How quickly one can fall from grace.
Last weekend I had to get the train down to the coast once again, so armed with my vouchers from National Express I approached the ticket desk at London Liverpool Street and asked the man (dressed in National Express uniform) behind the counter for a return ticket.
Upon advising him that I was going to be paying with vouchers I was met with a surly sarcastic response about how “oooh, vouchers are our FAVOURITE form of payment”. Confused by his attitude I questioned if he was intending to be sarcastic or not. He replied, in an equally sarcastic tone, “no, of course not, we just LOVE vouchers. Of course come the end of the year the company accounts will be £50 short because of your vouchers so there will undoubtedly be a fare increase next year to cover the loss, but that’s just fine. Thank you.”
*BUMP*
The customer experience of National Express returns to earth with an almighty crash.
I’m baffled by train fares across the UK (so less to do with National Express in particular). How can it cost more to catch a train from Edinburgh to London than it does to fly? Ridiculous.
It’s apparently all down to people like me who complain about poor train service and receive vouchers as compensation. Sorry everyone.
On a serious note though, I agree. It just doesn’t really balance out does it? Perhaps there’s an opportunity for better/more accessible coach travel to corner the market (perhaps not National Express however). Just need to start by working on the image/experience of coach travel…