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Thanks CRT!


magictime

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3 hours ago, magictime said:

Say what you like about CRT, but name one other large, national organisation you could expect to phone up and have a customer service experience like the one I had yesterday:

 

"Hello, Canal & River Trust, how can I help?"

 

"Is there any chance you could get hold of somebody at your Etruria yard? I think I might have left a set of keys in the shower at the service block before we left this morning."

 

"Hmm... hold on and I'll see if I can get hold of the Area Supervisor, Alan Whitehouse, for you"

 

[Brr brr… brr brr…]

 

"Hello, Alan Whitehouse speaking."

 

"Oh hi, I was just explaining that [bla bla bla]…"

 

"I'm just at Etruria now actually... Hang on... I'm just walking round... in the shower? Yes I've got them. Where are you now?"

 

"Barlaston, but we've only stopped for lunch really, we were hoping to head towards Stone."

 

"That's okay, we can bridge hop. Just give me your number and I'll phone and check where you are when somebody's able to set off."

 

Half an hour later Alan quite cheerfully hands the keys to me by my boat at Barlaston after all, explaining that he was planning to do a job down that way on Friday anyway and decided he might as well just do it then instead.

 

Top marks I'd say. And they were already in my good books for offering to dispose of all my contaminated bilge water from Monday for me (see my earlier post) if I just left the containers out by the skip.

 I now have engraved brass tags on all my sets of boat keys with my phone number on them. 

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I have a similar story though possibly not so amazingly personalised. 

 

As a newbie to the canals having spent most of my boting life on The Thames, I set off up one of the Birmingham area flights on a wet Sunday afternoon, can't remember which, and after four locks encountered one with the handcuff locks all set. Never having seen these and the previous locks all happening by chance to be unlocked, I as totally wrong-footed. I called the BW number not expecting much but no, a helpful woman answered and explained about needing a 'handcuff key'. I said there wasn't one in the boat to my knowledge so she said don't worry, she would send someone out to bring me one. AMAZING! 

 

30 mins later a BW bod turned up with a handcuff key at 4pm on a Sunday afternoon, no charge. I tried to make him accept a tenner for key as I was so grateful but he was having none of it.

 

Like the OP, I find this level of customer service quite wonderful. Thank you BW, and latterly CRT. 

  • Greenie 1
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1 hour ago, David Lorimer said:

Lovely to hear these stories, magictime and mike the b...  because it reminds us that (for a change these days) there are real people at the other end of the line.  And it puts all the other CRT-bashing in perspective.  

seconded

 

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CaRT staff individually are (mostly) very helpful - It's the organisation itself that is open to criticism - and that's a management issue. A lot of blame can be directed to the various governments legislation that places a huge burden of rules and paperwork and any large enterprise.

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23 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

I have a similar story though possibly not so amazingly personalised. 

 

As a newbie to the canals having spent most of my boting life on The Thames, I set off up one of the Birmingham area flights on a wet Sunday afternoon, can't remember which, and after four locks encountered one with the handcuff locks all set. Never having seen these and the previous locks all happening by chance to be unlocked, I as totally wrong-footed. I called the BW number not expecting much but no, a helpful woman answered and explained about needing a 'handcuff key'. I said there wasn't one in the boat to my knowledge so she said don't worry, she would send someone out to bring me one. AMAZING! 

 

30 mins later a BW bod turned up with a handcuff key at 4pm on a Sunday afternoon, no charge. I tried to make him accept a tenner for key as I was so grateful but he was having none of it.

 

Like the OP, I find this level of customer service quite wonderful. Thank you BW, and latterly CRT. 

I had exactly the same experience on the BCN about seven years ago. Rang CaRT ( or more likely its predecessor) late in the afternoon, and within 15 mins a handcuff key was delivered.  Wonderful service and no money accepted although offered.

 

We have experienced nothing but superb assistance and service over the years from so many waterways personnel. We may have been lucky, but I prefer to think that it is the norm.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Someone crashed hard into the stop lock on the Macc a couple of weeks ago (deliberately trying to open it before it was empty, according to a witness), dislodging the gate post (or whatever it's called) and the metal collar round it at the bottom, so the gate got progressively worse as it leant more and more into the canal.  I came through last week and got stuck as the gate would no longer open enough - had to surge it out by opening the top paddles a couple of times.  Emailed CRT when i got home with a description of the problem, went through it again last Sunday and it's been fixed. Must have been done within a day or two of my emailing, and they've refixed all the gates, not just the buggered one.

 

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