SCA service seems to be going downhill fast

So moments after boarding RKV on #29 last night our SCA asked what time we would like our beds down. The conversation went something like this:

SCA: What time would you like your beds down this evening?

Me: Around Connellsville, PA or 10PM would be good.

SCA: Well last call is at 9pm

ME: Well forget it, I will put the beds down myself when I'm ready (thinking: why did you bother asking me than. And I'm the paying customer not asking for anything unreasonable)

SCA: Are you sure? Do you know how to do it??

ME: Yes, probably have done it a dozen times in the past.

Needless to say the SCA didn't get a tip at all from us. Especially when she never offered to help lift our bags on and off the train

Stuff like this really T's me off!!!! On top of the lunch not being served into WAS on #30 (separate thread) I think I need to call Amtrak and do a little venting

Don't let one sleeping car attendant poison your waters. I ride the Cap a lot, and almost all of them have been pretty good.

amtrakmichigan said:

So moments after boarding RKV on #29 last night our SCA asked what time we would like our beds down. The conversation went something like this:

SCA: What time would you like your beds down this evening?

Me: Around Connellsville, PA or 10PM would be good.

SCA: Well last call is at 9pm

ME: Well forget it, I will put the beds down myself when I'm ready (thinking: why did you bother asking me than. And I'm the paying customer not asking for anything unreasonable)

SCA: Are you sure? Do you know how to do it??

ME: Yes, probably have done it a dozen times in the past.

Needless to say the SCA didn't get a tip at all from us. Especially when she never offered to help lift our bags on and off the train

Stuff like this really T's me off!!!! On top of the lunch not being served into WAS on #30 (separate thread) I think I need to call Amtrak and do a little venting

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Between this and the dining car stuff on this route, somebody needs to make people accountable. How do they get away with crap like this? [Rhetorical question, the answer to which is pretty clear.]

One time I was on the Cap, I got on at Toledo, saw the SCA who quickly cleaned my room, then I went to bed. Didn't see him again until 1pm the next day when he (almost demanded) to have me step out so he could put my room into daytime configuration because "he had to before we got to WAS and we're almost there".

I wanted my room in daytime configuration at around 9AM, but that never happened.

I'm not sure if this is a new trend as much as it Amtrak's continued uneven quality in providing acceptable customer service.

I have experienced less than outstanding SCA's but nothing on this level,,,,, luck of the draw as father would say

We ride the CL quite often and have found the SCA's to be fine in a majority of the cases. There is always a bad apple in every barrel. Sorry you got the bad one on your trip. If I were going to evaluate our SCA's on our many trips this year. 85% good. 15% need to improve.

The two best SCAs we had were on the Cap. And that's not just a relative "best" but an absolute "best". They fully deserved a maximum tip.

Two things I did on the trip:

I took money planned for other SCAs on the other trains and moved some (and in one case - ALL) of it to the performers.

I praised and complained about those that deserved it to Amtrak.

There is not much more one can do unless the bad players do nothing. And even that is limited as management can find out this information for themselves if they really wanted to. Hey, they could give me a free trip for which I write them an evaluation of each of the employees I encounter! :giggle:

We recently rode the Southwest Chief from KC to LA. The SCA was out of this world. I've never seen anybody work so hard and keep a smile on her face .

Its always good to read about excellent Amtrak Employees on this Forum, but please remember to contact Amtrak Customer Relations and let them know about the good ones as well as the "duds!"

No excuse for this. Make the call to Customer Relations. I used to discourage people from leaving their rooms in daytime configuration very late because I sometimes made noise when I made up the beds; but I never demanded that they follow my schedule. I doubt that you'll find anything that officially supports this SCA's 9 pm rule.

Tom

KauaiJohn said:

We recently rode the Southwest Chief from KC to LA. The SCA was out of this world. I've never seen anybody work so hard and keep a smile on her face .

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Was that Peggy?

Peggy?

In the past month I've been on the Capitol, Zephyr and Empire Builder (currently writing this from

The Starlight) and I've had consistently the best service I've ever had in decades of riding Amtrak, both SCA's and dining car.

Hopefully I didn't just jinx myself for my next trip!

I'm afraid my recent experiences have been similar. On one trip the SCA was MIA. On another there was no attempt to help me with my bags. The only constantly good service I get is from Red Caps where they are available. Maybe it's because they depend more on regular tips?

My trips this summer, one SCA made an announcement that he was suppose to be off duty after 9PM,so if possible he would like to make down as many bed by then as possible. This was the first time I had heard the 9 PM limit. Another SCA just asked people to press their call button when ready, he would get to everyone as quickly as he could. When I asked him about the other SCA 9PM off duty timing, he informed me that was the recommendation, but he didn't follow that guideline, though 10PM was his preferred limit unless he had late stops, but he said he would have their rooms made down already. Never encountered the 9 PM before. I have had many more great SCA's than those MIA. Overall I think the SCA's do a good job.

