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Iarnród Éireann Issue Refunds
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23-09-2008 7:42pm#1Given the amount of stick that IÉ comes in for on this forum, I thought this deserves a mention...
Myself and the better half were on the 08.55 from Rosslare to Dublin on Sunday, 7th September; the second leg of a return journey. When the train got to Wicklow Town, the train remained in the station for over an hour. Nobody seemed to be able to tell us (or any of the other passengers) what was going on; it seems there was some problem at Greystones, but they were pretty light on the specifics. So, given that we had no idea when the train would be underway, we eventually left the train and made our way to Dublin by bus and DART via Bray. I was pretty pissed off to say the least; I can appreciate that faults occur, but IÉ's handling of the whole situation seemed pretty appalling.
Anyway, the next day I found this web page, so I completed the form and sent it in. Lo and behold, today I received in the post a full refund for the entire return journey, along with a detailed explanation of the problem that caused the delay. I have to say, I'm slightly impressed. However, Irish people being as they are, I can't imagine a huge number of other people on that train took the same course of action.
Just goes to show that it sometimes pays to complain.Tagged:0
Comments
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That's okay. But it would have been better if IE had given people a full explanation on the day and offered everyone refunds on the spot!
That would have really impressed me.0 -
emm... nice little story but I'm afraid you have to do much, much better than that to stop people from giving IÉ stick. They are still a shambolic company that have little interest in providing a high quality, professional service to their customers. IÉ in my eyes is a diseased company that is beyond fixing and needs to be scraped. They need to be replaced with operators who are willing to provide a high quality, professional service. :cool:Given the amount of stick that IÉ comes in for on this forum, I thought this deserves a mention...0 -
Emm, were you around in the 70ies when you had to make do with an assorted cocktail of battered up cravens, wooden horse boxes, metrovics and converted AEC push pulls with plastic seats, the smell of diesel fumes, cigarette smoke and steam belching in on top of you every morning going to work. (thats if you made it on time)weehamster wrote: ». IÉ in my eyes is a diseased company that is beyond fixing and needs to be scraped. :
You have it good today.0 -
Absolutely.marmurr1916 wrote: »That's okay. But it would have been better if IE had given people a full explanation on the day…
Hmm. I’m not sure about the practicality of such an approach. I think applying for refund is satisfactory.marmurr1916 wrote: »…and offered everyone refunds on the spot!
I never suggested people should stop giving them stick. If anything, the opposite is true; if everyone on that train, or any other train that has been delayed, applied for refunds, you can be damn sure that those delays would happen less often.weehamster wrote: »emm... nice little story but I'm afraid you have to do much, much better than that to stop people from giving IÉ stick.
I have to agree with Run_to_da_hills; IÉ have come a long way even in the last ten years or so. They’re obviously far from perfect, but a lot of that has to do with years of chronic under-funding. May I ask what you would have done differently in the recent past (with the same level of funding)?weehamster wrote: »They are still a shambolic company that have little interest in providing a high quality, professional service to their customers. IÉ in my eyes is a diseased company that is beyond fixing and needs to be scraped. They need to be replaced with operators who are willing to provide a high quality, professional service.0 -
Run_to_da_hills wrote: »Emm, were you around in the 70ies when you had to make do with an assorted cocktail of battered up cravens, wooden horse boxes, metrovics and converted AEC push pulls with plastic seats, the smell of diesel fumes, cigarette smoke and steam belching in on top of you every morning going to work. (thats if you made it on time)
You have it good today.
in all honesty yes there is a big difference between 70's and now . but your forgetting we also pay a lot more for a " slightly " improved service
i dont agree that a train arriving within 10 mins of projected time can be considered on time .
and their rediculas statistics poster about train reliability just infuriates me :mad:0 -
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You have to remember this is Ireland and not Germany, you cannot teach an old dog new tricks.jasonbourme.cs wrote: »in all honesty yes there is a big difference between 70's and now . but your forgetting we also pay a lot more for a " slightly " improved service
i dont agree that a train arriving within 10 mins of projected time can be considered on time .
and their rediculas statistics poster about train reliability just infuriates me :mad:
It is also in the layed back the mentality of some of the union workers that operate these companies, same with other semi state companies that will reflect on the way the service is provided. (Amtrak is the same)
I was in Barcelona a few years ago and was taking the last train at 23.45 from a suburb 25 miles from the city. We waited over an hour, it was cancelled, the last bus had also left. The RENFE office was closed, we ended up splitting a taxi costing almost e50. We had no come back even on the price of the ticket.0 -
weehamster wrote: »emm... nice little story but I'm afraid you have to do much, much better than that to stop people from giving IÉ stick. They are still a shambolic company that have little interest in providing a high quality, professional service to their customers. IÉ in my eyes is a diseased company that is beyond fixing and needs to be scraped. They need to be replaced with operators who are willing to provide a high quality, professional service. :cool:
What and have it like the uk ?? where operaters only think of profit and saftey comes last,
every form of transport has delays for someone to think otherwise is idiotic0 -
weehamster wrote: »emm... nice little story but I'm afraid you have to do much, much better than that to stop people from giving IÉ stick. They are still a shambolic company that have little interest in providing a high quality, professional service to their customers. IÉ in my eyes is a diseased company that is beyond fixing and needs to be scraped. They need to be replaced with operators who are willing to provide a high quality, professional service. :cool:
I can assure you that if IÉ is scrapped, we'll be landed with a worse crowd.
