The Alternative Take Versus Brian Souter of Stagecoach Group PLC

Long story short; bus was late, Megabus is still shit, and there is still no men on Mars. Lets see how far we can take this one.


Brian Souter
Chairman of Stagecoach
10 Dunkeld Road
Perth
PH1 5TW
Scotland

Dear Mr Souter,

I am writing this letter in order to seek your advice. On Saturday the 28th of March I was on the Aberdeen to London Service, departing Aberdeen Bus Station at 19.15pm and arriving in London on the 29th of March at Victoria Coach Station at 7.05am for which I paid £15 for. The first coach we were on started making weird sounds and it was replaced just outside Cumbria after a 30 minute wait and a further drive. On arriving to the next bus we were then squeezed from an original double deck bus to a single deck bus – which, as you can imagine, was a very tight squeeze.

About two hours into the new journey on the new bus the bus was stopped and the driver got out of the bus and advised us that we would yet again have to be changing buses as the Emergency Exit at the rear of the bus was not working.

We drove a little further and got onto the third and final bus which, touch wood, was fine and in the end got us into London two hours late. When I initially booked the bus I also booked a subsequent train leaving from London Liverpool Street at just after 9 o’clock, giving myself a two hour gap in case of delays and in case there was Sunday morning congestion on the tubes. I thought this would be enough. It wasn’t. We arrived in Victoria at roughly 9.30 on the Sunday morning, and therefore I missed my connecting train.

Whilst I appreciate that buses can be susceptible to delays, I did not expect that a bus would be replaced simply because the Emergency Exit was not checked before the passengers got onto the second bus. This led the bus driver to drive exceptionally slow for a long period of time, and could have been avoided had the appropriate checks taken place. I use Megabus frequently, and never have I experienced such poor management of a bus service. I would not be complaining had I paid a mere £1 for my journey, but due to the fact that I paid £15 for the journey I felt I had to do something. My connecting train was of an initial price of £7, as it was pre-booked, but I had to pay £15 or so on arrival at Liverpool Street Station in order to catch the next train.

I’m severely disappointed as the delays could have been avoided and I, like many others, would not have suffered the delays we experienced.

I would appreciate a reply in writing.

Yours sincerely,

The Alternative Take


All this letter-writing makes me feel like Adrian Mole. I still have three essays I need to do for university. Uh oh.

The Alternative Take Versus Kevin Russell of Three

Okay, so I snapped. I've been with three for 17 months, and I just upgraded and the service got worse. I'm pissed off cos I get delayed text messages, no reception ever, ANYWHERE, and the phone I got sucks reaaaaallly badly. The Irish guy in the shop pretty much hypnotised me to sign a new contract and I naively and duly delivered. I'll write a letter I thought; worked the last time.






Here it is:


Kevin Russell
Chief Executive of Three
Star House
20 Grenfell Road
Maidenhead
Berkshire SL6 1EH

8th April 2009

Dear Mr Russell,

I am writing this letter to you after two months of increasingly poor service from Three. I recently upgraded my phone, and this seems to have made the service even worse. Shouldn’t you be treating your current and extending customers with slightly better service? Your ineptitude of providing decent coverage in my area drives me absolutely mad. I live 60 miles from London, one of the most important capitals in the world and I cannot even get enough reception to make a simple phone call, and when I do stand on a high enough hill to make a phone call or connect to the internet the coverage seems to change with the wind. Is this really what should be happening? I applaud and thank you for neglecting the South of England. Half the year I also live in the North of Scotland, and there the reception is sparse at best.

Even more annoyingly, I go to London very frequently and I was standing in East London – just down from Liverpool Street Station, and what a surprise. No reception. Frankly it is ridiculous.

Despite the negatives there are some positives. I do agree that Three has done some brilliant wrangling to get contracts written up with Skype and MSN, however I do feel that what should be of tantamount importance to a Mobile Phone company is providing adequate coverage in order for their customers to make a call. Maybe instead of multi-million pound deals with major corporations you should be aiming to provide the best quality service to your customers – which, you don’t.

I would like to cancel my contract with you with immediate effect and receive a full refund of my past two monthly payments to you because during those two months the coverage I have received and ability of my phone to make a call has been appalling. I’m tired of wondering around with my phone above my head to try and send a text message. Frequently I have had to wait over a day to receive certain text messages, and this leaves me considerably out of step. They should be instant, that’s the point.

If I was paying £10 a month for the service I receive from you I wouldn’t be sending this letter. But for £21 a month or £252 a year I expect much better service.

I would appreciate a reply in writing.

Yours sincerely,


The Alternative Take

I will of course keep you updated on my progress. Sad thing is, Kevin Russell looks like a real nice guy. Bet he's got an iPhone on 02 though. Next up; Megabus.

