Amtrak's top four (or more) customer complaint problem areas?

[me_little_me]

Here is what I came up with and in the following order for the reasons stated:

1. Train Customer Service - from Conductors who fail to make an effort to sell rooms to the more serious dining and cafe car attendants who would rather be elsewhere to the car attendants who fail to clean and who hide rather than performing their tasks to the ones who think they are doing you a favor by serving you, this is, in my opinion, Amtrak's #1. People can live with late trains and broken things if they feel the people are nice. Amtrak's on-train customer service leaves a lot to be desired both in consistency and in following company standards. They are miles behind airline employees when it comes to service.
2. Maintenance - Even late trains can be tolerated if the toilets, heat , A/C and PA systems, etc work all the time. Items just don't seem to get fixed as in many cases, it is obvious that the problem is not new. Even when fixed, there is too much that breaks too easily and too many cars in bad need of refurbishment. Money is the big cause but the result is maintenance that is not done,
3. On-Time Performance - Sure, the host railroads are much of the problem but people remember that the train is late not that the host railroad was doing road maintenance or had a freight blocking the main line.
4. Out-of-Date Processes - From 19th century ticketing to lack of electronic location and delay information for passengers, Amtrak has been living in the dark ages. People get frustrated when they don't know where they are, why they are stopped and when they will arrive. The dependence on paper results in long closures in the Cafe car while the attendant catches up on paperwork and multiple chairs in the cafe cars occupied as the conductor and others spend their time manually counting and adding.

It seems from a recent posting that much of #4 will be alleviated this year.

"One more step for a man ..." (did he really have the "a" in there?) :giggle:

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Here is what I came up with and in the following order for the reasons stated:

1. Train Customer Service - from Conductors who fail to make an effort to sell rooms to the more serious dining and cafe car attendants who would rather be elsewhere to the car attendants who fail to clean and who hide rather than performing their tasks to the ones who think they are doing you a favor by serving you, this is, in my opinion, Amtrak's #1. People can live with late trains and broken things if they feel the people are nice. Amtrak's on-train customer service leaves a lot to be desired both in consistency and in following company standards. They are miles behind airline employees when it comes to service.
2. Maintenance - Even late trains can be tolerated if the toilets, heat , A/C and PA systems, etc work all the time. Items just don't seem to get fixed as in many cases, it is obvious that the problem is not new. Even when fixed, there is too much that breaks too easily and too many cars in bad need of refurbishment. Money is the big cause but the result is maintenance that is not done,
3. On-Time Performance - Sure, the host railroads are much of the problem but people remember that the train is late not that the host railroad was doing road maintenance or had a freight blocking the main line.
4. Out-of-Date Processes - From 19th century ticketing to lack of electronic location and delay information for passengers, Amtrak has been living in the dark ages. People get frustrated when they don't know where they are, why they are stopped and when they will arrive. The dependence on paper results in long closures in the Cafe car while the attendant catches up on paperwork and multiple chairs in the cafe cars occupied as the conductor and others spend their time manually counting and adding.

It seems from a recent posting that much of #4 will be alleviated this year.

"One more step for a man ..." (did he really have the "a" in there?) :giggle:

I say that the most common complaint would be OTP. Maintenance has improved over the years, and poor train customer service, while it can be a serious problem, is less likely to happen.

 

[amtrakwolverine]

Better customer service. Stop making up rules for your convenience.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Better customer service. Stop making up rules for your convenience.

I don't know who you are saying is making "rules for convenience," but I never meant any offence in my post, I was just expressing my personal opinion!

 

[amtrakwolverine]

Better customer service. Stop making up rules for your convenience.

I don't know who you are saying is making "rules for convenience," but I never meant any offence in my post, I was just expressing my personal opinion!

I was not referring to you. Im talking about the amtrak conductors etc who make up rules also the dining car staff that seam to open and the close the diner when they feel like it.

 

[afigg]

You overlooked cleaniness. Amtrak formed the Restroom Task Force in response to customer complaints for a reason. See the August 2011 PRIIA Section 208 report which lists their initiatives to improve on-board service. Clean windows is also on the list.

