Hi,
Thought I would do a review on a service this time. Sadly this one is not going to be a positive one.
As many blind and visually impaired who travel on trains will know, there is a service avalible that offers assistance to disabled passangers get from A to B. I have used this service for a little under a year and normally I can’t fault them in anyway. But sadly today has been different.
Today I travelled from one side of the country to the other. So I went to booked my usual route when ever I come this way (currently writing this as I am one of my trains) but from some reason, my normal route was not available. So I had to go via London Paddington.
Getting to London Paddington was no problem what so ever. But once I got to London Paddington is where it got interesting. The Underground were brilliant as always, so they said they would get hold of overground assistance to come collect me and take me to my next train. At the this point it was round 11.30am. I sat there they had told me to sit and the overground assistance would collect me from. I sat there until about 12.00 (my next train was at 12.15) so I said to myself if I don’t leave and get some help I’m gonna miss my next train. So I got up and went back to the underground assistance, who were again very helpful!
The underground were more than happy to help and take me to the overground assistance. Once I arrived at overground assistance I stood there carmly and explained the situation, how my train was at 12.15 and that I had be waiting almost half and hour. The woman behind the desk then began to basically tell me that the reason no one was there was because when they got there no one was there. I explained again that I been sitting were I was told to, but after waiting so long, I began to worry I would miss my train.
This woman continued to basically blame me and her whole attitude came across as jobs worthy and I’m higher than you sort of attitude and personally as the customer thats something I will not tolerate at all!
On top of all this, my 12.15 train was actually cancalled so I had to get the next train didn’t help my mood either. At the end of the day, would I recommand Paddington Travel Assistance to other Blind/Visually people? Absolutely not! I would strongly recommand, if you can go via London Euston. They are ten times better then what I experinced today and their customer service is great! Don’t go through what I went through!
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The VI Critic 