Adventures in Trimet
In response to “RANTINGS OF A FORMER TRIMET BUS DRIVER: LATEST SEEN AND HEARD ON TRIMET (lots of ‘fuck tri… http://rantingsofatrimetbusdriver.blogspot.com/2013/10/latest-seen-and-heard-on-trimet_20.html?spref=tw" I wrote the following response."It was a Tuesday afternoon and I approached ticket vending machine T790 which is located right across from Trimets downtown customer service location. I had only coin, no bills and no funds left on my debit card. I started to plunk $5 worth of coin into the machine which (of course) got jammed. I hit the release key and (some of) my change came out. Then I tried again only to find that upon close inspection it looked like it was jammed (more like stacked) with coins.
I walked over to customer service and waited in line. After about five minutes I spoke with a woman who politely told me to go back to the machine and call customer service. She said that they could do their own research and figure out what was wrong. I asked her how I was supposed to get around town today since the machine ate some of my change. She said (rather vaguely) that someone would be able to get me a ticket. Never once did she say that they would call her directly to request that she issue the ticket. So off I went to the machine to call customer service. I told them my situation and asked them to resolve it. I don’t know about you but when I purchase something and it’s faulty I will ask for a refund. In this case I lost a measly .50 cents in their stupid machine and my expectation was to get a day pass that would enable me to travel on max or bus without the paranoia of being busted by Trimet’s police and receive a $250 fine. This is exactly what I told the phone customer service as well as tell her what the “walk-in” customer service rep said she could do for me. Of course she told me that Trimet doesn’t do such a thing and they would do their investigation and maybe send me a refund in 3 to 4 weeks.
This, folks, in the customer service industry is known as being passed off. When a rep doesn’t want to and\or is too lazy to deal with your shit, they pass you off to another department even if they are able to deal with the issue themselves. I knew this was happening to me and yet I played along.
The conversation with Janet did not go well and ended with me telling her that she was doing her job half assed and doing as little as possible to help me regardless of their faulty machines. She didn’t have much to say after that. It seemed as if she wanted me to get busted and her apathy clearly was no where near anything called “customer service”. I don’t even know why I am describing what service they provide as customer service because after twenty fucking years in the industry I was running into every mistake and DO-NOT-EVER-DO-TO-A-CUSTOMER error while I was speaking with these two. I felt privileged to have the opportunity to give them both a lesson in REAL customer service and I hope they think long and hard about how they contributed to Trimets bad reputation.
Because of this experience I feel that Trimet deliberately set people up to fail so that they can make as much money as possible. Late bus arrivals, faulty machines and asshole drives make using Trimet a guerrilla war adventure.
In closing I would like to say that, yes, of course this was a stupid measly fifty cents, something I might have been able to ask for from those weary and jaded trimet riders around me AND being twenty years in the industry I know there ARE some assholes out there who don’t give a fuck about anyone. I know how hard it is to interact with hundreds of personalities so much that you feel schizo by the end of the day, but it was the principle of the issue - GODDAMIT!!! I HAD TO put up with that crap for twenty years and when I was a shit to someone I got called on the carpet for it. This situation is no different. Why should we have to put up with more rotten attitude from Trimet and it’s staff? DO YOUR JOB TRIMET!
Twitter | @MsPayne “
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