The sensible approach is to keep working on IÉ to make things better - and it has improved immensely since the early 1990s.0 -
I can appreciate that faults occur, but IÉ's handling of the whole situation seemed pretty appalling.
Did you receive an explanation of the communication failure on the day?
I have always found this is the worst part of IE. On a regular basis I am left standing on a packed commuter train in the middle of no where/ outside Connolly for 10-15 mins, with minimal information (if any).
While I alway seek an explanation of the communication breakdown on my refund applications, I never receive anything substantial back in terms of a response.
Delays happen to most train networks around the world, but a huge feature of IE (in my experience) is how poorly they treat their customers during service failures. This is defintely the case on the Northern suburban line - not sure about intercity service failures+ comunication during those.
:mad:0 -
Oh my god man what planet are you on, how can it get worse. :eek:I can assure you that if IÉ is scrapped, we'll be landed with a worse crowd.
I've backpacked all over this planet and have never come across a rail company who is so hostile against their customers as Irish Rail treats theirs. Are you aware that Irish Rail are not accountable to anyone. So they can do what ever they like as they set themselves the standards and then, pat themselves on the back for doing a good job, according to their standards.
Luas is run by Veolia. They do a decent job ,not prefect, but decent. This is because they are accountable and can loose their contract. If this can be done for light rail, why can't it be done for heavy rail. The rail services need to be broken up into DART, Commuter, Intercity, Freight and Network operation/maintenance. Each one has a operator on a fix term contract and are fully accountable, the same as Veolia.
Now you please tell me how that can be worse. Please, enlighten me and the rest of the sick and tired commuters who use Irish Rails shambolic attempt of a rail service how this can be worse than it is right now. :cool:
How can you work onThe sensible approach is to keep working on IÉ to make things better - and it has improved immensely since the early 1990s.- A board that don't give a shiite about anyone apart from themselves
- Senior staff who are not accountable, don't care about ground staff and customers and who hide behind Barry Kenny when Irish Rail is asked by the media to talk about anything
- Ground staff who are so p'd off at management that they take it out on their customers
- And then their is the unions who just make things worse all the time, getting away with lightning strikes etc and who especially don't care about the customers.
And please explain how the service is better than the 1990's.- Dublin - Cork IC was quicker
- What, the new carriages, that replaced 40 year old carriages, no brainer there.
- What, introduce more frequent services, but hang a sec, they won't hire any more drivers for the extra service but expect the existing drivers to work an extra day to compensate.
- What, The new Mark 4's, but they can't go too fast as its starts oscillating and causes nausea among passengers and they can't grasp the basics of seat reservation.
- What about their amazing scientific pricing structure that even the CIA doesn't know about.
- What about their policy of one set of charges for the ticket offices and an even more expensive set of charges on the auto ticket machines.
- What about being the 2nd most expensive rail system in the EU. Do we have the 2nd best system in the EU, I think not.
Wake Up. :cool:0 -
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IRISH RAIL wrote: »What and have it like the uk ?? where operaters only think of profit and saftey comes last,
What are you basing this on? The UK has an excellent safety record, the accidents were caused by simple human error not corporate negligence.
Irish Rail should be privatised like the UK network. FirstGroup run a lot of the franchises in the UK and do a good job of it. They also run the AirCoach service here, and they provide a far better service than Bus Eireann (Cork and Belfast) and Dublin Bus (Airport)0 -
Oh, it could get a hell of a lot worse. There are people in certain parts of the world, like Maine, for example, that would kill to have the public transport system we do.weehamster wrote: »Oh my god man what planet are you on, how can it get worse.
You’ve obviously never had to buy rail tickets in Budapest – an arduous task if ever there was one.weehamster wrote: »I've backpacked all over this planet and have never come across a rail company who is so hostile against their customers as Irish Rail treats theirs.
They wouldn’t hang on to their customers for too long with that attitude, would they?weehamster wrote: »Are you aware that Irish Rail are not accountable to anyone. So they can do what ever they like as they set themselves the standards and then, pat themselves on the back for doing a good job, according to their standards.
Most of that is just here ‘say, isn’t it? And I’m not sure why “the unions” are a problem exclusive to IÉ?weehamster wrote: »How can you work on- A board that don't give a shiite about anyone apart from themselves
- Senior staff who are not accountable, don't care about ground staff and customers and who hide behind Barry Kenny when Irish Rail is asked by the media to talk about anything
- Ground staff who are so p'd off at management that they take it out on their customers
- And then their is the unions who just make things worse all the time, getting away with lightning strikes etc and who especially don't care about the customers.
Was it? Was it as frequent? Were the trains as comfortable? Could you reserve a seat online and have your seat labelled electronically with your name?weehamster wrote: »Dublin - Cork IC was quicker
An improvement never-the-less.weehamster wrote: »What, the new carriages, that replaced 40 year old carriages, no brainer there.
