UPDATE TIME!
Ok, both my wife and I received an invitation to participate in a survey from Amtrak last week. I filled it out honestly and politely. I had already sent a letter via USPS earlier in the week too, but since the survey also had an e-mail contact address, I copied and pasted my letter into that block and sent it in.
Today we received a reply. it is posted below, with proper redactions made:
Dear Mr. Dry Creek,
Thank you for your recent email contact.
Amtrak welcomes feedback from customers, as it helps us to focus our efforts to improve service. We hope that you will accept our sincere apologies for the lack of adequate service during your recent travel.
We have entered your concerns into our customer database. You can rest assured that information has been shared with the responsible managers for review and any necessary corrective action.
As a token of our regret for your disappointment, our department has issued you an Electronic Transportation Certificate in the amount of $500.00. The Certificate is being held on file for you until June 7, 2016. The certificate is non-transferable and may only be used toward the fares of those named on the certificate.
In order to redeem this certificate, please contact Amtrak's Reservation Sales line at 1-800-USA-RAIL (800-872-7245) and speak to a live agent to create your reservation, but do not apply payment. Instead, request to be transferred to the Customer Relations Department to have the Certificate applied to the reservation.
The Customer Relations Department hours are Monday through Friday, from 7 am until 10 pm (Eastern Time). As information, the best times to call to avoid a long hold are typically Wednesday thru Friday, after 5 pm (Eastern Time). It would be helpful to refer to your case number below when calling.
Once again, thank you for contacting us. We look forward to serving your travel needs in the future.
Sincerely,
Bernadette
Amtrak Customer Relations
Case ID: 1234567
So, we have a $500 e-voucher to use within the next year. I am satisfied with their efforts to correct the problem. I just hope that they sincerely address our concerns. If my in-laws would have had the same experience, we'd never hear the end of it. They absolutely cannot learn to roll with the punches and would not be able to adapt.
Now I have the daunting task of convincing my wife to give them another chance. She says that she might consider another trip on the train, but only in a bedroom. That $500 would easily make up the difference between a roomette and bedroom - I think. Now, to make it really worth it, I will need to book a trip of at least two nights. I am thinking about taking the TE north and then using the MRR to connect to the westbound SWC. Is that the direction with the best scenery? Our return would be on the 422 out of LAUPT. Sort of a grand circle trip, but with a layover in LA I guess. The other big issue is purely logistical. We have a fall refueling outage this year, so I am locked out of vacation from pretty much mid September to mid November. We now know better than to book during the summer. The sleeper cars were uncomfortably warm during the spring, I can only imagine that they'd be sweltering in the summer (think #422 being set out for the daily #22 consist with no HEP). I am thinking either mid-November or maybe early to mid-March for the trip. We'd just have to adjust for the change back to daylight standard time. How would the most scenic parts of the SWC routes be during those dates?
Finally, if anyone's interested - I would gladly share my letter to Amtrak customer service by posting a copy of it here. Like I said, I was polite, but firm. I called out where there are glaring needs for improvement, and noted those who provided good to excellent service. I also reiterated that I did not hold the service disruption as their fault, just the way they chose to handle it.
Cross-posted as an appendage to our trip report.
