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1.6

I sent the following letter to the Metra complaints department 2 days ago. I was told that I'd receive a call by yesterday. Nope.

Here's the letter:

To Whomever This May Concern,

I apologize in advance for the length of this message. A lot happened that led to the incident that I wish to be addressed. Other aspects of what happened could also be addressed, but there is one main incident that is the reason why you're receiving this email today.

For the record, I've already had a conversation with a very helpful gentleman by the name of J. C. Manning and one of your other staff (a woman by the name of Holly who was also very nice) along with a couple of other members of your staff regarding this incident. I think you have some good people there who understand how to respond to a concern and others who do not.

I began by barely missing the 2:30 BNSF express train. Your digital clocks had me entering the track area with about :15 seconds to spare, but by then I was being flagged down by your Metra Police telling me that I couldn't board. When I explained that your clocks had me with :15 seconds to spare, he told me that the clocks were wrong and that they literally depart at 2:30 (which I know not to be the case since I'm a monthly pass holder) and so they have to close the doors early and power up, etc. He was not very sympathetic. If I had to describe him, he was dismissive and talked down to me. That is NOT what I'm writing about. The simple solution for Metra would be to either fix your clocks (or set them a little early since they're not on time as it is) or put 2:29 as the departure time thus avoiding all potential complaints about cars leaving or closing early. Again, this is NOT the reason for this email.

As I'm deciding what to do next, I see two conductors and someone in plain-ish clothes in a conversation. I approach one of the conductors and started with "Excuse me. So if you're saying the train leaves at 2:30..." and there were a couple of other sentences following that - all said calmly, civilly, not overly loudly. He chose to pretend that I wasn't there. Literally. He looked right past me.

I followed with "Are you seriously going to pretend that I'm not standing in front of you right now (I was less than arms length) and pretend that I'm not here trying to have a conversation with you? You're kidding me - right?" THIS is the reason for my email. There's more, so keep reading.

At that point, I heard a voice behind me. There were two Amtrak police behind me - one younger, one older. The older gentleman was, again, dismissive, and tried to tell me that I was at fault for not getting there earlier. He made the comparison to the airport and flying on a plane, followed by security reasons and regulations. The younger gentleman was actually okay. He was a little bit more conciliatory and not dismissive and did not talk down to me like the first two Metra/Amtrak Policemen. These two gentlemen are NOT the reason for my email. They directed me to where I could file a complaint or recommendation.

As I started to walk towards the ticket area, I decided that I refused to be treated with such disrespect as was shown by your Conductor, so I went over to him calmly and asked for his name. Again, he refused to acknowledge me. He had no tag on that I could see. Then, he turned to the other conductor and the gentleman in the plain clothes, said something to them, and they all started laughing out loud about it. THIS is also what I'm writing you about.

From there, I turned to have a conversation with Holly. She was dealing with a power outage, and, despite that was still extremely courteous and tried to be helpful. She wasn't able to give me the names of the conductors and I'm not sure if the request made her uncomfortable or if she really didn't know their names. Either way, she was really good in this situation. Again, she ultimately directed me to the ticket area to file my complaint and through various other agents and staff, I finally came across Mr. Manning.

At first he thought I was harassing his staff over a train I missed. I explained to him that at this point, although the Metra/Amtrak officers weren't exactly nice in their response, I understood it. Holly definitely helped. I even told J. C. that had the conductor been professional, I wouldn't have any reason to escalate this to him.

What I find unacceptable is the conduct of your conductor and his two colleagues. Even if he didn't feel comfortable or at liberty to have a conversation with me, the least he could have done would have been to direct me to the complaints area. He took a situation that he could have helped and decided that he had the power to make me feel small.

At the end of the day, all of your staff - be it a ticket agent, to a track officer, to management, to your conductors are part of the customer service experience. I understand that they deal with crabby, and, I imagine, impolite people all day long, but the service you provide is based in customer service and satisfaction. There is no other successful company that I can think of where, if I have a question or complaint, and I go to a representative of that company - whether it be a employee or a manager, that it would be acceptable to disrespect me, literally look through me and act like I wasn't there, and then ridicule me with co-workers. Not only is this unprofessional, but it is uncivil and this is NOT acceptable in any way, shape, or form from any organization that relies on the patronage of their clients. My goal with this letter is to make sure that this does NOT happen again from this or ANY of your staff, but specifically the conductor in question. If you disagree that this form of behavior is unacceptable, then please direct me to someone else that takes this stuff seriously.

No one was willing or able to provide me with a name. That said, I am more than willing and motivated and likely to go back and get a photo, and I'll happily send that to you as well as post it on my social media feeds if that helps to get this resolved satisfactorily.

There is an old saying that you should take very seriously in your business model: "Make someone happy, they'll tell their friends. Make someone angry, and they'll tell everyone." My point is that I will not be letting this rest until you've provided me a reasonable resolution and follow-up.

Best Regards,

Jason

Reason of review: Poor customer service.

Preferred solution: Let the company propose a solution.

Location: 18 W Monroe St, Chicago, IL 60603, USA

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