Issues with an SCA

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Just-Thinking-51

Very bored and cranky pundit
AU Supporting Member
Joined
Sep 17, 2009
Messages
3,144
Location
USA
So my Sleeping car attendant xxxxx just when to get the conductor because she does want me in her car anymore. I know I am having a stressful day (actually weekend) but can a Amtrak SCA kick someone out of a room?

So the conductor just came by, and I will be left alone. The SCA is refusing to take my meal now, because I want to be left alone. Seem I am on my own for dinner.

Wow when I step in it, I step in a big pile.
 
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a conductor prob has the authority to "kick" you out of your room but not the attendant. But id think if you were causing enough problems to be "kicked out" of your room youd be "kicked off" the train altogether. And yes the conductor has the power to do that.
 
Are you on a Silver?

I hope things get better for you.
 
I believe the rest of the story will be beneficial to know. I have never heard of an SCA thats doesn't want a passenger in their own sleeper. There must be a reason why. Is it possible that the passenger raised their voice and said something offensive to the SCA or made some unusual demands? Something is not right about this story.
 
I believe the rest of the story will be beneficial to know. I have never heard of an SCA thats doesn't want a passenger in their own sleeper. There must be a reason why. Is it possible that the passenger raised their voice and said something offensive to the SCA or made some unusual demands? Something is not right about this story.
Sure it was me. But the SCA does not have clean hands either. A stress passenger should be something a 24 year veteran has deal with before.
 
Some SCAs can be rigid in wanting to do things, such as making up berths, on their own schedule, not at the passengers convienence. It is against policy and is one of my "no tip" red lines. Not so much for room service meals, though, I understand SCAs wanting to consolidate those so as to minimize running back and forth to the diner throughout meal service. It doesn't come up for me often, though. I've only done a room service meal once in many, many miles and days on board, when I was not feeling well.

On the other hand some passengers can be jerks, too.

Personally, I usually try not to get into it with crew members at all onboard, no matter how poor the service may be. It just makes the trip even less pleasant than the poor service alone would make it. If really bad, I'll withhold a tip entirely, and may call Customer Relations. Once an attendant displayed such a bad attitude I called Customer Relations while still onboard. However, I never threaten to call Customer Relations, I just do it. The object of my complaint never hears a word about it from me.

My advice for @Just-Thinking-51 from this point is to eat in the diner/cafe, let the SCA put the berth down when they want to, don't tip when you detrain, and maybe call Customer Relations. Do not engage the SCA any more than you have to.

And no, the SCA does not have the authority to kick you out of your room. The conductor does. They may decide to move you to another car if space is available to keep the peace, but won't downgrade you. They might kick you off, though, if they consider you unmanageable. Never get the least little bit hostile with a conductor, that is a fight you are guaranteed not to win.
 
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The strange thing about the meal service it not room service. This is a preorder for the dinner. Which is weird, it thur the SCA, not the LSA. Will see how thing go.

I know that I am have a rough weekend, but just completely blown away with the SCA. Really thinking about get off and flying to Florida.
 
I know that I am have a rough weekend, but just completely blown away with the SCA. Really thinking about get off and flying to Florida.
While reserving judgement on whatever you did or did not do during the event that kicked this off, of which you have said quite little, I will say that there are some really bad OBS crew members out there as well as some really good ones. OBS pretty precisely follows a bell curve and wild variability in service quality is Amtrak's biggest single problem wholly within its control.

You may have gotten one of the very rigid ones who do everything per their own schedule and convienence so as to minimize the time spent actually doing their job. They're definitely out there and I've run into some. Personally, I hold no expectations as to service quality and am never surprised or "blown away" at poor service and attitude, though I am always pleased when I get one of Amtrak's many good attendants.
 
The strange thing about the meal service it not room service. This is a preorder for the dinner. Which is weird, it thur the SCA, not the LSA. Will see how thing go.

