Category — customer service

Vanessa Knight, the Director of Events and Student Life at Kwantlen, in collaboration with Ashley Fehr (the Chair and Director of Academic Affairs at Kwantlen) recently wrote a piece regarding the availability of late night transit out of downtown Vancouver which really annoyed me.

As a recap, Ms. Knight is miffed that TransLink did not run transit later than usual on Halloween night while she and her “posse” were out “getting their drink on”. Apparently sobering up in the wee hours of a cold November morning while dressed in a slutty, cold-weather-inappropriate costume kind of sucks.

Ms. Knight also complains that TransLink is more concerned with impressing visitors for the Olympics than its own citizens (and unfortunately, that’s probably true) and that McDonald’s has more sense because they stay open late to take advantage of all the drunk people with the munchies.

I don’t disagree with the assertion that public transit should be available late at night for people too inebriated to drive – that’s one of the great things about public transit – but how late is late enough?

Vancouver, a city that tags itself as “world class” (and don’t get me started on that misnomer), has transit that stops running pretty early considering how late the night life in downtown Vancouver runs. Any city that is truly “world class” (I’m looking at you Berlin) has a 24-hour transit system in place – or at least one that runs until 2 or 3 a.m.

And let’s face it; a cab ride from downtown Vancouver to say Burnaby, Surrey or Port Coquitlam etc. can get pretty expensive – and that assumes you can find a cab driver who will take you anywhere if you’re drunk. Most cabbies, quite reasonably, don’t want drunk people in their car.

That being said, TransLink’s operating hours are not exactly a secret. TransLink didn’t just spring this on an unsuspecting public for Halloween – the hours are clearly posted on their website along with maps of every route and time tables for every single stop. Their website isn’t easy to navigate (the maps are hard to get to), but the information is there.

Perhaps the reason TransLink doesn’t run later isn’t just that they don’t care about the citizens of Vancouver, or that they are financially constrained but, perhaps they don’t wish to be perceived as supporting “getting your drink on” at clubs. I bet they also don’t want to clean up the resulting mess of a bunch of drunks with food from those captains of industry at McDonald’s off the bus seats and floors.

Another good reason for transit not to run late: TransLink performs maintenance on buses and train lines at night to ensure that everyone gets a safe ride during their hours of operation. It seems TransLink is damned if they do and damned if they don’t. Terminate service at 1 a.m. – people complain. Run transit 24-hours and do the bare minimum for maintenance and repairs – people would complain.

Knowing that Ms. Knight, perhaps you should have planned your night out a little better. And that goes for the “other 200 people” you mentioned and the “hundreds of people trapped downtown” every Friday and Saturday night. You could have done any of the following before headed out dressed as a “slutty version” of anything:

• Rent a hotel room together.
• Share a cab to the closest house and crash.
• Plan your time accordingly and make sure you’re on the last bus home.

These ideas are not beyond your intelligence.

Just for the record, I find it very hard to believe that the same people get “trapped” downtown every weekend. Is their ability to remember when the buses stop running hampered by the amount of alcohol they consume? I could see that happening once or twice, but every weekend? Give me a break – if that’s really the case, then those hundreds of people are morons who drink too much.

I suppose your next argument would be cash flow – but, if you can afford to pay cover charges at clubs and pay more to get drunk at said clubs; you can afford to share the cost of a hotel room or a cab.

Your “bleary eyed $2.50” is hardly an inducement for incurring the extra expense of running transit an hour later.

I’ve seen drunken people on transit here – it’s not pretty: loud, obnoxious, reeking of booze (and, in one case, urine) and a river of vomit under the seats. I sure didn’t envy the poor driver who had to hose down and disinfect the bus that night. I wonder if he appreciated those party-goers $2.50?

Your right to pass out on the bus, be a drunken nuisance, or throw up on yourself does not trump TransLink’s policy of providing their employees with a safe and puke-free environment in which to work.

