Rude Irish Rail or CIE Staff

DerekP11

For a start we're talking about rude CIE staff here. Not rude Ryanair staff or the person who scowls at you in your local Centra. Comparing these with rude CIE staff is an irrelevent method of defense.

Hagar wrote:

Why do people try to differentiate between staff and management? Are they not both employees of the same company? Have not many of the management come up through the ranks over time and carried their attitude/work ethic with them?

This quote is perhaps the most insightful. It is very true that certain members of the IE management team that have worked their way up (I won't name names) are the most arrogant bunch of misfits, who look down upon the complaining customer as if he/she has some sort of contagious illness and should be shot. Just pop along to a "meet the management day" and witness for yourself how inept many of them are in dealing with the public. Or perhaps you may find yourself at a public meeting and you can feast your eyes IE management rolling their eyes, tutting and sighing as some poor unfortunate "customer" tries to suggest how improvements can be made.

As for frontline staff, if the complaints received via the P11 site are a guide, then its an even bigger problem than late running trains I know some decent staff in IE, but the majority are very poor in customer service skills and they are provided with courses to improve this. But alas you have to actually want to be nice to your customer don't you?

Lady who works in the ticket office (part time) in Sallins station is an ignorant oul b***h. My most recent experience with her was yesterday afternoon. I don't think the word "thankyou" is anywhere in her head. And last night at 10.10pm, the toilets were locked in Heuston. Asked the only member of staff that could be seen (a ticket checker) about this. No sorry, just a pass the book shrug of the shoulders excuse about security. I don't blame him for it, but his attitude was utter crap.

NOTE TO MODERATOR: Don't worry about my slanderous remark towards the "lady" working in Sallins station and the implications it could have for Boards.ie, as next time I deal with her, I'll be calling her that to her face. I suggest rail users should fight fire with fire. If the staff are rude, insult them. Complaining to IE will achieve nothing. I should know. I've made loads, referred many and ultimately the result was nothing. Maybe the Irish travelling public should just fight back as applying diplomacy and following procedure seems to have a net return of zero.

Victor

DerekP11 wrote:

NOTE TO MODERATOR: Don't worry about my slanderous remark towards the "lady" working in Sallins station and the implications it could have for Boards.ie, as next time I deal with her, I'll be calling her that to her face. I suggest rail users should fight fire with fire. If the staff are rude, insult them. Complaining to IE will achieve nothing. I should know. I've made loads, referred many and ultimately the result was nothing. Maybe the Irish travelling public should just fight back as applying diplomacy and following procedure seems to have a net return of zero.

I post this as a person, not as a moderator. Escalating a situation in an uncontrolled fashion is not a solution.

jjbrien

Rudeness is not something we all should do. If your rude to somebody who works with the public that rudeness then get passed on by the person who your were rude to to some other person. So no I will not fight fire with fire. If someone is rude to me I will be very polite with them and be an example of how someone should behave.

I cant belive that IE acutually prompte the people who are rude to customers. Its a bit hard to swallow. I have met some very nice IE staff and these people should be rewarded. The staff who work on the Rossalare Connolly train are so nice and will tell you that if you are delayed then they will tell you how to get a refund. Unfortunitly the IE staff in Dublin seem have the most bad eggs. Which draggs down the company image. IE managment must know this and fail to tackle it. There used to be a very nice woman who worked at Coolmine about 5 years ago she seems to have left IE. I wish she was still there as she was a role model on how IE staff should be.

DerekP11

Victor wrote:

I post this as a person, not as a moderator. Escalating a situation in an uncontrolled fashion is not a solution.

The suituation is actually out of control. No solution has been found. This board and many more public forums from newspapers to Liveline are filled with people who have suffered at the hands of rude staff in IE. Many letters have been written and have been followed by...........nothing.

Im not trying to encourage a revolution, but if some people fancy it, then be even ruder back to any IE staff member that is rude to you. Rude public service staff in general are too used to the customer simply scuttling off to complain to a "manager" or write a letter. Within IE, this tactic never works.

In the interests of fairness, I'll pose this question. And remember that a rude staff member actually spoils your journey. Your journey is a product that you have purchased. A product must be fit for the purpose that it is intended.

Has any member here ever made a complaint about rude staff in IE and received a response that was satisfactory?

shltter

DerekP11 wrote:

The suituation is actually out of control. No solution has been found. This board and many more public forums from newspapers to Liveline are filled with people who have suffered at the hands of rude staff in IE. Many letters have been written and have been followed by...........nothing.