That’s an issue for the drivers.weehamster wrote: »What, introduce more frequent services, but hang a sec, they won't hire any more drivers for the extra service but expect the existing drivers to work an extra day to compensate.
Do you have a source for that?weehamster wrote: »What, The new Mark 4's, but they can't go too fast as its starts oscillating and causes nausea among passengers…
Considering the high costs involved in operating any business in this country, it’s not terribly realistic to expect cost to equate to performance.weehamster wrote: »What about being the 2nd most expensive rail system in the EU. Do we have the 2nd best system in the EU, I think not.
That’s a bit overly general, isn’t it? Sure, there are some excellent rail services in certain parts of Europe, but I recently travelled by rail from Budapest to Berlin via Prague; IÉ is luxury by comparison.weehamster wrote: »I first went inter-railing around Europe in 1995 and I can safely say that the standard then is superior than the service we have today.
I’m not saying that rail services in Ireland are perfect by any stretch of the imagination; far from it. But refusing to acknowledge that improvements have been made (with limited funding) is just daft.
We should certainly not be holding the UK rail network up as any example to be followed; delays and cancellations are common and prices are exorbitant.Irish Rail should be privatised like the UK network. FirstGroup run a lot of the franchises in the UK and do a good job of it.0 -
weehamster wrote: »[*]What, introduce more frequent services, but hang a sec, they won't hire any more drivers for the extra service but expect the existing drivers to work an extra day to compensate.
There are actually additional drivers currently being trained that will address the driver shortage.0 -
You’ve obviously never had to buy rail tickets in Budapest – an arduous task if ever there was one.
I've bought rail tickets in Budapest, didn't find it in any way arduous. Also found their Metro, built over 100 years ago, far better than our 20 year old DART.
They'd have a lot more customers without that attitude.They wouldn’t hang on to their customers for too long with that attitude, would they?
Most of that is pretty obvious to long-suffering IE customers.Most of that is just here ‘say, isn’t it? And I’m not sure why “the unions” are a problem exclusive to IÉ?Was it? Was it as frequent? Were the trains as comfortable? Could you reserve a seat and have your seat labelled electronically with your name?
When seat reservations work, that is.
So you don't expect value for money anywhere in this country? If you get a bad meal in an expensive restaurant, that's OK?Considering the high costs involved in operating any business in this country, it’s not terribly realistic to expect cost to equate to performance.That’s a bit overly general, isn’t it? Sure, there are some excellent rail services in certain parts of Europe, but I recently travelled by rail from Budapest to Berlin via Prague; IÉ is luxury by comparison.
I've travelled Vienna to Budapest return, on comfortable trains that ran on time. Luxury compared to IE's "service".0 -
I was just trying to make the point that experiences can vary from person to person.I've bought rail tickets in Budapest, didn't find it in any way arduous. Also found their Metro, built over 100 years ago, far better than our 20 year old DART.
I wanted to book a ticket from Budapest to Prague before I arrived in Budapest, but I was told that I could only buy the ticket in person. I showed up at Keleti station the day I arrived in Budapest and I was waiting almost 90 minutes to be served and the attitude of the woman who eventually served me left a lot to be desired.
I've complained (in writing) to the Hungarian operator about the whole experience (both pre-journey and the journey itself), but, 6 weeks later, I've yet to receive a response.
Well, I've yet to experience a problem with seat reservations on the Dublin-Cork train (that's not to say that others have not; I don't know), but if I do, they'll hear about it.When seat reservations work, that is.
No, of course not, but that's not the same thing. You're going to pay more for most things in this country than you will in other parts of Europe because running costs are higher here. For example, to borrow your analogy, you'll pay more for a meal in Dublin than you will for the same meal in Prague; that doesn't necessarily mean you're being ripped off.So you don't expect value for money anywhere in this country? If you get a bad meal in an expensive restaurant, that's OK?
I have also travelled on excellent services in different parts of Europe that would put IÉ to shame. The point is I have also travelled on services that would be comparable to IÉ and some that are far worse.I've travelled Vienna to Budapest return, on comfortable trains that ran on time. Luxury compared to IE's "service".0 -
We should certainly not be holding the UK rail network up as any example to be followed; delays and cancellations are common and prices are exorbitant.
I agree - anyone I know who has had to regularly use the railways there has very little to say in favour of it (though the same people are certainly no fans of Irish Rail either).
Ticket prices may be high in some cases in the UK (there are cases where they are cheap, for regular commuters and booking in advance, although trying to figure out pricing amongst all the companies is a nightmare) but the railway network in the UK now costs the taxpayer more in subvention than it did pre-privatisation.
How do people not realise that the Irish government would make even more of a meal out of rail privatisation? The track record on fixing broken Irish services by replacing them entirely with a new system is not good at all!
Besides, mostly the problems are quite simply that people don't want to pay anything for any services, and thus we have the situation of always trying to run everything on a shoestring (even during the Celtic Tiger!) or indeed just cutting services entirely and pretending that the market will adequately supply to meet demand.0
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