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Harecastle Tunnel


Arthur Marshall

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Notice on board says to send email or phone to book a passage. Nice CRT lady on phone, when I finally negotiate the endless menu  says sorry, she can't book a passage as she has no access to the system. What are folk without email supposed to do? What the ???? Are CRT playing at?

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18 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Notice on board says to send email or phone to book a passage. Nice CRT lady on phone, when I finally negotiate the endless menu  says sorry, she can't book a passage as she has no access to the system. What are folk without email supposed to do? What the ???? Are CRT playing at?

Cyclists and fisherfolk don't have email or need access to C&RTs facilities so they are catering to the majority, not the minority.

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Nice lady on phone is probably still working from home.

If she can't access the system does that make her a cyclist of fisherwoman?

TD'

 

PS.

Arthur, why did you not send an email as you do have system access?

 

 

Edited by Tracy D'arth
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Just now, Tracy D'arth said:

Nice lady on phone is probably still working from home.

If she can't access the system does that make her a cyclist of fisherwoman?

TD'

Surely in an organisation the size of CRT they should either have somebody not working at home or a temporary transfer system so that somebody can be reached.

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4 minutes ago, Jerra said:

Surely in an organisation the size of CRT they should either have somebody not working at home or a temporary transfer system so that somebody can be reached.

Not really, the emergency lines go to the ambulance service now I was told.  C&RT are very good at evasion, they learnt it from licence dodgers.

TD'

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4 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Not really, the emergency lines go to the ambulance service now I was told.  C&RT are very good at evasion, they learnt it from licence dodgers.

TD'

My vets has a system where they can transfer the night time calls to the duty vet at home and years ago the docs did as well so the system does exist.   

 

They may be good at evasion but the fact remains they could have such a system and it is no reason why we the customers shouldn't point out to them when they are falling short.

 

I am basically pro CRT but that doesn't mean they are perfect and in this case they are IMO falling short of what could be reasonably expected.

Edited by Jerra
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9 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

Not really, the emergency lines go to the ambulance service now I was told.  C&RT are very good at evasion, they learnt it from licence dodgers.

TD'

I think it is actually the Nationwide 'call centre' that routes and redirects all 999 calls.

They handle incoming calls from other organisations when its 'quiet'.

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Why is it even necessary to book passage?

surely this isn’t down to covid; it can’t really take more than two staff members to operate the system, one at each end with no chance of transmitting it to each other. 

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29 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Cyclists and fisherfolk don't have email or need access to C&RTs facilities so they are catering to the majority, not the minority.

I tried to cycle through Harecastle tunnel with a fishing rod, but they wouldn't let me. Effing CaRT. Only interested in catering to boaters. ?

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7 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

I think it is actually the Nationwide 'call centre' that routes and redirects all 999 calls.

They handle incoming calls from other organisations when its 'quiet'.

I was referring to C&RT's emergency number, not the 3 emergency services,

TD'

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33 minutes ago, Jerra said:

Surely in an organisation the size of CRT they should either have somebody not working at home or a temporary transfer system so that somebody can be reached.

That doesn't follow - try dealing with Currys PC World at the moment - av 1hr wait for service via auto response phone number and if you want customer services to actually do anything just forget it - they tell you to write a letter as the email system is "temporarily" suspended which they never reply to.......... their price match or price g'tee can only be done via customer services so effectively it doesn't exist for the duration - off topic rant over!

 

Some organisations are rising to the challenge and others are hiding behind it.........and taking our money

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Just now, Halsey said:

That doesn't follow - try dealing with Currys PC World at the moment - av 1hr wait for service via auto response phone number and if you want customer services to actually do anything just forget it - they tell you to write a letter as the email system is "temporarily" suspended which they never reply to.......... their price match or price g'tee can only be done via customer services so effectively it doesn't exist for the duration - off topic rant over!

 

Some organisations are rising to the challenge and others are hiding behind it.........and taking our money

The point is it is possible and should be done.  Just because an organisation doesn't do it doesn't mean it is good practice and should be copied by the likes of CRT.

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1 hour ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Notice on board says to send email or phone to book a passage. Nice CRT lady on phone, when I finally negotiate the endless menu  says sorry, she can't book a passage as she has no access to the system. What are folk without email supposed to do? What the ???? Are CRT playing at?

CaRT seem to be in utter disarray at the moment. As far as boaters go they don't seem to have a clue - from badly worded stoppage notices to a constant stream of closures up here in Yorkshire. All three Pennine routes closed again and again. It's time for change starting at the top with that useless waste of oxygen Mr Parry. 

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13 minutes ago, Halsey said:

That doesn't follow - try dealing with Currys PC World at the moment - av 1hr wait for service via auto response phone number and if you want customer services to actually do anything just forget it - they tell you to write a letter as the email system is "temporarily" suspended which they never reply to.......... their price match or price g'tee can only be done via customer services so effectively it doesn't exist for the duration - off topic rant over!

 

Some organisations are rising to the challenge and others are hiding behind it.........and taking our money

We purchased a new cooker through Currys a few weeks ago, no issues getting a price match and Sunday installation. It was all a very painless experience and we were most impressed with their service.

