The awful experience of being on hold with Amtrak

[jebr]

Good points, Betty. I hadn’t thought of the difference in volume—only that it is to a hotel’s benefit to answer the phone promptly so the caller doesn’t hang up and book with another chain.

There's also a lot more ways to book a hotel - I would guess that, at least for chain hotels, a smaller percentage of people call the hotel directly to make a reservation than call Amtrak to book a reservation. The hotel's website often covers a lot more edge cases than Amtrak's website does, there's a lot of people who book hotels via a third party like Expedia or Priceline and thus would call them instead of the hotel directly, and a lot of chains also have a central reservation line for bookings so individual front desks aren't getting those calls. All of that generally means that if you do need to call a hotel front desk, the response can be fairly quick since there isn't nearly as much volume.

The only way I could see this working for Amtrak would be to have station agents also work phones, but there's likely only a few stations where that'd even be remotely practical - a booking call can take a while, and a customer could show up anytime in-person and want immediate help. Also, with as few stations as there are with agents they're likely busy enough throughout most of the day that there's not much "down time" to try and handle calls.

Amtrak has created a mess without an easy way to get out of - there's very few experienced staff that aren't doing other things, hiring/training people takes weeks to months (especially given the current labor shortage,) and any IT changes to offload some of that work requires an IT team with time to make those changes, and assumes that the system can accept those changes at all in a way that can be made user-friendly. The only real individual solution would be, if you can, go to a station for ticketing if the line is shorter there. If the website acts up, I'll sometimes do that myself since I live close to MSP. I'll go during an off hour and there's usually little to no line, and I can verify right then and there that everything is how it should be.

 

[Charles785]

I will say that I haven't had the occasion to call Amtrak since Covid started, and this may have been answered before way back in this thread, but is that fantastic voice known as Julie still answering the Amtrak phones - and providing updated announcements?

 

[PaTrainFan]

I genuinely have empathy for 98% of these CSRs on the other line, especially those working in hell hole situations in other countries, or even those in the US working for international companies and working from home and being monitored 24/7 even, going to the bathroom or while in bed. The pressure must be enormous. They want to do a good job and most want to avoid confrontation. They are often under trained and have so much to learn on top of dealing with short tempered customers like me who have been shuffled around an illogical AI phone tree to discourage us from actually finding a human too talk to, if you don't hang up in disgust first. Those people are heroes. If I get to a sticky situation I just calmly request a supervisor who generally resolves within minutes. Then you worry the primary CSR doesn't get whacked for trying but failing under duress. As me_little_me says, try to find a way to reward them, if you...and they...are lucky. I happen to work for a very large consumer company and know the managers of the call center and have made it a point to inform them of exceptional work by particular individuals. And, frankly, a couple that failed, with the confidence that they will receive the feedback positively.

Edit: Apologies for the long time.

 

[basketmaker]

Good point. The old trite "our menu options have changed" nonsense really grinds my gears. I have mentioned that before on other forums. As far as Amtrak fixing these problems, I'm not holding my breath.

So true! Even the small UPS facility I was in had that spiel and the nothing had changed since the digital phone system was put in four years earlier!

 

[Rambling Robert]

In the last couple years the agents at phone centers have offered about the same levels of service and about the same waiting time. I can easily pick out agents who have traveled on Amtrak. The level of service for agents that travel is very high. But most agents, about 75% have never traveled on Amtrak.

As I’m about to end a call I’ll ask the agent “have you ever traveled on Amtrak?” (25% yes) And then asked would they travel if it was free (all yes)

As a promotion perhaps this would work based on - performance - years of service - pay grade?”

 

[me_little_me]

As I’m about to end a call I’ll ask the agent “have you ever traveled on Amtrak?” (25% yes) And then asked would they travel if it was free (all yes)

I wonder if anyone has asked the executives the same questions re the long distance network.

 

[Everydaymatters]

My daughter had a very expensive flight she had to cancel. There would be a complete refund if cancelled up to two hours before the flight. She was on hold three hours when another family member came over. He took a picture of the hold time, which showed she was definitely within the time frame. She then hung up.

 

[Old MM]

As others have pointed out, if you have 2 roomettes and the system places your party in two different cars, there is no way to remedy that without calling the 800 number. I wonder if Amtrak will modify the res system (web, app or Julie) to allow people to choose their rooms, even if only for the end to end trips (i.e. Chicago to WAS) if that's easier to program. Would love to have on coach corridors too, including for that elusive, seldom spotted "Quiet Car"

 

[jis]

Would love to have on coach corridors too, including for that elusive, seldom spotted "Quiet Car"

At least on the NEC the Quiet Car is at the same location within the consist, next to the BC car which is the last car of the consist. Has that changed recently?

