c.a.r.t

[kingswood]

after cruising on the macceslesfield 2 weeks ago with a river licence and a 30 day explorer I seen at least 3 enforcement officers on my return home received a nasty letter from cart saying I had only a river licence and had to pay up or else so after 3 phone calls and been passed onto someone who was to busy to answer told them to leave a message to ring me back ,of course that did not happen so sent an email and got a reply they were to busy to reply then 4 days later received a message on answer phone to ring Pauline somebody and when I rang it said another name and just whent into a voice box , so rang them again and this time some one tried to help she rang this women but guess what no answer so she has sent her a memo...... incompetent or what. when I told her the short term licence number she said it did not come up on computer, I said I bought it online in april and she said oh that's on our old system so that's why she could not find it ,so now im left in limbo land wondering if they will sort it out or they will take me court or something

[matty40s]

after cruising on the macceslesfield 2 weeks ago with a river licence and a 30 day explorer I seen at least 3 enforcement officers on my return home received a nasty letter from cart saying I had only a river licence and had to pay up or else so after 3 phone calls and been passed onto someone who was to busy to answer told them to leave a message to ring me back ,of course that did not happen so sent an email and got a reply they were to busy to reply then 4 days later received a message on answer phone to ring Pauline somebody and when I rang it said another name and just whent into a voice box , so rang them again and this time some one tried to help she rang this women but guess what no answer so she has sent her a memo...... incompetent or what. when I told her the short term licence number she said it did not come up on computer, I said I bought it online in april and she said oh that's on our old system so that's why she could not find it ,so now im left in limbo land wondering if they will sort it out or they will take me court or something

Ignore them, you have tried your best.

They will go away and find an easier victim.

Edited August 25, 2015 by matty40s

[MtB]

after cruising on the macceslesfield 2 weeks ago with a river licence and a 30 day explorer I seen at least 3 enforcement officers on my return home received a nasty letter from cart saying I had only a river licence and had to pay up or else so after 3 phone calls and been passed onto someone who was to busy to answer told them to leave a message to ring me back ,of course that did not happen so sent an email and got a reply they were to busy to reply then 4 days later received a message on answer phone to ring Pauline somebody and when I rang it said another name and just whent into a voice box , so rang them again and this time some one tried to help she rang this women but guess what no answer so she has sent her a memo...... incompetent or what. when I told her the short term licence number she said it did not come up on computer, I said I bought it online in april and she said oh that's on our old system so that's why she could not find it ,so now im left in limbo land wondering if they will sort it out or they will take me court or something

 

 

 

The fact that you received a letter suggests to me you need to reply by letter. Address it to whoever the letter is signed by.

 

Emails count for very little, and phone calls count for nothing in matters like this.

 

I suggest you write back saying you had a licence and this is the number. That's all you need to do.

 

Then forget it.

 

MtB

[cotswoldsman]

after cruising on the macceslesfield 2 weeks ago with a river licence and a 30 day explorer I seen at least 3 enforcement officers on my return home received a nasty letter from cart saying I had only a river licence and had to pay up or else so after 3 phone calls and been passed onto someone who was to busy to answer told them to leave a message to ring me back ,of course that did not happen so sent an email and got a reply they were to busy to reply then 4 days later received a message on answer phone to ring Pauline somebody and when I rang it said another name and just whent into a voice box , so rang them again and this time some one tried to help she rang this women but guess what no answer so she has sent her a memo...... incompetent or what. when I told her the short term licence number she said it did not come up on computer, I said I bought it online in april and she said oh that's on our old system so that's why she could not find it ,so now im left in limbo land wondering if they will sort it out or they will take me court or something

Wow you can't help be impressed with customer service since the appointment of a £100,000 a year customer service manager or has Ian Rogers been shuffled out of the door?

 

 

 

The fact that you received a letter suggests to me you need to reply by letter. Address it to whoever the letter is signed by.

 

Emails count for very little, and phone calls count for nothing in matters like this.

 

I suggest you write back saying you had a licence and this is the number. That's all you need to do.

 

Then forget it.

 

MtB

Who writes letters?

So you buy a licence go boating on your return you have to write a letter to cart to tell them you bought a licence seems like cart are losing the plot everywhere

[MtB]

Wow you can't help be impressed with customer service since the appointment of a £100,000 a year customer service manager or has Ian Rogers been shuffled out of the door?

 

 

You must have a very low threshold for being impressed. I think the standard of customer care here is appalling.

Who writes letters?

So you buy a licence go boating on your return you have to write a letter to cart to tell them you bought a licence seems like cart are losing the plot everywhere

 

 

Well CRT do, obviously!

 

And as emails and phone calls don't work, responding to a letter by writing back seems the obvious course of action.

