9 October 2005

An insight into ACTION Customer service

| johnboy
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It’s allways interesting to see how bureaucracies react to criticism. An MSN Spacer, who is unwisely calling herself Teej (we all know the real Teej would not be seen dead on a bus), has written an interesting account of how ACTION respond to a misunderstanding.

Two days later i was approached by a guy in a yellow action shirt *now normal action employee’s wear blue shirts, so this guy aint fuckin around hes a big shot* And i went to complain to him about the stupidity of his driver, and he BLASTS ME! in front of my friends, and accuses ME of SPITTING at his fucking driver, and starts threatening legal action and banning me from buses for the rest of my natrual life and im standing there, near tears, totally lost on the topic going wtf man? This dude was screaming, he even had the insane vein bulging out of his forehead and im liek WTF and i defended myself and he was going spastic, then when i got on the bus, he announced in front of the entire bus that i was to be *watched clsoely because im dangerous* and im like WHAT THE FUCK MAN?! I JUST WANT TO GO HOME! I HAVENT DONE ANYTHING, which prompted further accusations about me being arrogant and a spoilt princess bitch and thinking im above shitty bus drivers…

Eventually it turns out some dickshit secretary … typed in the incident report wrong, and when the bus driver said “i spat chips over the fare” she wrote “i spat at the bus driver over the fare”

Her thoughts on the glories of flexibus are also illuminating.

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This story was, like, so pointless. I mean, wtf man? ACTION are, like, such dick-chunks if they think they can treat someone who is obviously, like, so special, so fully badly man.

Scenario: big maori guy walks into your office, glares at you and says ‘I’m here for your wheelie bin’

‘Here you go Sir, Oh and you’d like my pie as well, well here you can have that too!’.

I’m not too sure what the legality of giving somebody your wheelie bin without their permission to take it is, but I certainly wouldn’t disagree too harshly with a persistent maori. (There’s other ways)

Mr Evil, sounds like you know a few Kiwi’s using Rangi 🙂

Haven’t heard a good Rangi joke in ages 🙂

(for the aussies, Rangi is the NZ ‘Billy at the back of the class’)

Maybe that’s why the Maori fellow has been out pinching wheelie-bins? ACTION’s commissioning a Rangi-in-a-box to pop up and punch difficult punters on the nose?

My what a great grasp of the English language that child has. Which school does she go to? I don’t want my girl going there, if they don’t teach English, only “swearing for adolescents”.

so a Maori with velvet gloves should solve the problem?

Solution: put an 18 stone maori on each bus, sitting behind the driver. Any problems, maori boy steps in and solves it then disappears for a few months. Bus driver recalls ‘slight scuffle’ but no details.

Result: Well behaved citizens on buses, courteous and polite, not talking at the top of their voices on the cellphone or making smarmy with the bus driver. No drug deals, No haggling over the fare, No graffiti, No chewing gum in inappropriate places.

I think there’s something in that for everybody, including employment for our latest migration nuisance…

I’m all for making the world a better and happier place with the proper allocation of big bad Maori’s to make sure people behave themselves.

That and I’d love to see some bozo with a gutful of grog/drugs/bravado try and take on a maori who all he has to do is shove out his foot and they go flying out the door.

Is it any wonder ACTION drivers get cranky?

– They cop abuse and/or attitude from customers who only want to pay the concession fare, but don’t have any ID on them because a. their wallet’s been stolen, b. they forgot their card, c. they haven’t had time or the inclination to get a new card, d. the dog ate their ID, e. haven’t had their first shot of heroin for the day, etc, etc!

– Having to wait while passengers fumble around in their pocket/bag for the fare, even though same passenger has been standing at the bus stop for 10 mins but couldn’t be bothered to sort the money situation out before the bus arrives because they were too busy talking on the mobile to their arsehole mates about how good Home and Away was last night!

– Having to put up with morons who hop on the bus and then ask “Is this bus the 313?”, when all they need to do is open their fuckin’ eyes and read the destination board before they hop on!

– Having to deal with junkie losers, old people and school kids all day long!

I travel on ACTION daily, and I get the shits with the above idiots after 20 mins, so imagine what it’d be like putting up with it for eight hours.

In fairness to the aforementioned passenger, I too have had to deal with a very aggressive, rude and (probably) late driver. Sunday arvo and I’d left my motorcar at Southlands because I hate driving around Tuggers trying to find a place to park. When i helpfully offered him the change in coins he snarled he didn’t have time to waste and he’d give me change for the fiver I’d given him. And told me to hurry up and sit down. The woman I sat next down beside said “Oh he was rude to me too!” so when I hopped off at Tuggers I duly filled in the complaints sheet and was rung up about a month later to say the driver concerned said he couldn’t remember the incident (guess if you’re rude to all passengers, you can’t remember individuals) but that it had gone down on his sheet. So it’s not always the passenger that’s to blame. But there’s a delightful lady driver who drives the 300 sat evenings who’s courteous, AND a good driver.

i see these little shits on the bus all the time.

kick her off i say. two sides to every story.

i suggest that if she had approached the initial negotiation regarding her fare, and the lack of student id, without the princess attitude, everything that followed – wouldnt have.

Also she writes in a fluro green, bold, small size font on a black background and i couldn’t get past the first few sentences before my eyes went nuts.

None-the-less, effective ‘public relations’ skills should be further promoted and delivered by ACTION staff.

Spoilt-Brat the passenger may be, but these sorts of incidents should be handled with velvet gloves…

Hate to point out the obvious, but she writes like a spoilt princess bitch who thinks she’s above shitty bus drivers.

I think there’s more to this story, and it might sound a little more truthful from the bus drivers side of the argument…

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