Recently Premier Bus went bust, to help (gloat) Trent Barton stated that they would exchange Premier tickets For Trent Tickets. Good news.
I am sure this is a PR exercise or am I being cynical!
For a long time, Premier was an annoyance to Trent in offering choice to people. It has to be said that the busses were a bit ropey at times and punctuality was sometimes iffy, but value for money at £1 into Nottingham was excellent.
I have been on the Premier Bus, when Trent deliberately obstructed a Premier Bus, by two Trent busses when going through Radcliffe-on-Trent.
Why did I use Premier
Recently Trent increased their fares from £1.60 to £2.20 for a Mango trip Bingham to Nottingham, a massive increase. So I voted with my feet and transferred to Premier.
However, when you try and do this, several things go wrong.
I sent an e-mail, received a reply, checked the website, all seemed that I could exchange ALL my tickets.
Where are we now.
We have a monopoly provider. That will probably mean future price rises.
Service into Nottingham is fine, but try to get to Radcliffe-on-Trent and you can only do that in the evening, or Sundays
The dispute
I also had a long phone conversation with Trent, who basically said tough luck!
So my first e-mail to them..
From: Jon Chapman
Sent: 25 January 2013 20:17
To: talk@trentbarton.co.ukmailto:talk@trentbarton.co.uk
Subject: Premier Tickets
Sir
I read with interest about your willingness to take on the 10 trip tickets from premier.
I have a number of these and I am interested in how I can exchange these for journeys on your service between Bingham and Nottingham.
As an occasional traveller, I thank you for your assistance.
Regards
Jon Chapman
Their reply
From: trent barton customer services <customer.services@trentbarton.co.uk>
Date: 28 January 2013 11:12:53 GMT
To: Jon Chapman
Subject: RE: Premier Tickets
Good morning Jon,
Thank you for your e-mail.
You can exchange your Premiere issued tickets on our Bingham Xprss or Radcliffe Line service, by tonight. However, Broadmarsh Bus Station are accepting the tickets by Friday evening.
Hope this helps.
Kind regards,
Sophie
Customer Services | trent barton
Then
We tried to exchange them
From: Jon
Date: 30 January 2013 13:46:55 GMT
To: trentbarton.co.uk>"
Subject: Fwd: Premier Tickets - follow up
Cherryl
I am following up my recent call with you about exchanging the Premier Bus tickets which my daughter tried to do.
As mentioned, these are for the family and it is not practical for us all to go in, my daughter is at collage today and it was convenient for her and us.
Below you will see the email I have received from yourselves, where it clearly states you will exchange my tickets, if attending in person. If it means I need to come in on Friday afternoon, then that is what I will do.
I also understand that you actually placed the tickets, after stamping them into the bin, before returning them to her.
I look forward to the call from your manager, my number is xxxxxx, where I will explain the situation.
In addition your website says "any" tickets.
Regards
Jon Chapman
Next set of e-mails!
From: "Alex Hornby"
Date: Jan 30, 2013 2:26 PM
Subject: Re: Premier Tickets - follow up
To: "Jon"
Cc:
Thanks for your email Jon.
We are changing the wording on our web site accordingly and I have briefed our customer services team who sent the email to you. I have also asked that our team at Broadmarsh are investigated in light of the behaviour you have detailed below.
Many thanks for your feedback and I apologise if you feel we have let you down. Please also pass on my apologies to your daughter.
With my best wishes
Alex Hornby
Sent from my iPhone
On 30 Jan 2013, at 02:18 PM, "Jon"
wrote:
Alex
Thank you for the call back.
As I mentioned I applaud your help in doing travel ticket swaps, something you need not have done, as a company, but great PR.
As mentioned I base my point of view on the information off both your web site and the email I received from customer services where I pointed out I had a number of ten trip tickets. For your staff to deface tickets, without explaining and in an underhand manner, what would happen to them is unreasonable. We visited in good faith based upon the detail given to me.
I would have accepted mango trips on my mango card.
On the other point, my daughter visited at around 12:55 today.
My daughter said she was a horrid lady, threw the tickets in the bin, before returning them to her. Far from good customer service.
Regards
Jon Chapman
Revised Trent Web site!
I have asked them for a total of four, but do not expect any!!!
Spot the subtle re-wording to say one per customer!!!!
