The Ticket Collector

Virmin Trains - Customer Service? HAHAHA

Why is it that everytime I travel with Virmin Trains I always seem to get off the train more stressed then when I got on it!

Is it perhaps because their so called new superdooper Pendelinos or Voyagers are crap? Apparently one of them is meant to tilt? The trains permanently smell of a chemical port-a-loo smell, you cannot get away from it, wherever you are sitting. The carriages air conditioning is non-existent (well unless you like temperatures of 30 Degrees Celsius). Oh and they like to mess around trying to make a Train Service like an Airplane Service.

Aha I have got a brilliant Idea, lets confuse all our passengers and change First Class to Club Class
Yes Richard that is an excellent idea, not only can we claim its a premium we can double the fares as its a new class!

You’re now wondering did I have a bad journey today with Virmin? Your damn right I did. What is it with Virmin’s lack of customer service everywhere I go? Yeah I maybe Railway Staff but that doesn’t warrant getting crap service does it?
At the booking office in a Major Virmin Trains station somewhere on their line, there was a short ass man with his small beady piercing eyes who thought he would be clever and try and refuse me my Railway Staff ticket. Nice try didn’t work did it, I just brought it from a different Train Operating Company (TOC) ticket inspector. He proceeded to call me a “twat” and that “I was a disgrace to my TOC”. Ah well shame that Virmin’s staff have to resort to childish name calling.

So I get on the Train now. It was one of those stupid tilting pieces of shit that they use. After a while a Customer ‘Service’ Manager decides to make the major expedition outside of his office. Well done to him that he actually found his passport.
He looked at my TOC card and demanded it was taken out of its wallet, an unusual move for most TOC’s but for Virmin Trains it seems its normal policy. He started criticising it in detail.
Signature went over the lines of the box on my ID card, the ink was smudged, etc. By this time I was starting to get slightly pissed off. He did eventually accept my TOC card after interrogating me in front of the whole carriage for 15 minutes.

Coming back it was the same Customer ‘Service’ Manager, so the same thing happened all over again. It didn’t occur to the Customer ‘Service’ Manager that I was the same person he had pissed off earlier that day.

Now I have spoken to some other Ticket Collectors/Guards/CSM’s/Conductors/Etc from various different TOC’s, and they ALL say they have had exactly the same problem with Virmin Trains. A train driver from Northern Rail said he was told to get off the train at the next stop. One CSM trainer is refusing to accept any form of Virmin Trains ID cards, and is also telling the people he trains to refuse to accept it.

The thing Virmin don’t realise is they have a lot more to loose then what we have to gain. If they refuse any other TOC’s ID cards then those TOC’s will refuse theirs, and there’s a lot more TOC’s out there then just Virmin.

I have decided to keep the names of the various useless Virmin staff anonymous, but if you have any comments please do post them.