Price gouging over the phone

[winterskigirl]

I booked a long distance trip a few hours ago and when I received my eTicket I saw that my sleeper car room is on the lower level. It's not even possible to choose your room number when booking online like you can with the airlines.

My question. When I called Amtrak reservations and asked to be moved to the upper level (room 1-10) the agent said it was available but would cost $ 125.00 more. I'm floored !! Has this happened to anyone else? Seems like price gouging to me. She said it's based on supply and demand.

What if I went to my local train station and saw a ticketing agent in person? Would they charge additional monies? What about onboard?

Any experience with this? Suggestions?

 

[Bob Dylan]

You need. To call back and have a different agent that is either better trained or not as lazy switch the room for you! It should be the same price you paid, I also suggest you let Customer Relations know that agents are making stuff up on the fly!

 

[SarahZ]

They can give you a new room without it charging more. I can't remember the exact procedure, but it's something to do with holding rooms in Arrow, and some agents don't know how to change it without preventing it from charging you the next bucket. Basically, they need to drop your current room and then put you in the new room.

Ugh. Alan explains it better. I wish there were a way to tag people in threads as a way to page them.

Long story short - it can be done.

 

[winterskigirl]

Getting no-where with this girl I finally asked to speak with her supervisor. Then she said she would put me on hold and check with customer relations. Meanwhile, I lost my patience and hung up. Anyway, she calls back after about 10 minutes and says that after talking it over with customer relations she was able to change my roomette to the upper level at the same price. I since have received an email with eTicket attached modifying my reservation to my liking.

You're right Jim, she probably didn't know how to do the modification for same price. I wish these agents would get on the same page. Crap! We shouldn't have to be treated like this. If I didn't love train travel this much I wouldn't have persisted.

 

[SarahZ]

To be fair, she may be new and just didn't know how to do it. I help people at work all the time when they don't understand how to make the computer do X instead of Y. Now that she's done it once, she'll (hopefully) remember for next time.

 

[penfrydd]

Every time I've needed to modify a reservation, and made a subsequent phone call, an agent has tried to charge me some outrageous amount for the change. I've always had to "think about it", and called back later. Invariably I get a different agent who charges me nothing extra.

I agree that agents can be new. I also agree that agents can be lazy. They can also be excellent. It really is a crap shoot. I do enjoy a good crap game, but have always lost money at them (three paychecks in a row, within ten minutes of getting them, but it was Vietnam, and I didn't have anywhere to spend the money...).

 

[RTE_TrainGuy]

HUCA

Hang Up and Call Again is the best way to deal with things like this.

 

[me_little_me]

I have never had a problem calling agents, always getting great service and being able to change rooms or move two rooms so that they are across from one another - and never with a price increase.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I have never had a problem calling agents, always getting great service and being able to change rooms or move two rooms so that they are across from one another - and never with a price increase.

Maybe you should try raising your expectations until they're high enough that it's no longer impossible to disappoint you.

 

[me_little_me]

I have never had a problem calling agents, always getting great service and being able to change rooms or move two rooms so that they are across from one another - and never with a price increase.

Maybe you should try raising your expectations until they're high enough that it's no longer impossible to disappoint you.

Or possibly, I know when to call (late evening), how to be nice to them, how to thank them and tell them how much I appreciate them and how to engage them in a conversation so that we are people talking to each other instead of strangers doing a business deal.

And I do deal with reps from other companies quite often. I'll take an Amtrak phone rep or local agent outside of a big city every time!

 

[amamba]

HUCA

Hang Up and Call Again is the best way to deal with things like this.

Yup.

 

[tonys96]

I have had good luck with phone agents @ Amtrak for the most part. That said, there is no reason to make excuses for those who are either incompetent, uninformed, ill-trained or uncaring. No matter if it is their first day on the job, if they have problems at home, or whatever the excuse might be. If the agent tells a customer the wrong information, it is inexcusable. Period.

If they do not know, or are doubtful, the agent should ask another agent who might know.

 

[SarahZ]

I was simply trying to remind others that it's easy to forget phone agents are human beings too, and a little patience goes a long way.

If you aren't getting anywhere with an agent, it's perfectly okay to ask for a supervisor. This serves two purposes: the supervisor can, most likely, assist you, and the supervisor can then turn around and advise the employee on the proper procedure so they know how to do it next time.

 

[rspenmoll]

Are agents trained on the procedure to change rooms without changing buckets when they are hired?

 

[train person]

In a ideal world you should be offered the choice of remaining rooms when you book a sleeper. However seeing as Amtrak finds it impossible to even offer the correct sleeper fare at times, i suppose picking your choice of room is just too much to ask in 2014.

 

[SarahZ]

Are agents trained on the procedure to change rooms without changing buckets when they are hired?

Possibly, but like many other call center jobs, there are approximately eight million policies and procedures and it is easy to forget some of them after training. Practice keeps it fresh.

There are some things I still have to look up in an online manual (or ask a co-worker) because I do them so infrequently and it's easy to forget every single step. I've been here for six years, so yeah - it can happen to the best of us.

 

[oldtimer]

I Think the best agent I have spoken to since my wife left when the Chicago res office closed has been a girl named "Julie"!

:giggle: :giggle: :giggle: :giggle:

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Are agents trained on the procedure to change rooms without changing buckets when they are hired?