Im not trying to encourage a revolution, but if some people fancy it, then be even ruder back to any IE staff member that is rude to you. Rude public service staff in general are too used to the customer simply scuttling off to complain to a "manager" or write a letter. Within IE, this tactic never works.

In the interests of fairness, I'll pose this question. And remember that a rude staff member actually spoils your journey. Your journey is a product that you have purchased. A product must be fit for the purpose that it is intended.

Has any member here ever made a complaint about rude staff in IE and received a response that was satisfactory?

I know where you are coming from but to be honest I would listen to Victors advice if you go into the station and call her an ignorant old bitch you are immediately putting yourself in the wrong. My guess is that all you will get is yourself removed from the station.
Dont play into her hands by giving her verbal abuse s like that are just looking for that kind of response.

I dont know what the exact nature of the rudeness is with this woman but a smarter response would be to get a witness to verify your story other than that it is your word against hers in a she said he said.

You have to remember that the company can not just take your word for it that she was rude people ring in and write in lies all the time.

Just for example I had a guy on a bus one day who swore blind that I had changed the number of the bus after he had boarded despite the fact that people who had got on the bus before him and at the same time as him told him he was wrong. But the guy would not accept it and called me all the names under the sun.
The company do not know if you are a lunatic like that guy or someone who has a vendetta from outside the company against the employee or if you are a straight up customer who recieved bad service.
If it is really bad one of those MP3 players that records might do the trick.

अधिनायक

DerekP11 wrote:

then be even ruder back to any IE staff member that is rude to you.

How could this possibly have a positive effect? Do you think that if you lower yourself to her level, she will then change and not take it out on the next passenger?

The problem you are describing is a problem with management and your organisation is in a better position than most individuals to influence change in that area. Any organisation without effective management, or customer service training and inspection would have some frontline staff behave like this. As time goes on, a culture of disdain for customers can set in. I've even been in one retailer so badly managed that the staff had agreed between them not to hand over goods until the customers first thanked them.

The management reports to politicians who answer to you.

shltter is correct that you need proof if you want your complaints to be credible. On the other hand, in any well managed organisation, a number of separate complaints would result in dismissal or re-education. Why don't you record them and photograph them and put the evidence up on your website?

Some of the problem may lie in the dirty tendency of politicians to take the side of staff against the management and customers even when the staff are in the wrong. eg Bertie taking orders from airport staff rather than their 20 million passengers.

popebenny16

Well, Derek, I have past experiance of rude CIE staff, BAC in particular. It's not fun and trying to retaliate is even worse, because they'll always do something like passing you at bus stops or getting hit in the back of the head by a ticket roll as a bus goes past.

Your one in the box should be an easy target so, more easy if she's an aul one. Give her one for me!!!

daymobrew

jjbrien wrote:

I have met some very nice IE staff and these people should be rewarded.

A while back I phoned the station master at Maynooth to praise the woman who works at Coolmine. Another woman had parked in a disabled person's space and the IE woman came out of the ticket office and sternly told her to move it. The woman driver gave some lip but the IE woman didn't back down. Fair play.

I've never had a bad experience with the staff at Coolmine, quite the opposite in fact. Maybe the weekend staff are different.

DerekP11 wrote:

Asked the only member of staff that could be seen (a ticket checker) about this. No sorry, just a pass the book shrug of the shoulders excuse about security. I don't blame him for it, but his attitude was utter crap.

A friend (an IE apprentice in Cork) was doing electrical work in Kent Station one day. He was in IE uniform.
Some old woman passenger asked him for help (needed a trolley) and he helped her find one. Shortly afterwards a supervisor gave out to him saying that such assistance should only be provided by actual station workers! But there were none around, and how is a passenger to know who is authorised to help them? :rolleyes:

When I worked for Symantec (computer company) they brought in an initiative called "Taking Charge". It meant that if you (regardless of your position in the company) were asked by a customer about a software problem, you should not just pass the buck but should work to find someone who will fix the issue. "I don't know, bye" was not a suitable answer as the customer will only end up with a bad impression (Sound familiar?)

MarkoP11

Problem is you have to deal with the same person almost every day so you can't launch into challenge, I've tried but

I currently have to put up with a waster who is more interested in his laptop/portable DVD player than the customer looking for a ticket, I'm almost certain that senior Irish Rail staff (as in General Manager level) have seen this but still it continues.

