. Or do you not trust their judgement?

Finally, I can only assume that you do not travel on the service that I am forced to use, otherwise your hope that my future journeys should be trouble free would actually read as,

“I hope that you occasionally do not have to sit on the disgusting sticky carpet in between the feet of crammed in passengers because the laughably entitled ’service’ we offer is chronically oversubscribed.”

I would rather not pay £2780 a year to sit on the floor of a dirty overcrowded train. I believe that you company operates a monopoly in the south east and therefore has no incentive to improve its service to passengers. I fully expect your company to increase the annual season ticket price year on year in an effort to stem the increase in passenger numbers, while not actually improving the quality of the service.

I find it anachronistic that your trains continue to offer two ‘classes’ of seat – the more expensive of which are often empty, while the majority of your passengers are forced to stand or squat in the gangways (with all of the hygiene, comfort and safety issues this raises).

I genuinely do not expect anything other that a vaguely placatory reply to this letter and an invitation to read the ’season ticket guide’ again. You may even quote from, or direct me to, the passenger charter. Ultimately you know how completely powerless your passengers are and how easy it is to brush us away with a flick of your corporate customer service wrist.

Feel free to prove me wrong by being of real service to your customers.

Written by exmonkey on June 14th, 2007 with 3 comments.
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3 comments

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Ally
#1. June 14th, 2007, at 7:28 PM.

That’s fantastic. I hope they had their flame-proof pants off whilst they read it.

Adrienne
#2. June 18th, 2007, at 6:37 PM.

Very good letter (alas unlikely to engender a contrite response, but it least you felt better after writing it)!

Although your comments on the train service to Marden make it sound less than alluring, I (in my capacity as a researcher at Guy’s Hospital, based as you doubtless know at London Bridge) need to arrange a visit to a family in your village and it seems feasible by train. I came across your site in a (fruitless) search for a telephone number for Marden station, as I need to find out whether there is a pedestrian exit to Pattenden Lane. According to Google maps, to drive from the station to the address in question is a matter of some 3.6 miles, but by eye it appears to be less than 2 miles (a distance my research colleague would be willing to walk) - provided it is possible to gain access to the said Pattenden Lane from the station. I suppose you couldn’t possibly enlighten me on this point (or alternatively supply me with a telephone number for some official at the station)? I’d be most grateful!

exmonkey
#3. June 18th, 2007, at 8:00 PM.

Hi, thanks for the comments.

Firstly, as I found out when I needed to intercept a forgotten hat at Ashford international, Southeastern will never give out the phone numbers for stations as they (apparently) have a closed telephone circuit.

In answer to your other question, Patternden lane is pretty long, but it starts only a couple of hundred meters away from the station (turn right out of the car park). The length of the walk will depend on how far up the road you want to go. There is a foot path that goes from the coast-bound side of the platform (accessible via a footbridge that you can only access via the church yard on the London bound side - unless you jump the fence immediately to the left of the station footbridge. There are two footbridges you see - you will find out) that goes toward Patternden lane via some nice orchards. An excuse to by an O/S map?

Good luck.