 

Probably more effective than moaning on here about poor customer service, and should it end up in court, "here is a copy of the letter I sent back in response" will carry a lot more weight with a judge than 'I called them and left lots of messages and no-one called me back".

[Midnight]

Oh boy CaRT don't do themselves any favours do they?

 

Maybe the answer is "education" it's believed to be the answer to wayward towpath users, yes we need a man in charge who can suggest "education".

[jenlyn]

perhaps everyone has jumped ship.

[cotswoldsman]

 

 

You must have a very low threshold for being impressed. I think the standard of customer care here is appalling.

Actually I have a fairly low threshold on customer service but just hate complete lack of customer service.

 

O

As an example went to cash machine on Sunday and had message "Card Declined" phoned bank to find out what was happening and was told they wrote to me 3 weeks ago to tell me my account had been upgraded and a new card issued and my current card would be cancelled in 21 days. I was not happy. Yesterday I hired a car to do 200 mile round trip to go and pick up card. Today phoned bank to complain no argument was told they would rebate me the £50 it had cost for car and petrol. 30 mins later a customer service manager called to apologise and say they would credit my account with £100 for the inconvenience they had caused, that is what I call customer service

Edited August 25, 2015 by cotswoldsman

[John V]

I am afraid I no longer expect to have good service or correctly written communications from any source.

 

Over the last year I have received letters from various government departments and have noticed that many of them contain glaring errors,

I received a draft of a letter that had been prepared by my solicitor that contained three sentences commencing with the word "unfortunately" in one paragraph and another draft letter that was obviously a macro as the gender was incorrect.

 

At one time letters were typed out by secretaries with good language skills, now they seem to be bashed out by anyone who can thump a keyboard

[Midnight]

Actually I have a fairly low threshold on customer service but just hate complete lack of customer service.

 

O

As an example went to cash machine on Sunday and had message "Card Declined" phoned bank to find out what was happening and was told they wrote to me 3 weeks ago to tell me my account had been upgraded and a new card issued and my current card would be cancelled in 21 days. I was not happy. Yesterday I hired a car to do 200 mile round trip to go and pick up card. Today phoned bank to complain no argument was told they would rebate me the £50 it had cost for car and petrol. 30 mins later a customer service manager called to apologise and say they would credit my account with £100 for the inconvenience they had caused, that is what I call customer service

 

So we lobby the government to disband CaRT and let the bank run the waterways - simples!

[cotswoldsman]

 

 

You must have a very low threshold for being impressed. I think the standard of customer care here is appalling.

 

 

 

Well CRT do, obviously!

 

And as emails and phone calls don't work, responding to a letter by writing back seems the obvious course of action.

 

Probably more effective than moaning on here about poor customer service, and should it end up in court, "here is a copy of the letter I sent back in response" will carry a lot more weight with a judge than 'I called them and left lots of messages and no-one called me back".

Mike just read your post again. Is that what we have come to? You buy a short licence to cruise cart waters but at the back of your mind you have to rember you might end up in front of a Judge.

 

So we lobby the government to disband CaRT and let the bank run the waterways - simples!

Oh no please not. Just get cart sorted find someone who can actually run it

[jenlyn]

Mike just read your post again. Is that what we have come to? You buy a short licence to cruise cart waters but at the back of your mind you have to rember you might end up in front of a Judge.

 

Oh no please not. Just get cart sorted find someone who can actually run it

No, it shouldn't be. He's just making a noise to be noticed.

after cruising on the macceslesfield 2 weeks ago with a river licence and a 30 day explorer I seen at least 3 enforcement officers on my return home received a nasty letter from cart saying I had only a river licence and had to pay up or else so after 3 phone calls and been passed onto someone who was to busy to answer told them to leave a message to ring me back ,of course that did not happen so sent an email and got a reply they were to busy to reply then 4 days later received a message on answer phone to ring Pauline somebody and when I rang it said another name and just whent into a voice box , so rang them again and this time some one tried to help she rang this women but guess what no answer so she has sent her a memo...... incompetent or what. when I told her the short term licence number she said it did not come up on computer, I said I bought it online in april and she said oh that's on our old system so that's why she could not find it ,so now im left in limbo land wondering if they will sort it out or they will take me court or something

Its appalling.

[MtB]

Mike just read your post again. Is that what we have come to? You buy a short licence to cruise cart waters but at the back of your mind you have to rember you might end up in front of a Judge.

 

Oh no please not. Just get cart sorted find someone who can actually run it

 

 

Not really. CRT write to you, so you write back. It's what they expect. It's the normal, old fashioned way of doing business.

[cotswoldsman]

 

 

Not really. CRT write to you, so you write back. It's what they expect. It's the normal, old fashioned way of doing business.

