| |
Coach
and Bus Good Practice Guide
1. Before a Journey
2.
Bus Stops and Stations
3.
The Bus
4. Fares and Tickets
5. Punctuality and Reliability
6. Complaints and Suggestions
7.
Consultation
6.
COMPLAINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
After a bus journey, bus users with complaints or suggestions should
feel confident that
• complaints will be dealt with promptly and efficiently
• suggestions for service improvements and changes will be
considered and acknowledged
• there is an appeal procedure to which they can turn if they
feel that their complaint has been handled inadequately by operators
Complaints procedures vary widely between bus companies, and many
bus users are cynical about the value of complaints after receiving
what appear to be ‘brush-off’ or standard letters.
Any representations from passengers can be a valuable source of
market information, and should be handled in a positive way to ensure
that any problems are addressed. Complainants should be made to
feel they have been treated in a satisfactory way. Trends in complaints
should be studied, to alert operators of problems, whether with
staff, vehicles or services. Ideally, responses to complaints should
be dealt with by dedicated staff with knowledge of local conditions
and sufficient seniority to note the complaint and take action on
it. Vouchers or refunds should be offered in the case of serious
justified complaints, or in the interests of goodwill.
Proper and fair procedures should be in place for consideration
of claims lodged by passengers involved in incidents or accidents.
Sympathetic handling of correspondence does not constitute admission
of liability, and indeed can serve to bring a disaffected passenger
back ‘on side’. Bus operators should be sensitive to sensible redress
and should not be tied in too rigidly to their own Terms & Conditions.
Rigid adherence to Terms & Conditions may give the operator the
satisfaction of having saved a pound or two in a particular situation,
but might have alienated a passenger who would otherwise have spent
several hundred pounds in the course of a year.
TARGET: Complaints should be acknowledged
and preferably dealt with within five working days. While standard
letters may be the only way to deal with acknowledgement they should
be avoided when actually dealing with the complaint. Letters should
be courteous and well-written by people with competence in that
area.
Companies should publicise the existence of the Bus Appeals Body
(England and Wales) and Passenger View Scotland set up to deal with
appeals from passengers who are dissatisfied with the bus operators’
responses to their complaints about operational matters (for example
- drivers’ behaviour, reliability, information provision).
There is no appeals machinery for commercial issues such as service
patterns, frequencies and fares. However, if a commercial bus route
is curtailed or withdrawn, passengers can be encouraged to appeal
to local authorities to provide support for a subsidised service.
The remits of the Bus Appeals Body and Passenger View Scotland do
not cover London and Northern Ireland where there are official consumer
bodies..
|
|