Fact is we are not looking for a change we are looking for what is meant to happen, the staff are meant to wear a uniform, that seems optional, they are meant to be standing ready behind the counter to serve you, not two feet up on a desk at the back of the office glued to a laptop screen, they are meant to say hello/please/thank you etc. There are some really decent people out there but the problem is you always remember the bad ones not the routine ok experience

There was a time when staff took a pride in their job, look back at the photos of olden times and you will see them turned out in uniform lined up, they might of worked long hours for little money but they had respect and dedication to there job, you won't much of that anymore

jjbrien

Does anybody remeber last year IE introducted a system where a member of the publin could e-mail ie about a staff member who did some good and that person would recieve an award. I tried to recommend a Ticket checker who works at Connolly I wonder did he every get a reward. I think most people know the person I am talking about. A nice friendly jolly person who has only been working there about 2 years.

_Kaiser_

jjbrien wrote:

A nice friendly jolly person who has only been working there about 2 years.

"... so he hasn't yet been infected by the apathy and ignorance that plagues many of his colleagues" - or am I the only one who mentally added this to the sentence :rolleyes:

अधिनायक

no

popebenny16

There was a time when staff took a pride in their job, look back at the photos of olden times and you will see them turned out in uniform lined up, they might of worked long hours for little money but they had respect and dedication to there job, you won't much of that anymore

YES!!! That's the problem with young people today, they hvae no respect for their elders. Manys's the evening I've sat, dewey eyed and emotional, gazing upon an old photograph of some little childer who has just crawled out of a steam engine, all boils, burns and sweat mixed im with soot. He did it for 20 hours a day and got the whipping he deserved at the end of it. And he was thankful!! Nowadays, thanks to national wage agreeements and the internet they're all loafing and being rude. National Service would put the willies into them, make no mistake, the swines!!!

lostexpectation

Originally Posted by Transport21 Fan
You go up the street to another shop or fast food outlet were the staff are professional and polite.

The problems with IE is there is no other railway company to go to unless you live near a Luas line.

so if the railway were privatised and you kept coming acroos rude staff etc, oh dear look the same problem you wouldn't be able to go down the road to the next train line either. :rolleyes:

jjbrien

popebenny16 wrote:

YES!!! That's the problem with young people today, they hvae no respect for their elders. Manys's the evening I've sat, dewey eyed and emotional, gazing upon an old photograph of some little childer who has just crawled out of a steam engine, all boils, burns and sweat mixed im with soot. He did it for 20 hours a day and got the whipping he deserved at the end of it. And he was thankful!! Nowadays, thanks to national wage agreeements and the internet they're all loafing and being rude. National Service would put the willies into them, make no mistake, the swines!!!

Hang on a second most of the rude staff in IE are the old ones. The young guys are not as rude. But this is rubbing off on some of them as the old ones are teching the young one their old tricks.

shltter

MarkoP11 wrote:

Problem is you have to deal with the same person almost every day so you can't launch into challenge, I've tried but

I currently have to put up with a waster who is more interested in his laptop/portable DVD player than the customer looking for a ticket, I'm almost certain that senior Irish Rail staff (as in General Manager level) have seen this but still it continues.

Fact is we are not looking for a change we are looking for what is meant to happen, the staff are meant to wear a uniform, that seems optional, they are meant to be standing ready behind the counter to serve you, not two feet up on a desk at the back of the office glued to a laptop screen, they are meant to say hello/please/thank you etc. There are some really decent people out there but the problem is you always remember the bad ones not the routine ok experience

There was a time when staff took a pride in their job, look back at the photos of olden times and you will see them turned out in uniform lined up, they might of worked long hours for little money but they had respect and dedication to there job, you won't much of that anymore

That is what I am talking about Mark if this guy gets away with it why should the next guy work hard if he sees management don't give a toss as to how that guy does his job then the message is it is not important you can what you like management don't give a ****.

You are right as well that all the normal everyday interactions that are as they should be are forgotten it is the bad experiences that are remembered.

MarkoP11

I'd say its equal, by olden times I'm talking 50+ years ago, the younger generation to be fair are on average better but as the previous poster has noted the longer serving staff feed the attitude down to new staff, or possibly its that disillusionment sets in