 

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1 minute ago, Rob-M said:

We purchased a new cooker through Currys a few weeks ago, no issues getting a price match and Sunday installation. It was all a very painless experience and we were most impressed with their service.

 

I wonder if the CEO of Currys would be interested in a new job?

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55 minutes ago, Tracy D'arth said:

I was referring to C&RT's emergency number, not the 3 emergency services,

TD'

I know you were..

 

C&RTs 0303 number goes to a the call centre that handles the 999 calls and has 'expanded' its operations to service big commercial companies.

 

You didn't really think C&RT answer the phone calls themselves did you ?

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35 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

We purchased a new cooker through Currys a few weeks ago, no issues getting a price match and Sunday installation. It was all a very painless experience and we were most impressed with their service.

 

Wait till you need to contact them if you need post sales support.

 

Green Flag are another one, took me 45 minutes yesterday to get through to change my payment details.

 

As the days go by and lockdown restrictions loosen I am increasingly believing companies are just using covid 19 as an excuse to offer shoddy customer servce and limited access to backup support.

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1 hour ago, Arthur Marshall said:

Notice on board says to send email or phone to book a passage. Nice CRT lady on phone, when I finally negotiate the endless menu  says sorry, she can't book a passage as she has no access to the system. What are folk without email supposed to do? What the ???? Are CRT playing at?

From what I am aware of, you need to call the Customer Service Number (0303 040 4040) and select the West Midlands area. Harecastle is not on the online booking portal, as far as I can see. so this may be confusing things.

 

FYI. Not sure about who mans Customer Service n umber but all the calls get passed to  regional C&RT Support Teams (who are all C&RT staff).

 

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7 minutes ago, Rassiloth said:

From what I am aware of, you need to call the Customer Service Number (0303 040 4040) and select the West Midlands area. Harecastle is not on the online booking portal, as far as I can see. so this may be confusing things.

 

FYI. Not sure about who mans Customer Service n umber but all the calls get passed to  regional C&RT Support Teams (who are all C&RT staff).

 

Just email them.  They got back to me in about half an hour.  Job done.

 

The op could have just done this rather than moaning on here.

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1 minute ago, Rassiloth said:

FYI. Not sure about who mans Customer Service n umber but all the calls get passed to  regional C&RT Support Teams (who are all C&RT staff).

You call and say "I'd like to report a lock leaking - number 123 on the T&M"

 

"Thank you, whereabouts is that ?"

 

"It is lock number 123 on the Trent & Mersey canal"

 

"But where is it ?"

 

"It is near anytown "

 

"Where is any town"

 

"Its about 10 miles NW of Middlewich"

 

"Where is Middlewich"

 

"Don't worry the canal pound is now drained"

 

"I need to log the call - which CRT area is Middlewich in ? I cannot do anything without knowing who is responsible for that area".

 

 

 

 

I had a very similar response when calling 999 to report a trailer stolen from the farm and that I was following the thieves,

After trying for several minutes trying to explain where in Wales we were, spelling names, giving nearest towns etc, I asked the operator where she was - "Edinburgh was the reply".

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14 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

I had a very similar response when calling 999 to report a trailer stolen from the farm and that I was following the thieves,

After trying for several minutes trying to explain where in Wales we were, spelling names, giving nearest towns etc, I asked the operator where she was - "Edinburgh was the reply".

I suspect the best idea is to give them an approximate area (Middlewich is North West if that helps).

 

Once it gets to the C&RT Support Teams they will apparantly pass it to the correct one of its not right.

 

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35 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

You call and say "I'd like to report a lock leaking - number 123 on the T&M"

 

"Thank you, whereabouts is that ?"

 

"It is lock number 123 on the Trent & Mersey canal"

 

"But where is it ?"

 

"It is near anytown "

 

"Where is any town"

 

"Its about 10 miles NW of Middlewich"

 

"Where is Middlewich"

 

"Don't worry the canal pound is now drained"

 

"I need to log the call - which CRT area is Middlewich in ? I cannot do anything without knowing who is responsible for that area".

 

 

 

 

I had a very similar response when calling 999 to report a trailer stolen from the farm and that I was following the thieves,

After trying for several minutes trying to explain where in Wales we were, spelling names, giving nearest towns etc, I asked the operator where she was - "Edinburgh was the reply".

You could give them one of those 'What three words' - you know something like "clueless" "uneducated" "tosser"

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2 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Did you not book passage by email as requested ?

I did. Luckily, for the first time ever , I have email on the boat. I asked why they had given a useless phone line, and apparently if you ring it, select option 4, then select option 2, you get the nice lady who is meant to pass your phone number on to the people who do the booking and they will phone you back, assuming you still have a signal. Only she obviously didn't know that, and so nor did I. And nor would anyone else who rang!

Why the hell they can't give you the phone number of the people who phone you back, I dunno.

I still don't really know how you social distance in the tunnel, but as you've got a megafan blowing everything off the boat in front straight down your throat, they may have a point and I may even wear a (almost certainly useless) mask.

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