 

[Henry Kisor]

In my experience in the last two years, on-board service seems to have improved a great deal, both in the sleepers and in the dining car. The nasty or absent attendant can still be found, but hopefully is growing rarer. A recent Amtrak employee publication said the railroad has been sending some crews to what amounts to a "finishing school"—the Gallup management consulting school’s “Human Sigma” training program, in which participants are taught new ideals of personal service, from “random acts of human kindness” to keeping the bathrooms spotless. Perhaps the bottom line is: Good service=bigger tips.

 

[Jim G.]

I was pretty impressed when I saw window washers on the westboud CZ at Denver. The rest of the crew was doing a good job too. Gwendolyn, the SCA gave me a 5am wakeup,at my request, with a cup of freshly brewed coffee in hand. Is that special service. You bet!

 

[Ryan]

"One more step for a man ..." (did he really have the "a" in there?) :giggle:

Iirc, that's what he planned to say, but in the excitement of the moment he flubbed the line.

 

[user 683]

Based upon my experiences, I would say Amtrak has made/is making an effort to improve customer service. This is not to say that additional improvements such as cleaning the train (particularly the restrooms) and informing passengers of issues associated delays are not needed. Like others, I have come across a number of "characters" who think they know everything. I've also seen many Amtrak employees go out of their way to help passengers, and in some cases even avoid creating a scene by compromising on a position or "rule" to accommodate a passenger.

I thought the following was worth sharing. A passenger was sitting by herself in a seat clearly marked reserved for handicap passengers.The conductor advised the passenger that she could sit there, but would have to relocate if the seat was needed for a handicapped passenger. A handicapped passenger was assisted on board with three others in her party. The first passenger was politely asked to find another seat, as previously advised, but she refused. The conductor politely indicated, "Ma'am - we need this seat to accommodate a handicapped passenger - I can assist you in finding another seat if you would like...". This went on for a few minutes. The passenger once again refused. The conductor was clearly trying to maintain a professional and courteous demeanor, then finally said in a very calm voice "Ma'am - I have asked you very nicely, I offered to assist you in finding another seat - you are not being reasonable". He then assisted the handicapped passenger and her family find another seat in the forward car - I would presume possibly in Bus-class.

 

[The Davy Crockett]

I thought the following was worth sharing. A passenger was sitting by herself in a seat clearly marked reserved for handicap passengers.The conductor advised the passenger that she could sit there, but would have to relocate if the seat was needed for a handicapped passenger. A handicapped passenger was assisted on board with three others in her party. The first passenger was politely asked to find another seat, as previously advised, but she refused. The conductor politely indicated, "Ma'am - we need this seat to accommodate a handicapped passenger - I can assist you in finding another seat if you would like...". This went on for a few minutes. The passenger once again refused. The conductor was clearly trying to maintain a professional and courteous demeanor, then finally said in a very calm voice "Ma'am - I have asked you very nicely, I offered to assist you in finding another seat - you are not being reasonable". He then assisted the handicapped passenger and her family find another seat in the forward car - I would presume possibly in Bus-class.

Only problem is that the conductor was rewarding bad behavior. Seems like he was taking the easy way out. Those who need the HC seats should always be given the priority.

 

[jis]

From 19th century ticketing system

You have made this statement about "19th century ticketing [system]" several times now....

Perhaps you don't have too much of a clue about ticketing systems in 19th century or the 20th for that matter. Do you? Or perhaps you are unaware of the ticketing system that is used by Amtrak today. Or perhaps you are just into hyperbole and not to be taken too seriously?

Those are the only possibilities at hand to explain someone claiming that ARROW is a 19th century system. :help:

 

[me_little_me]

You overlooked cleaniness. Amtrak formed the Restroom Task Force in response to customer complaints for a reason. See the August 2011 PRIIA Section 208 report which lists their initiatives to improve on-board service. Clean windows is also on the list.