Ms. Knight, as the Events and Student Life Director for the Kwantlen Student Association, couldn’t you find something more important and pressing to write about? This article – written in association with your position at Kwantlen, gives the impression that being inebriated and unable to get home is part of the routine for Kwantlen students. Also, as someone who is in charge of events and student life, you do a poor job of planning your own events and life if you can’t manage to catch a bus out of downtown by 1 a.m.

I’m even more surprised that the Chair and Director of Academic Affairs thinks this is an appropriate story to have associated with Kwantlen.

How would you feel about a $2.50 donation towards finding something resembling journalism at Kwantlen?

Dear Chapters.ca,

I made some purchases on your site today – not just because I like to shop Canadian, but also because Amazon’s shopping cart kept losing one of my items intermittently.

I purchased four items; two of them will ship now and two will ship later. The total of these four items, before taxes, exceeds your $36.00 minumum for free shipping – yet, I was charged $11 for shipping.

This is a little confusing – if my order total exceeds your minimum requirements – why am I paying any shipping at all, regardless of when the books are published? This seems like a scam because you don’t explain why the shipping costs are being added to an order that exceeds your minimum purchase total.

I am also puzzled by your feedback request. You said “We value your feedback. Tell us what you think.”

So, ready to oblige, I clicked the link and got a single question: “Please rate [on a scale of one to 10] your overall site experience with us today. Please select one response only, based on your experience you had with us today.”

Aside from being poorly worded, is that really all the feedback you want? If you value my feedback, let me give you some actual feedback! This single and uninformative question doesn’t make me feel valued. This question says “We got your money already, but for legal reasons, we’re obliged to give you the impression that your opinion matters.”

Why is there not a feedback form and questions – so you can get specific feedback about possible improvements or even praise for a job well done?

I don’t need a personal response from the CEO about my feedback (though, if Heather Reisman wants to address that stupid shipping gaffe I’d sure like an answer), but come on, at least pretend like your customers matter.

That feedback question is nothing more than a pacifier – and I am NOT pacified.

Cordially,

R.

Dear Starbucks,

I swore I’d never go to another Starbucks after the Vancouver airport fiasco. The airport Starbucks served my fiance a muffin that had plastic bits in it which sliced up the roof of his mouth. To give you credit, you did refund my money for that – after an argument where you demanded a receipt and denied I’d ever been there, despite the fact that less than five minutes had passed since my purchase.

I tried again to go to a Starbucks a few months ago, but the creepy Paul McCartney CD covers near the muffin display put me off eating or drinking anything.

However, I thought to myself yesterday: ”The shrapnel filled muffin was just a mistake and it’s not Starbucks fault that Paul McCartney thinks he’s a 16 year old girl posing for a magazine cover. It’s hot, you need an internet connection and this place is not too busy and has wireless.”

So, I ordered an iced tea – no sweetener – and a slice of lemon loaf. I took a sip of the iced tea and brought it straight back to the counter to ask for one with no sweetener. This was annoying, but hey, mistakes happen. Your staff gave me a new one and a coupon for a drink on the house.

Here is why I won’t be redeeming that coupon anytime soon: your wireless Internet isn’t free.

Perhaps I’ve been spoiled by Waves Coffee and their free Internet and maybe I should I have just gone there instead, but you were right there and I was desperate. Your staff said I needed to pay for a connection and that I had to be a Fido, Bell or Rogers customer in order to pay. My phone is with Telus – apparently the only phone company not succumbing to the siren song of Starbucks – so I was S.O.L. 

I should be more upset that you made my fiance bleed, but I figured that wasn’t deliberate. Forcing people to pay to use your wireless Internet is a very deliberate money grab. Is it that expensive? Are you worried that people will start piggybacking on your connection without purchasing something first? Is this the first step to making people swipe a credit card to use the toilet?

I’m not sure how you justify charging for an Internet connection and I certainly can’t understand why you’d limit who can connect, but I hope you’re using that extra income to pay your staff more and buy toilet paper for your restrooms.

Regards,

A Dissatisfied Customer