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I will say that I haven't had the occasion to call Amtrak since Covid started, and this may have been answered before way back in this thread, but is that fantastic voice known as Julie still answering the Amtrak phones - and providing updated announcements?

Julie is the most useless distraction of them all. Not one single time has she been able to do anything helpful, let alone something you'd actually call about, but she has wasted plenty of time trying to dissuade me from talking to an agent. The only thing I want to hear about Julie is that she was permanently disabled and tossed into the nearest trash compactor.

 

[Old MM]

At least on the NEC the Quiet Car is at the same location within the consist, next to the BC car which is the last car of the consist. Has that changed recently?

I have seen a QC on the Wolverine only sporadically, located at the very end of the train when BC was the front car, and only westbound. They may have discontinued even offering it. Last time to Chicago, the Conductor directed the coach passengers to board either to the right or left, for either group or solo travelers.

 

[toddinde]

I know it is small solace, or none at all, but try calling the airlines. It’s just as bad. If you can, go to the station and book with the ticket agent. I have friends that do that for every trip. Of course, go when it’s slow, not at train time.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I know it is small solace, or none at all, but try calling the airlines. It’s just as bad. If you can, go to the station and book with the ticket agent. I have friends that do that for every trip. Of course, go when it’s slow, not at train time.

The key difference IMO is that airlines have websites and mobile apps that do much more than Amtrak's versions. It's the combination of long hold times with limited online functionality that makes interacting with Amtrak so tedious and annoying. That said it's a fixable problem and will hopefully improve in the future.

 

[joelkfla]

I know it is small solace, or none at all, but try calling the airlines. It’s just as bad. If you can, go to the station and book with the ticket agent. I have friends that do that for every trip. Of course, go when it’s slow, not at train time.

Can station agents do the things that call center agents can do, such as changing room assignments or modifying a special service request?

 

[me_little_me]

Julie is the most useless distraction of them all. Not one single time has she been able to do anything helpful, let alone something you'd actually call about, but she has wasted plenty of time trying to dissuade me from talking to an agent. The only thing I want to hear about Julie is that she was permanently disabled and tossed into the nearest trash compactor.

Julie is great for the simple things like finding which page in the web site has the information I want or finding information that takes lots of searching. But she is useless for finding anything not already there on the site mostly because she takes specific questions and generalizes them. Ask Julie "Can i order kosher meals a month in advance?" and she'll say you have to do it 72 hours ahead but does not say if there is a maximum. Then ask her if the request you made has been recorded anywhere (like on your reservation) and she'll simply tell you she can't answer that and to call the toll free number.

 

[AKCNACBobJensen]

I wonder if there would be much of a difference in the number of calls Amtrak received if folks could see TIMETABLES on the website (let alone have printed copies easy to obtain)? You wouldn't need to call if you saw what you needed to know on the timetable or your call would be much quicker if you sorta had a rough plan of how your trip was going to be from what you figured out ahead of time from the timetable.

 

[20th Century Rider]

I wonder if there would be much of a difference in the number of calls Amtrak received if folks could see TIMETABLES on the website (let alone have printed copies easy to obtain)? You wouldn't need to call if you saw what you needed to know on the timetable or your call would be much quicker if you sorta had a rough plan of how your trip was going to be from what you figured out ahead of time from the timetable.

Call it Amtrak 'efficiency' or lack thereof. I finally worked my up to Executive Plus... the very top level... with the 'advantage' of supposedly shorter wait times... and my hold time at 11am this morning was only 35 minutes. Meh!

 

[AmtrakMaineiac]

As others have pointed out, if you have 2 roomettes and the system places your party in two different cars, there is no way to remedy that without calling the 800 number. I wonder if Amtrak will modify the res system (web, app or Julie) to allow people to choose their rooms, even if only for the end to end trips (i.e. Chicago to WAS) if that's easier to program. Would love to have on coach corridors too, including for that elusive, seldom spotted "Quiet Car"

It is amazing that for a $50 seat on an airline I can choose where I sit online but for the $1000+ bedroom on an Amtrak LD train I cannot choose it without calling and dealing with the hold etc.

 

[Eric in East County]

This morning (December 28th) we called Amtrak to purchase our tickets for next summer’s trip from San Diego to Toledo, Ohio and back. Here’s how it went: after first listening to the lengthy COVID disclaimer message, we got through to “Julie” and, after saying “agent,” were transferred to a taped message saying that there would be a 30-minute wait to speak to an agent but that we could request a “call back.” This we did. Setting up the “call back” was actually quite easy since the Amtrak system automatically took down our phone number without us having to give it. It took about 30 minutes to receive the call back and then there was another 5-minute wait until we actually got to speak to the agent. From there, everything went smoothly, and we had no trouble making our reservations which involved three different trains using three different classes of accommodations.

Eric & Pat