That was my first item:

Train Customer Service - from Conductors who fail to make an effort to sell rooms to the more serious dining and cafe car attendants who would rather be elsewhere to the car attendants who fail to clean and who hide rather than performing their tasks to the ones who think they are doing you a favor by serving you, this is, in my opinion, Amtrak's #1. People can live with late trains and broken things if they feel the people are nice. Amtrak's on-train customer service leaves a lot to be desired both in consistency and in following company standards. They are miles behind airline employees when it comes to service.

I may not have made it as clear as I should have as restrooms cleanliness gets a lot of comments from friends who have taken trains.

From 19th century ticketing system

You have made this statement about "19th century ticketing [system]" several times now....

Perhaps you don't have too much of a clue about ticketing systems in 19th century or the 20th for that matter. Do you? Or perhaps you are unaware of the ticketing system that is used by Amtrak today. Or perhaps you are just into hyperbole and not to be taken too seriously?

Those are the only possibilities at hand to explain someone claiming that ARROW is a 19th century system. :help:

Amtrak still punches tickets. Ticket punching started over 150 years ago. Ticket punch history on railroads

OLD OLD technology. Please don't bring up the fact that they didn't have the money to modernize. We all know that although they could have done far more with tickets a long time ago.

 

[Golden grrl]

In my experience in the last two years, on-board service seems to have improved a great deal, both in the sleepers and in the dining car. The nasty or absent attendant can still be found, but hopefully is growing rarer. ... Perhaps the bottom line is: Good service=bigger tips.

I agree with you, Henry, that service from dining car and sleeping car employees seems to have improved over the past two years, as compared to the more uneven service of around 5 years ago. I cannot remember ever having a nasty attendant or conductor-guess I'm lucky.

We got much more than acceptable service - with two exceptions - in the sleeper and dining cars on our 7500 mile Around-Our-Great-Nation Loop Tour earlier this month. And on our tours in April, October/November, and December last year, we similarly had good and sometimes great service.

At times on our most recent trip, we had exceptional service. Noelani and Karin in the Dining Car on the Empire Builder were top-notch and upbeat, really making the experience fun. When they ran out of the standard vegetarian entrees for the final meal, Noelani got the chef to make a toasted tomato/cheese/onion sandwich especially for my lunch - probably the best Amtrak lunch I've ever had.

The conductor on the Coast Starlight - who clearly announced what was happening - was great and FUNNY in his descriptions of a delay caused by a UP work crew. There was a passenger in coach who became disruptive with the delay announcement - the car attendant and conductor dealt with that guy immediately, removed him from the train, and did so in a way that kept us from having any more delay than that already caused by UP.

Nearly all the great service was from recent employees who had worked for Amtrak five or fewer years. When we complimented these people, they routinely credited whoever had been their trainer, saying "_____ is the best and taught me everything!"

Curiously, the two exceptions to my recent satisfaction were both on the Capitol Limited in February. They, too, seemed to be newer hires. West-bound SCA was significantly less than adequate. East-bound DCA barely adequate for dinner, less than adequate for breakfast. Both were more intent on watching videos, playing angry birds, or texting than on fulfilling the service needs of the passengers. Neither seemed to make efforts towards cleanliness. My tips to them, or lack thereof, reflected their level of service.

 

[jis]

Amtrak still punches tickets. Ticket punching started over 150 years ago. Ticket punch history on railroads

OLD OLD technology. Please don't bring up the fact that they didn't have the money to modernize. We all know that although they could have done far more with tickets a long time ago.

So does SNCF and DB and JR, and IR - both Indian and Israeli, and all manners of pieces of B (British) R. So what?

Many railways in the world still punch tickets. Heck, even self printed tickets are marked as checked by conductors in India. But that has precious little to do with what technology that is used to issue and manage them. Even the Japanese and the French are quite happy to handle paper tickets that they stamp with a device to mark as used.

The issue at hand is that Amtrak needs then to process the collected tickets stubs by hand and until now has had no way of handling that electronically. That is what is getting fixed. Incidentally most airlines also need to collect the boarding passes in outstations where they do not have their own scanning systems and process them later in back office, or even at the gate by hand entering them, since a plane is not allowed to leave until all loaded baggage has been matched with boarded passengers.

