19 April, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Okay, this is a mega-rant against Eurostar. You have been warned. I wrote them an e-mail upon my arrival in London, after I had been subjected to one of the worst travel experiences of my life. Today I finally received a response from them, which was a joke. So in light of that, I thought you might enjoy reading this little doozy that I wrote when I was fresh off the train last week and still suffering from post-traumatic shock.
In my post on Friday, I alluded to my horrific send-off from Paris. That was all thanks to Eurostar and Gare du Nord (the train station in Paris). I had heavy luggage, as you know. There were NO trolleys (luggage carts) in the entire station. Apparently, they were all being used, though I didn’t actually see many people pushing them around. My taxi driver walked around the station to try to find me one (yes, I swear he did) and he was very pissed that there were none to be found. So I had to cart my luggage around by myself, which was nearly impossible. And this involved going up and down escalators a couple times all the while being harassed by gypsies begging for money.
None of the Eurostar employees I encountered bothered to help me at all. They didn’t bother to help me find a trolley, they didn’t call a porter to help me — zilch. Not only that, they appeared to have complete contempt for me and all their other passengers. Their attitude was like this: You want to take the train to London? Well, Eurostar is your only option. If you don’t like it, tough.
I really can’t begin to describe what this was like. For example, I was waiting to check-in and my suitcase fell over. A Eurostar employee was standing there with his arms folded, doing nothing (as usual). He was perhaps six inches from me. He saw I couldn’t handle my baggage alone but he just looked at me. It was surreal. Another passenger walked up and he immediately helped me. Isn’t that what normal humans do? I asked several Eurostar employees for help. Most just stared at me, looking right through me as if I were invisible. One guy said he was helping someone else and walked off. Another guy said there was nothing he could do — it was a holiday week because of Easter, the train station was crowded and everyone was busy. Busy? I don’t think I saw one Eurostar employee in Paris actually doing any work. In fact, this is what a classified ad for a Eurostar job could very well look like:
Do you enjoy standing around and doing nothing?
Would you rather spend time chatting with your fellow employees than working?
Have you perfected a look of complete uselessness (facial expressions and body language)?
Are you generally ill-tempered and rude?
Can you look at people who need assistance and completely ignore them, all the while secretly delighting in their pain?
Has anyone ever told you that you might be a psychopath?
Are you an asshole?
If you answered yes to all these questions, Eurostar wants YOU! You have a fabulous career ahead of you in our Paris offices.
As if all the hassle I’d been subjected to wasn’t enough, the cops decided to go through one of my suitcases and started asking me all sorts of questions. They wanted to see my passport and my ticket. They asked me if I was exporting things to London. No, just my life! Then they went through my suitcase, took out all my underwear and placed it on a big metal table for everyone to see. Lovely. Then they looked through the photos I had and all my books. Then more questions:
“Why do you have so many books?”
Is it a crime to have books? I said, “Because I’m a student.”
“Are you carrying a lot of cash with you?”
“No.”
“Do you have more than 750€ with you?”
“I have a grand total of 3€ in my wallet. You can check if you want.”
Apparently, I must look like some sort of criminal mastermind.
I was finally released from this humiliation — with about 5 minutes to go until the train left. Because I was in the third car, I had to walk the equivalent of perhaps 5 or 6 city blocks. I am not kidding. The train is very long. So I asked the Eurostar zombie at the top of the escalator that lead to the train if someone could please help me, because I knew I could not make it that far with my luggage. She shrugged her shoulders and did one of those French pouty things, just like a cartoon character. I SWEAR! So off I went. One of my suitcases tumbled down the escalator and the guy at the bottom did nothing to help.
I knew there was no way I was going to make it. My arms hurt so bad from dragging two very heavy suitcases. The train was leaving in two minutes. And right then, I almost just started to cry. I thought I was going to collapse. I know I might seem like a drama queen on this blog, but I’m not the type of person who cries in public or engages in theatrics like that. I’m just not. But I just couldn’t take it. And the platform was filled with Eurostar employees and they just brazenly ignored me. At long last, one guy — who was French African and must have been taught the tenets of basic human kindness by someone — came to my assistance and carried my luggage the rest of the way. If it wasn’t for him, I’d probably still be on the train platform, buried under two red suitcases.
It was a shame my last experience of Paris was like that. After living in Paris, I can tell you the reputation French people have for being rude is unfair. I plan to write more about this at a future time. However, many of those working in the tourist trade are complete bastards. And unfortunately, these are the people most tourists have contact with, which is too bad. The Eurostar employees in Paris personify these stereotypes about the French in the worst way possible. I do find French people to be very warm and helpful in general. During my whole stay in Paris, I was never treated with such callous disregard. Perhaps that’s why I was so shocked by it.