The Alternative Take Versus Stephen Hester of Natwest

Ok, so I hate Natwest. I've always hated Natwest. The only reason I ever joined in the first place was so I could get a solo debit card at the age of 16 and could buy things off the internet, but that was just about the only good thing about them.

I was absolutely shocked and bemused when I received a forwarded letter from my Mum in England to me in Scotland detailing that I owed National Wesminster Bank PLC a total of £282.18 in bank fines that had been accumulating on an initial -£3.50 that had been direct debited from my account for my website - which my Paypal account mysteriously didn't cover.

Hmmn, I thought.

I rang them up and the lovely chap on the end of the phone told me that I HAD to pay the money, or face bailifs coming round my house. It's not even MY house. I tell you what, you can have my collection of priceless Clash records if you wipe my fines right? Forget that, I like The Clash - hands off and f--k off, I'm not letting you take Combat Rock away from me.

So I wrote this:


Stephen Hester
Chief Executive National Westminster Bank
135 Bishopsgate
London EC2M 3UR

24th February 2009,

Dear Mr Hester,


Last week my Mother forwarded a letter from National Westminster Bank to me at my new address in Scotland, detailing that I owe you £282.18 on account number xxxxxxx and reference number xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

This is the first letter I have received from home regarding my NatWest account with you as it is no longer my main account and I have not deposited money nor withdrawn money from it in half a year. I opened the letter and to my amazement noticed the outstanding balance of £282.18, to which I could not account for. Immediately I was under the impression that someone had defrauded my account and that, due to me using another bank account as my primary account, I had not noticed until now and assumed that ringing the bank would lead to it being settled. I rang the number provided and spoke to someone in your Collections Centre and was told, to my utter surprise, that I had amassed £282.18 in fines due to the fact that I had gone overdrawn by £3.50 many months ago, and that after the initial fine of £38, another £28 was added per month that the money hadn’t been repaid. I did not realise this would happen and did not realise, indeed, that it was happening.

I have incurred fines before with NatWest and have paid them all off despite, I may add, the disproportionate level of fine compared with the actual overdrawn amount. I have always been confused with NatWest’s level of fines of £38 whilst their parent company Royal Bank of Scotland only charge £10 per item overdrawn. In fact, had I known I was going to go into an overdraft position, I would have arranged one with you, just like I have done with my other bank. Not only that, but there have been calls to my Mother’s address at 8.30am for the past few mornings requesting that I call the bank. This incident has nothing whatsoever to do with her, and the phone calls have left her upset especially due to their awkward and frequent pestering. It’s also interesting why I didn’t receive a phone call when the initial amount was accumulating and that you waited six months to get in touch with me.

This is appalling lack of judgement on your part and considering my age of 20 and as a full time student, frankly disgusting. When I further called the Collections Centre I was told the calls would only stop if I delivered a letter to a local branch detailing my concerns and/or paid off the outstanding balance in full. The man on the other end of the phone threatened that I may have to deal with debt collectors because the claim against me was going to a ‘default stage’. I’m not entirely sure as to whether his hostile role was company policy or individual discretion, but I was worried and anxious that my Mum would be affected by this policy and his lack of tact. Had I known that these fines were building on my account from an early stage, I would have settled them immediately. But you did not give me the chance to do so.

My old house phone (my Mother’s current phone) has been on record with you since I have had this bank account, which is well over 7 years, but you waited for the optimum time to call me to demand money owed. Why did you not call sooner? What was stopping you? I’m extremely dumfounded that I owe this level of money, I am shocked that £3.50 has turned into nearly £300, it’s appalling that you, as a bank in a position of power can try to exploit and try to take advantage of small print to push through a inexcusable and immoral level of fining on my account without my knowledge.

I would like you to respond personally to me, advising how we can go forward with this. It’s obvious I cannot pay this amount, and I don’t even have assets totalling that amount!

Yours Sincerely,

Signed "The Alternative Take"

Cc: Alistair Darling MP, Frank Doran MP

And there it was.

Literally two days later, I recieved a letter in the post. Called Stephen Hester's office, and spoke to a very apologetic deputy who informed me that ALL my fines would be wiped, and they were very sorry that it had got to that stage.

This escapade has told me to be careful with my money, don't ever bank with Natwest, taught me that the banks can be beaten, oh and to write more letters.

Okay, so I like writing letters.

In short, I like writing letters.

Stroppy letters.

You know the ones that ask for blood and guts, ones that go straight to the throat to the recepient. Ones that when they read what I have to say they will cry and bow down to my every command. If I get bad service from a company, I'll tell them, and I will want certain monetary refunds or allowances.

Most people don't bother. But I'm sick and tired of my bank, my mobile phone company, my internet company and public transport. It drives me nuts and I'm going to hit back. I give my most recent example above.