It is fun to walk up to the gate agent at such stations with a boarding pass on ones Smartphone. They at that point are obliged to hand write the PNR and Sequence Number on a sheet of paper for later reconciliation.

So having the ability to electronically reconcile on the spot is a good one to have, but by no means does that remove all need for the dreaded "ticket punch".

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Better customer service. Stop making up rules for your convenience.

I don't know who you are saying is making "rules for convenience," but I never meant any offence in my post, I was just expressing my personal opinion!

I was not referring to you. Im talking about the amtrak conductors etc who make up rules also the dining car staff that seam to open and the close the diner when they feel like it.

Oh, now I understand. When I rode the Crescent, they did just what you said. Extremly angered and annoyed by those things! :angry2:

 

[EMDF9A]

I will add my $0.02 worth to the discussion.

Although late trains tend to frustrate some passengers, and poor maintenence can make things temporarily uncomfortable, MOST of these issues can be forgiven and/or overlooked when the guest receives great customer service. Unfortunately, this is AMTRAK's biggest failure. Although systems and operations are supposed to be standardized, we all know that this is far from the truth. LSA & conductors DO make up rules to make their work easier. What happens aboard #11 today may not be what happens aboard #11 tomorrow... or #7 at any time. Although there are a myriad of things AMTRAK can do to improve this the first thing that should be done is to place non-union management staff aboard every train, every trip to act as a "General Service Manager" so that issues can be addressed and corrected at the time they occur, not some indefinate date in the future when a letter of complaint finally reaches someone's desk.

Once they have taken this step, the offending staff will either leave via the progressive disciplinary proceedures or see the handwriting on the wall and voluntarily seek "other opportunities outside the organization". This then leads to complete re-training of all service staff to focus on the GUEST. Now, with the right staff in place with the the expectations taught and trained, and effective management enforcing the standards, a guest is much less likely to complain about their trip or the fact that they were 2 hours late into Denver (or Minneapolis or St Louis etc) or that the latch on the bathroom door malfunctioned. And this leads to satisfied guests and return guests, and good word of mouth publicity. Which can lead to folks telling theor congressperson to better fund AMTRAK.

It all starts with Customer Service and the focus on the guest.

David

Seattle

 

[PaulM]

OLD OLD technology. Please don't bring up the fact that they didn't have the money to modernize. We all know that although they could have done far more with tickets a long time ago.

Given the lack of unlimited resources, the ticketing system (as opposed to the limitations of the Amtrak.com) would be far down in my list of priorities for upgrading.

 

[PaulM]

... A recent Amtrak employee publication said the railroad has been sending some crews to what amounts to a "finishing school"—the Gallup management consulting school’s “Human Sigma” training program...

In a trip report (not posted yet because I'm still working on segment 9) I actually used the term "charm school" to describe the improvements I saw the SM. I was especially impressed with how a LSA on the CL handled a family that obviously couldn't afford, or didn't want to pay dining car prices. He politely and gently explained the difference between the diner and cafe car, and told them to check it (cafe) out, and if they didn't find what they wanted to come back.

While I agree the 4 listed are serious, again based on my recent trip, I didn't see any of them: none of the patented Amtrak sassyness, no engine failures, no dining cars out of service, generally clean coaches, and wonder of wonders, all nine trains arrived at my boarding and destination station within a few minutes of schedule.

My top two complaints are:

1) no baggage service between CHI and Omaha and CHI and KC.

2) Red neck rendezvous in sleeping cars late at night. It happened both this year and on a similar trip last winter. Note: a red neck rendezvous is when adults make loud noise in a inappropriate setting.

 

[AlanB]

I thought the following was worth sharing. A passenger was sitting by herself in a seat clearly marked reserved for handicap passengers.The conductor advised the passenger that she could sit there, but would have to relocate if the seat was needed for a handicapped passenger. A handicapped passenger was assisted on board with three others in her party. The first passenger was politely asked to find another seat, as previously advised, but she refused. The conductor politely indicated, "Ma'am - we need this seat to accommodate a handicapped passenger - I can assist you in finding another seat if you would like...". This went on for a few minutes. The passenger once again refused. The conductor was clearly trying to maintain a professional and courteous demeanor, then finally said in a very calm voice "Ma'am - I have asked you very nicely, I offered to assist you in finding another seat - you are not being reasonable". He then assisted the handicapped passenger and her family find another seat in the forward car - I would presume possibly in Bus-class.