It took me quite a while to just chill out once I got on the train. I was so exhausted. The car behind mine (which I mistakenly went into at first) had a non-working air conditioner. Those people sat in sweltering heat for the entire three-hour journey to London. And I can only imagine what happened when they asked Eurostar for help. So I guess my journey could have been worse.
In London, it was much different. There were no trolleys (sigh), so I stood on the platform for a moment, assuming I’d be left to fend for myself as usual. And then all of a sudden, a miraculous thing happened. A Eurostar employee approached me and asked if I needed help.
Gasp!
Shock!
At first I didn’t know how to respond. Help? What’s that?
She actually went and found a trolley for me. And while she was gone (by that time, the entire platform was empty) various members of the cleaning crew asked if I needed help as well. I was never so grateful in my life.
The only way I will take Eurostar again is if it’s the most cost effective way to get to Paris. (I fear it might be.) However, if flying is the same price or just a bit more, I will fly. I hate flying, but I hate Eurostar more.
Tags: Eurostar
Anglofille said @ 9:18 pm | travel |
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Ang04 Says:
April 19th, 2007 at 10:39 pmI definitely can relate. Similar experience from Gare de Est? in January to Basel, Switzerland, except with less luggage, thank gawd. Most employees were standing around in circles chain smoking, and I thought, oh, they must be on break: but wait a minute, it was the VERY first thing in the morning. I got a dirty look from one of them for asking a simple yes or no question.
That type of attitude must run among all public transit employees in Paris. I’ve been to Paris half a dozen times, but and on my last trip I made the mistake of asking about single fares, at the Tuiluries metro. My adrenaline took over, at that point, from the response I got. Yikes. It really makes you appreciate random acts of kindness…
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Ahhhh, yes. How could I forget the smoking break…that lasts all day long?
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Lillie Says:
April 20th, 2007 at 12:25 amI think I’ll forget about visiting Paris….
Sorry to hear about your horrible experience.
I’d be curious to know what response you get from them, if any.
I would also forward a copy of your email to the Paris Bureau of Tourism.
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Paris is great…once you get away from the train stations and airports.
I actually already got a response from Eurostar this evening, which irritated me so much I decided to go ahead and post this. They said that due to health and safety regulations, their staff isn’t allowed to lift anything!!! Interesting that the Eurostar staff in London can lift things. And people at airports lift things all day long. I guess those at Paris Gare du Nord are particularly delicate and must be pampered.
Eurostar also told me there is a porter service available (who knows how much that costs). I wonder why none of the staff in Paris bothered to mention this?
In general, I thought the response from Eurostar didn’t take any of my complaints seriously. They have a monopoly on the London-Paris train route, so I guess they just don’t care.
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Interesting. The same people who run Eurostar must also run the Charles DeGaulle Airport in Paris. Take out the train, replace it with a plane parked in a field for loading (I’m NOT kidding, we had to be shuttled to the field) and you have the CDG Airport! I too, not a crier at all, started to cry at the CDG Airport because no one NO ONE would even help point me in the right direction. After Eurostar AND CDG Airport in one trip, I have decided not to go back to Paris for a very long time.
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OMG, I forgot about what happened to you at CDG…mere days before I left on my trip from hell. I remember you said the security guard at the baggage x-ray told you he needed to examine the contents of one of your carry-on bags, but then he just wandered off and never came back. So you took your bag and left. Looks like the laziness of these transport workers is also a safety threat. Lovely.
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Ang04 Says:
April 20th, 2007 at 3:30 amUnfortunately, my friendly froggy friends concur that the French have no idea what good customer service is.
Don’t let the bad press keep you from visiting the City of lights. Just make sure you have a great guide(book) with all the details, or fluent in French.
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Jesus H, that like some fifth ring of hell awful right there. It’s (or at least I thought it was) common human courtesy 101 and common business courtesy 101 to actually, uh, help folks who are actually using the service there.
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Luke: The French really have no model of customer service. Their motto is: “The customer is always wrong.” Seriously. For example, in Paris I’d go into a shop and the salesclerks would be chatting with each other about personal things. They wouldn’t even acknowledge my presence until they were done with their conversation, even if I was standing there waiting. It’s very difficult to get used to at first! But what I experienced at Eurostar was like the Olympics of French customer service rudeness. It was traumatic.
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omg! poor you!
Last week I was getting a plane from Paris to Glasgow, had two huge cases nand felt like my arm was gonna get chopped off!
When I got to Glasgow, no one helped me up the stairs to the train station, then this french guy grabbed my cases and said “I’ll help you”, he carried my cases all the way from inside the airport, to the train station, on the train, and all the way up the road to my apartment, then walked off saying “Have a nice day!”
I’ve never seen someone do that before and I’m grateful to him otherwise I’d still be in the airport crying my eyes out!
I’ve never been on Eurostar, I hate trains!