Never heard of 9 pm for an SCA before. I can't say it couldn't possibly be true, but I never heard of 9pm for an SCA until now & I don't understand how that kind of schedule can make sense in terms of Customer Service. Somebody edumacate me.

Tom

FormerOBS said:

Never heard of 9 pm for an SCA before. I can't say it couldn't possibly be true, but I never heard of 9pm for an SCA until now & I don't understand how that kind of schedule can make sense in terms of Customer Service. Somebody edumacate me.

Tom

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It's easy Tom! The rest of the crew covers for these slackers and the Route Manager isn't riding the trains, just their desk!
Also customers aren't complaining about these slackers, so they continue to provide poor customer service or impersonate the Invisible Man!

FWIW I've heard SCAs tell Sleeper pax that they go off duty @ 10pm (but never 9PM!!) so the beds will have to be put down by then!

Good SCAs don't do this of course!

AmtrakBlue said:

KauaiJohn said:

We recently rode the Southwest Chief from KC to LA. The SCA was out of this world. I've never seen anybody work so hard and keep a smile on her face .

Click to expand...

Was that Peggy?

Click to expand...

I had Peggy on my trip on the SWC last week from CHI to LAX...she was phenomenal!

Soon she is flying to DC to be the recipient of Amtrak's Presidents Award. She's very humbled by the honor and told me her supervisor nominated her somewhat against her wishes and she broke down and cried when she was notified. There were other things she shared with me that I don't feel at liberty to discuss making me wonder how she keeps that constant smile on her face but she loves her job and told me that each and every passenger is like her extended family. Her upcoming award is very well deserved!

Just came off the Empire Builder couple of weeks ago. My westbound trip couldn't have gone better. My return east however, had some issues with the SCA. I got on at Whitefish and was met at the door by the SCA, who just pointed inside and said room #2. No offer to help with luggage or show me to my room. After we got started, I saw the garbage can was full of garbage. When I saw him in passing, I asked if I could get the garbage can emptied. He pointed me to the middle of the car and told me the main garbage bin was there so I had to empty my own garbage can. After asking him to turn down my bed that night, I returned to my room to find no blanket. Had to track him down again and ask for a blanket. The guy just was not friendly.

Also, I know it's been covered already, but I'm not a fan of the sealed blankets. It's nice to know they've been cleaned, but having to actually make up my bed both ways wasn't anything I was a fan of.

I only ride Amtrak Long-distance once or twice a year, the last 20 years or so, sometimes coach LD, more often roomette.

It was only 3 years back that I learned that the "call button" existed, because I never needed to use it in roomette --(just another useless button, less useful than the "night-light button"), if I needed, I'd just ask the SCA to "make the bed" sooner or later. Coffee and 3 choices of juice always there in the morning.

Maybe service is getting worse, maybe not -- anecdotes don't tell.

But if your SCA is MIA, and you push the "call button" and scan the passageway, give it an hour and try again.

AND, if the toilets ain't cleaned, and the "call button" don't work for more than an hour (between 0600 and 2300 (those SCA's gotta sleep sometime))

Then, I'd still try to connect with the slacker, and say (but I couldn't, because the worst slackers can hide out) -- "buddy, what have you done to help me?, I'm paying you for this?

And then, I'd call "relations", and definitely do what in my power to get the slacker fired.

BUT -- I've never had such a slacker SCA, or if I did, I didn't notice.

tim49424 said:

AmtrakBlue said:

KauaiJohn said:

We recently rode the Southwest Chief from KC to LA. The SCA was out of this world. I've never seen anybody work so hard and keep a smile on her face .

Click to expand...

Was that Peggy?

Click to expand...

I had Peggy on my trip on the SWC last week from CHI to LAX...she was phenomenal!
Soon she is flying to DC to be the recipient of Amtrak's Presidents Award. She's very humbled by the honor and told me her supervisor nominated her somewhat against her wishes and she broke down and cried when she was notified. There were other things she shared with me that I don't feel at liberty to discuss making me wonder how she keeps that constant smile on her face but she loves her job and told me that each and every passenger is like her extended family. Her upcoming award is very well deserved!

Click to expand...

I have recently traveled on the Silver Meteor, Lake Shore Limited, Texas Eagle, Capitol Limited and

had outstanding SCA's on each train. I can only think of one trip where I was unhappy with the SCA.

In September I traveled the Lake Shore, Texas Eagle, Sunset (west and east), and Crescent. All the SCAs were great, and the SCA on the TE was truly outstanding. Went out of his way several times.

The last lazy SCA I had was on the Chief several years ago - but I know they can change routes and he may not be on that train anymore.

Good for Peggy! I don't know her, but those awards aren't given out unless the employee has a well-established record of excellence.

Bob Dylan: I understand covering for another employee. It's a well-established practice to ensure that everybody gets a little rest while ensuring that the work is being taken care of. If the people who are covering for an employee aren't able to handle the awesome challenge of putting down a bed after 9 pm, I'd say they aren't "covering" very well. No excuses. Peggy and others prove that there is a right way and a wrong way.

I was proud of my craft. What happened to that?

Tom