I know that I am have a rough weekend, but just completely blown away with the SCA. Really thinking about get off and flying to Florida.
((hugs)) I'm sure the conversation you were having with your mom was really stressful. Try to relax, about the SCA, and just avoid her if you can.
 
Maybe the poster is a super jerk.
Maybe, but in my experience it does not seem to take much to set off some Amtrak staff and once they have it in for you the trip is basically ruined. As suggested by other posters I limit my interactions with difficult OBS because there is so little to gain and so much to lose from trying to reason with them. Some OBS are great but others treat pax however they please and IMO the best recourse is to request a substantial credit as compensation for their lousy service.
 
My wife and I were boarding the Crescent last September. Our SCA was checking tickets and did not seem to be having a good day to say the least. She was very short with numerous passengers. My wife is a social butterfly, loves to talk with anyone that will engage her. The SCA stopped by our roomette and my wife got a conversation going. Seems that about 30 minutes before departure the second sleeper car's attendant booked off, too late to summon a replacement and our SCA basically had both cars to take care of. It seemed that once she had a chance to vent she mellowed out. It also helped that my wife almost always insists on setting up and tearing down the beds. We have done two 3 week trips in the last two years and so far we have had good to great attendants!
 
My understanding of this situation is that the OP was sitting in the room on the phone with her mother who was having difficulty getting home from the train station. A normally 45-minute trip in the car had become 8 hours. During this phone call, the SCA came to the room to take the pre-order for dinner and was frustrated that OP was on the phone and not prepared to deal with the dinner order. Words may have been exchanged, or someone's tone may have been off, and the situation escalated. This situation should never have escalated IMHO. The SCA should be able to manage a situation like this. In the day and age of cell phones, there are times when people are going to be involved in stressful conversations. The OP was well within their right to be engaged in such a conversation in the privacy of the room.

The only way that the OP could be in the wrong is if they were on the phone and then initiated an interaction with the SCA while on the phone, or if they walked into the diner while on the phone.
 
Not hearing both sides of the conversation its hard to judge the problem. I don’t understand why the SCA didn’t just move on unless there were insults thrown around that got personal. Everyone has bad days.
 
I feel that you mother probably shouldn't be driving anymore if she got lost so badly.
That the plan, but it more of a dementia issue. That’s what we were wondering about, so we going to take steps to address the situation.

As for my journey, got off early with out any other interaction with the SCA.
No dinner last night because the “face in screen” LSA told me to go thur the SCA. Skip breakfast and lunch just to avoid this crew.

I am just writing this one off to a bad hair day for me, and a crew who was less than helpful. But I got a few days of vacation before I deal with the home/work issues, and that my immediate focus.
 
That the plan, but it more of a dementia issue. That’s what we were wondering about, so we going to take steps to address the situation.

As for my journey, got off early with out any other interaction with the SCA.
No dinner last night because the “face in screen” LSA told me to go thur the SCA. Skip breakfast and lunch just to avoid this crew.

I am just writing this one off to a bad hair day for me, and a crew who was less than helpful. But I got a few days of vacation before I deal with the home/work issues, and that my immediate focus.

Relax and have a good few days of vacation. You will come back with more energy and focus to make good decisions.

And when you get things settled at home, make sure you arrange for a few days away for yourself once in a while.

I found this very helpful with my own elderly parents—time away will bring you back stronger to help your mother.

Best of luck to you, and remember that you have a wonderful network of friends here on AU if you want to talk.
 
Just-thinking-51 -----

I feel for you, that's a really tough situation, it would stress me the hell out too. I grew up with my aunt, a sweetheart, and it killed me to see her slowly getting senile. I still lived in south Florida at the time, I woke up to a phone call one night at 2am, she had gone to get gas in her car around 7pm and now didn't know where she was. Turned out she was WAAAAY out in the Everglades at some remote gas station. The attendant kindly stayed after closing to watch over her until I could get there. Hope you call Amtrak customer service about this incident. Should have been obvious to the attendant that she needed to leave you alone for the time being.
 
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