You did not get my point. Never mind

[Machpoint005]

after cruising on the macceslesfield 2 weeks ago with a river licence and a 30 day explorer I seen at least 3 enforcement officers on my return home received a nasty letter from cart saying I had only a river licence and had to pay up or else so after 3 phone calls and been passed onto someone who was to busy to answer told them to leave a message to ring me back ,of course that did not happen so sent an email and got a reply they were to busy to reply then 4 days later received a message on answer phone to ring Pauline somebody and when I rang it said another name and just whent into a voice box , so rang them again and this time some one tried to help she rang this women but guess what no answer so she has sent her a memo...... incompetent or what. when I told her the short term licence number she said it did not come up on computer, I said I bought it online in april and she said oh that's on our old system so that's why she could not find it ,so now im left in limbo land wondering if they will sort it out or they will take me court or something

 

You received a letter from CRT. They had made a mistake, so the first thing to do was write back to them explaining the position. If your email to them was as difficult to read as this rant, I really do sympathise with the poor office person who had to try to make some sense of it.

 

In my experience, polite and clear explanations usually get results. Ranting at junior officials is unproductive. Why give them a ready-made excuse to ignore you?

 

 

Not really. CRT write to you, so you write back. It's what they expect. It's the normal, old fashioned way of doing business.

 

Bang on the money, Mike.

[jenlyn]

You received a letter from CRT. They had made a mistake, so the first thing to do was write back to them explaining the position. If your email to them was as difficult to read as this rant, I really do sympathise with the poor office person who had to try to make some sense of it.

 

In my experience, polite and clear explanations usually get results. Ranting at junior officials is unproductive. Why give them a ready-made excuse to ignore you?

 

 

Bang on the money, Mike.

Unbelievable presumption. Typical though.

[matty40s]

 

You received a letter from CRT. They had made a mistake, so the first thing to do was write back to them explaining the position. If your email to them was as difficult to read as this rant, I really do sympathise with the poor office person who had to try to make some sense of it.

 

In my experience, polite and clear explanations usually get results. Ranting at junior officials is unproductive. Why give them a ready-made excuse to ignore you?

 

Bang on the money, Mike.

if the letter is like most of CRT's now, it will say ring this number (either an enforcement officer, or the 0303040404040404040404040 number that is manned by Smash potato robots).

The OP probably did as asked.

The fact that his message is not in Queens English and grammatically up to Oxbridge standard is irrelevant.

Unfortunately.

[NilesMI]

I agree that it should not be necessary, but I would respond to CRT's letter, with a letter of your own, giving whatever reference is on their letter to you and addressing it to the person or job title that wrote it. Give them the number and dates of the visitor licence. CRT are so disorganised, that the person you finally spoke to who realised "that's on our old system so that's why she could not find it", may not have passed that information on to whoever is demanding money from you.

 

So write; a) to clear up the actual situation regarding the visitor licence, and b ) to ask for an explanation and apology for being sent a letter demanding money, else you will be speaking to your MP/Daily Mail* about their utter incompetence.

 

 

*delete, as appropriate

Edited August 26, 2015 by NilesMI

[Cruising Mike]

Very poor circumstances. How can CRT expect visitors (Local and International) to come back again after experiences like that? After all, they make money from licenses, moorings, Temp crusing licenses, what have you. Are they really willing to alienate everyone??

 

OP - Just to be on the safe side, i'd write back with you reference number and license number, keep a copy and forget abut it

[patty-ann]

Write letter..stick to fact...send photocopy of license...no waffle...bullet points...job done Keep copy..email copy.

These organisations don't know what they are doing....it could be that in tightening down on who they perceive to be ""non conformers to their rules they are indulging in witch hunts.

Edited August 26, 2015 by patty-ann

[cotswoldsman]

I am on the River Avon I wonder if when I leave they will send me a letter to prove I bought a licence

[Wanted]

Not really. CRT write to you, so you write back. It's what they expect. It's the normal, old fashioned way of doing business.

I think you are describing what you would like to happen rather than what you probably know will happen if a letter is written.

 

By far the most rigorous way of conducting business in this manner would be to phone up, discuss, agree that you will put it in an email and that you will request a read response. That way you have both understood tone and have a 'paper' trail.

 

I don't habitually knock CRT but it doesn't take a genius to see that their administration is appalling.

[Machpoint005]

Unbelievable presumption. Typical though.

 

What am I presuming? I was expressing my own reaction, besides showing a little fellow-feeling for undervalued office workers. It helps to give Authority all the facts, thus helping Authority to make the right decision (the one that is in your favour). Do you disagree with that premise?

>> it doesn't take a genius to see that their administration is appalling.<<

 

All the more reason to give them a little help in order to get things done.