Only problem is that the conductor was rewarding bad behavior. Seems like he was taking the easy way out. Those who need the HC seats should always be given the priority.

Agreed! The conductor should have called the police and had her removed from the train, such that she could learn a good lesson.

He was wrong in that all he did was move the other party to another car. Yes, he still should have done that first to get them seated, but then he should have returned to deal with the lady and had her removed from the train.

 

[icbrkr]

My top complaints:

1) Location - it's 3+ hours in any direction for me to get to the station (KCY, TEX, LRK, OKC). There isn't any Thruway buses to my area which is sorta odd considering the size of the Bentonville, Rogers, Fayetteville area (known here as Northwest Arkansas)

2) Timing - if I use LRK, it comes back from CHI at 3AM. That's going to be one groggy drive home. If I get back from CHI via KCY it's also 3 hours home ... and the train arrives at 10:15PM. TEX isn't so bad since it gets in at 6AM.

3) Cleanliness has already been discussed...

4) Better customer service on the train. I've had some pretty bad SCAs but mostly good in my few years of riding.

 

[Sandra Snider]

today was a strange day. i made reservations for Amtrak to assist me with an adult in a wheelchair that is paralyzed from the waist down and they didnt show us how to get to track 3 and we had to use a escalator and a stranger had to help me stand my son up to go down and another stranger had to wait for my son at the bottom to help him back in his wheelchair. and i thanked them. but there was no asistance trying to help my son on to the train. thank you for listening to my complaint.

 

[MrFSS]

today was a strange day. i made reservations for Amtrak to assist me with an adult in a wheelchair that is paralyzed from the waist down and they didnt show us how to get to track 3 and we had to use a escalator and a stranger had to help me stand my son up to go down and another stranger had to wait for my son at the bottom to help him back in his wheelchair. and i thanked them. but there was no asistance trying to help my son on to the train. thank you for listening to my complaint.

Remember = this forum isn't Amtrak. Other than sympathize we can't do anything for you. You need to contact Amtrak and tell them of the situation.

What station did this happen in?

 

[VentureForth]

Amtrak still punches tickets. Ticket punching started over 150 years ago. Ticket punch history on railroads

OLD OLD technology. Please don't bring up the fact that they didn't have the money to modernize. We all know that although they could have done far more with tickets a long time ago.

So does SNCF and DB and JR, and IR - both Indian and Israeli, and all manners of pieces of B (British) R. So what?

Many railways in the world still punch tickets. Heck, even self printed tickets are marked as checked by conductors in India. But that has precious little to do with what technology that is used to issue and manage them. Even the Japanese and the French are quite happy to handle paper tickets that they stamp with a device to mark as used.

The issue at hand is that Amtrak needs then to process the collected tickets stubs by hand and until now has had no way of handling that electronically. That is what is getting fixed. Incidentally most airlines also need to collect the boarding passes in outstations where they do not have their own scanning systems and process them later in back office, or even at the gate by hand entering them, since a plane is not allowed to leave until all loaded baggage has been matched with boarded passengers.

It is fun to walk up to the gate agent at such stations with a boarding pass on ones Smartphone. They at that point are obliged to hand write the PNR and Sequence Number on a sheet of paper for later reconciliation.

So having the ability to electronically reconcile on the spot is a good one to have, but by no means does that remove all need for the dreaded "ticket punch".

Now whoa there, a skosh bit pardner. JR has all but done away with the ticket punch. In fact, it's probably done only in the most rural of places any more. For nearly 2 decades tickets were automatically punched when entering the gated area and then collected when leaving. Today, whereas that is still done, folks with RFID on their phones can simply pass through a ticket wicket with their phone in their pocket. Now there may be a few additional steps on some of the long distance trains, but for the most part, I believe that ticket punching (certainly manually) is all but extinct in Japan.