Possibly, but like many other call center jobs, there are approximately eight million policies and procedures and it is easy to forget some of them after training. Practice keeps it fresh. There are some things I still have to look up in an online manual (or ask a co-worker) because I do them so infrequently and it's easy to forget every single step. I've been here for six years, so yeah - it can happen to the best of us.

I don't think any of us would have a problem with a call center clerk saying "hold on a second while I look that up and check with my supervisor" or the like. What we don't appreciate are the made up answers and low effort reasoning that forces us to keep calling back for even minor requests.

I Think the best agent I have spoken to since my wife left when the Chicago res office closed has been a girl named "Julie"!

I have no particular problem with automated solutions in general. Unfortunately Julie is so dumbed down and is kept on such a short leash that there is literally nothing she's been able to do for me. Not because the technology itself is faulty but simply because Amtrak doesn't trust the technology (and/or their customers) enough to give Julie sufficient power to be useful.

 

[SarahZ]

Are agents trained on the procedure to change rooms without changing buckets when they are hired?

Possibly, but like many other call center jobs, there are approximately eight million policies and procedures and it is easy to forget some of them after training. Practice keeps it fresh. There are some things I still have to look up in an online manual (or ask a co-worker) because I do them so infrequently and it's easy to forget every single step. I've been here for six years, so yeah - it can happen to the best of us.

I don't think any of us would have a problem with a call center clerk saying "hold on a second while I look that up and check with my supervisor" or the like. What we don't appreciate are the made up answers and low effort reasoning that forces us to keep calling back for even minor requests.

*Stuck in box*

Oh, I get that, and I agree. I'm glad the rep eventually called Customer Relations and then called Winterskigirl back.

 

[tonys96]

I don't think any of us would have a problem with a call center clerk saying "hold on a second while I look that up and check with my supervisor" or the like. What we don't appreciate are the made up answers and low effort reasoning that forces us to keep calling back for even minor requests.

THIS

 

[Guest]

Are agents trained on the procedure to change rooms without changing buckets when they are hired?

Possibly, but like many other call center jobs, there are approximately eight million policies and procedures and it is easy to forget some of them after training. Practice keeps it fresh.

There are some things I still have to look up in an online manual (or ask a co-worker) because I do them so infrequently and it's easy to forget every single step. I've been here for six years, so yeah - it can happen to the best of us.

I'm sure they are trained on this procedure initially, but like anything else, if you don't have the occasion to use it, you forget it. The vast majority of Amtrak sleeper passengers simply don't request specific room locations, so the newer agents haven't had much practice.

I, however, always want to make sure I have a lower level room since that is my preference for many reasons, so I never book online -- only shop fares. Some agents don't know how to select a specific rooms, so they keep grabbing rooms until they get the one you asked for. Of course, this take those rooms temporarily out of available inventory and the price of the remaining rooms go up. If the agent doesn't know how to select a room, I simply ask them to ask their supervisor for help.

 

[bobnjulie]

I know I'm mostly given roomette #2 and now always ask to move since I'm not a fan of that roomette... I've never been charged more or told I would be charged more. I've actually had incredible agents who've taken a lot of time to help me figure out some tricky trips... but I'm always calling mostly on PST and they are based in the LA area.... don't know if that makes a difference or not.

 

[Ispolkom]

I don't think any of us would have a problem with a call center clerk saying "hold on a second while I look that up and check with my supervisor" or the like. What we don't appreciate are the made up answers and low effort reasoning that forces us to keep calling back for even minor requests.

THIS

In my experience, though, the "made-up answers and low-effort reasoning" goes both ways. For every agent who claims that he can't book a perfectly legal itinerary, there's another that tells me that a five-night, three-train odyssey Houston-LA-Portland-St. Paul is a one-zone award. Works for me.

 

[jannie]

I think it's because they haven't been "trained" or forgot how to do something. I changed where I got on the train & off the train on a reservation with sleeper. 1st instance I was charged for a "change" because she canceled and then put the reservation in again with the new city leave from same date & everything. So I was placed in a sleeper in the lower level - we went round & round why I lost my upper level sleeper... finally after much discussion I got the original sleeper. Hurrah. So wanted to have the reservation for the returned trip fixed .. getting off one stop later than original ... no call back in 30 minutes the computer wouldn't let her do it. Ok. called back different agent. He didn't know how to do it but went to ask someone was gone few minutes... no problem was charged an extra $47. to go the extra 2 stops, but received the same roomette with no hassle at all.

I wished I'd just hung up and called again the first time and got someone who knew how to readjust the reservation as nothing but the getting off/on location was changing. Took around 40 minutes to do the first one.

 

[CoachSlumber]

I booked a long distance trip a few hours ago and when I received my eTicket I saw that my sleeper car room is on the lower level. It's not even possible to choose your room number when booking online like you can with the airlines.

My question. When I called Amtrak reservations and asked to be moved to the upper level (room 1-10) the agent said it was available but would cost $ 125.00 more. I'm floored !! Has this happened to anyone else? Seems like price gouging to me. She said it's based on supply and demand.

What if I went to my local train station and saw a ticketing agent in person? Would they charge additional monies? What about onboard?

Any experience with this? Suggestions?

I don't think she was trying to gouge you. I think at the time she tried to switch you, the prices for all rooms in that car had gone up. Like others have said, I think she just didn't know how to switch you and hold the old price.