But glad u finally got to London in 1 piece
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Lillie Says:
April 20th, 2007 at 9:03 pmToday I rang a place I do business with (was ordering a criminal background check for client)and I was transferred to the “Customer Satisfaction Department”..
Never heard it called that before! (and, they were very nice)
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rebecca Says:
April 23rd, 2007 at 4:14 pmOddly enough, your story sounds very similar to the fiasco I went through all last week, except replace suitcases with student loans and then the train station with my university campus.
I know how it feels to want to break down and cry like that… I did it on campus last Friday when I was referred to about 12 different windows (registrar, admissions, financial aid, registrar, etc). I finally asked someone “is there a window where they don’t shove you off on another window?”
I’m so glad that man helped you though, and even more glad you didn’t get the broken car! I think for me that would have just sealed my misery completely to sit in a car where I felt like I was breathing everyone else’s air for 3 hours.
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Trainman Says:
May 3rd, 2007 at 2:12 amOk, firstly I have to declare an interest as an employee for Eurostar, working on the trains and UK based.
The customer service issue is a pain - I agree that in Paris they can be really surly and less than helpful. We get frustrated with their ‘jobs worth’ attitude at times also.
Without excusing the behaviour you witnessed, how often at an airport has an airline employee helped you drag your luggage anywhere ? As you say, basic common decency would hopefully suggest that someone would help you - however if you were the employee would you be willing to help someone every few minutes with their overweight luggage during a 7 hour shift ? Had there been trolleys available it would not have been an issue, sadly they were all being used.
I know that in my function, if I injure my back helping with luggage I will not be compensated. I could be unable to work and suffer a back condition for the rest of my life. Eurostar will not support me or pay my mortgage if I injure myself doing something not within my job description. Health & Safety is a cruel being but a modern day reality.
Your check-in was made more unpleasant by the security checks. This is a function of government bodies, not the operator. The checks are carried out before departure to make it easier on arrival to get out asap. Those who are stopped, the time it takes and the reasons for the search are all down to Police/Customs etc, not Eurostar.
Where a coach has an airconditioning fault, wherever possible passengers are moved to unaffected coaches. If this is not possible, supplies of water are made available and passengers are compensated by Eurostar with a free single or 50% off a return. In an ideal world the train would be swapped over. Similar to aircraft, there is not always a spare train available there and then. The alternative is to cancel the service - this would effect 750 people (50 from the faulty coach and 700 from the rest of the train) with no guarantee that on a busy day there would be space on later trains to accomodate them. Safety regs mean that crews go out of hours - as with aircraft and this makes rustling up spare trains or crews very difficult - especially during peak times such as Easter.
Clearly your experience was not perfect but there are circumstances around it that may seem irrelevant to the outsider. Some people stood around have to stand around - they could be involved in train despatch or manning the access points that have to be guarded to ensure security. I myself am frequently astounded by the size and weight of baggage that people arrive with and the assumption that others will help them. There are staff for that purpose but they are not unlimited and will be assisting disabled, elderly, pregnant ladies or passengers with small children etc. Even in these cases passengers are warned that they may have to wait for assistance.
They could have done more to have been helpful or sympathetic to your needs but I do tend to lean towards the philosophy that ‘If you can’t hack it, don’t pack it’.
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Jack Kilms Says:
May 17th, 2007 at 3:31 pmI was seven hours late with them once so missed my connection and had to stay in Paris overnight (a city I hate).
These things happen, but they promised to help me with another connection on the train, did not and told me fibs about people waiting to help me as I refused to leave the train.
We were given a packet of crackers each for a seven hour wait, even though they stopped at Frethun to get supplies (I saw the supermarket bags being handed on)
I took them to court and they were very heavy handed and even managed to persuade the judge to award them costs for me being ‘unreasonable’ and the costs included a barrister (for a small claim!) what planet are they on, least of all the judge.
Still it wont end here
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Trainman Says:
May 18th, 2007 at 2:59 pmActually getting the information about a connecting train is not always easy, particularly when you have 18 coaches of people to work through. Not an excuse, just an explanation as to why thay may not have been able to help you fully on-board. Furthermore, if the traincrew told you that people would be at the station to assist then they would have been given that information to pass on in goodwill. The only places where substantial amounts of food can be loaded is Paris, Brussels or London. Intermediate stations only hold small amounts of emergency supplies. Whatever they were able to obtain would have been at very short notice.
Thankfully, most travel insurance policies do provide coverage for additional costs due to missed connections. Depending on the reason for the delay, a transport company will also compensate where they are at fault. Unfortunately, force majeur can come into play and in some circumstances the delay is totally outside of their control.
As a general warning to all, please do ensure that you have a travel insurance policy. Most banks even offer these free to holders of certain accounts. It is a source of constant surprise to me that people assume that travelling on a train abroad is different from flying and that in some way travel or health insurance is not needed.
You do not mention whether your own travel insurance firm covered you for this delay.
