Amtrak False Advertising on Twitter?

[Ryan]

In my experience (and poor typing skills!) it helps FAR more than it hurts.

 

[fairviewroad]

It's hard to defend Amtrak on this one. Both in terms of the original photo and the ham-handed response.

 

[amamba]

Honestly, I'd be quite disappointed if a large corporation had their Twitter account manager use an iPad to make posts rather than a regular computer, so Auto-Correct shouldn't be an issue.

Why would that disappoint you? I would expect that social media account managers often have to post on the fly when they are not necessarily in the office, so an iPad or other tablet/mobile phone makes sense to me here.

 

[SarahZ]

Autocorrect is also build into OS X, so they could be using a regular computer.

Thanks for reminding me. I need to change my laptop settings.

 

[delicious]

This website is good for a laugh or two.

http://www.damnyouautocorrect.com/

 

[yarrow]

here is a site with honest "amtrak" advertising. www.amtrek.net

 

[delicious]

here is a site with honest "amtrak" advertising. www.amtrek.net

That may or may not be the worst website I have ever seen.

 

[RichardK]

Amtrak Unlimited has a picture of flowers on the home page. I guess this needs to be taken down.

 

[Ryan]

 

[Blackwolf]

From Amtrak's Official Blog: http://blog.amtrak.com/2014/02/bring-overnight-train-ride/

Bring Special Toiletries
Just like a hotel, we provide shampoo, soap and bottled water in all of our rooms. If your beauty regimen requires something special (hey, the train is a judge-free place), please be sure to bring it. That includes, toothpaste, mouthwash, body lotion, hair conditioner, hair spray/gel, hairdryers and shower caps. The best part about traveling by train? No liquids restrictions! (Emphasis on shampoo is mine.)

 

[Green Maned Lion]

I've never asked for it. Perhaps they do.

 

[D.P. Roberts]

From Amtrak's Official Blog: http://blog.amtrak.com/2014/02/bring-overnight-train-ride/

Bring Special Toiletries

Just like a hotel, we provide shampoo, soap and bottled water in all of our rooms. If your beauty regimen requires something special (hey, the train is a judge-free place), please be sure to bring it. That includes, toothpaste, mouthwash, body lotion, hair conditioner, hair spray/gel, hairdryers and shower caps. The best part about traveling by train? No liquids restrictions! (Emphasis on shampoo is mine.)

I think what we're running into here is that Amtrak has promoted its services across a wide variety of documents and platforms, & many of these documents (or the employees who write them) have not been updated to reflect the changes yet. It will probably happen eventually, but paying someone to go through and update all of these documents RIGHT NOW would probably cost more than whatever they saved by cutting these items in the first place.

 

[SarahZ]

That blog entry was entered on 2/23/14. When did they make the decision to change the amenities?

Also, I recognize the lady in the video. She's done a couple of videos for Amtrak, as she is a travel blogger (she did a GREAT one about roomettes a few weeks ago). Perhaps she was a guest poster and wrote it before 2/23/14?

 

[The Whistler]

The bottom line here is that our friends in the congress do not realize:

1. That sleeper passengers pay for everything in the dining car. Nothing is free

2. Throughout history a railroad dining car has always lost money and is there as a convenience and a marketing tool.

3. That the cuts that they just made will save pennies in terms of the big picture and may serve to decrease ridership. You can't treat sleeper passengers (that pay a high price to travel) like cattle and expect rave reviews.

Time will tell the impact on ridership but I doubt that it will be positive. Coach may not be affected but some of the more profitable sleeper passengers may bail. I am having second thoughts myself. Our Amtrak trips are quite expensive and we expect value and service for the ticket price. Maybe it has become time to hand over the LD trains to the private railroad companies.

 

[Ryan]

Maybe it has become time to hand over the LD trains to the private railroad companies.

There's nothing stopping them from trying now.

 

[the_traveler]

Honestly, I'd be quite disappointed if a large corporation had their Twitter account manager use an iPad to make posts rather than a regular computer, so Auto-Correct shouldn't be an issue.

Why would that disappoint you? I would expect that social media account managers often have to post on the fly when they are not necessarily in the office, so an iPad or other tablet/mobile phone makes sense to me here.

Very true. I'm not a large corporation, but I use an iPad 98+% of the time - even when not traveling.

 

[The Thread Police]

Looks like this thread needs to be merged with the thread that talks about the ending of the amenities. Isn't that what now is being talked about here? I think so.

 

[Ryan]

Armchair moderation by a guest... Impressive.

I hope that you don't mind me showing up unannounced at your house and start telling you how to do things differently.

 

[fairviewroad]

A new Tweet this morning:

https://twitter.com/Amtrak/status/460810936774049792

(I love how they show the upside down paper cup with pens jammed into it...at least we know the photo was taken on a real diner since

an ad agency would never put a prop like that into a shot!)

 

[FriskyFL]

A new Tweet this morning:

https://twitter.com/Amtrak/status/460810936774049792

(I love how they show the upside down paper cup with pens jammed into it...at least we know the photo was taken on a real diner since

an ad agency would never put a prop like that into a shot!)

How classy. Are there any adults working in Amtrak's Bureau of Tweets?

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Honestly, I'd be quite disappointed if a large corporation had their Twitter account manager use an iPad to make posts rather than a regular computer, so Auto-Correct shouldn't be an issue.

Why would that disappoint you? I would expect that social media account managers often have to post on the fly when they are not necessarily in the office, so an iPad or other tablet/mobile phone makes sense to me here.

You don't think it's even a little unprofessional to post official public facing comments from a device that provides little in the way of realtime feedback and lots of clumsy second guessing? Sure you can make it work by being super careful with your posts but at that point is the device really making things easier? Many years ago I went to work for a company that provided laptops as part of their employment. After making the move from desktop to laptop the improvement in my mobility and productivity was so great that I never looked back. A dozen laptops later I never travel anywhere without having one nearby. When the notebook era arrived I made that transition as well. After that the law of diminishing returns started to kick in. Netbooks were extremely portable but had screens and keyboards that were just a little too small to get real work done in a timely fashion. Eventually netbooks were reduced to tiny screens called tablets and the transition from productivity to consumption was complete. Which is fine I suppose, but so far as I can tell nobody is getting a full day's work done on these devices. Nearly everyone in my office owns a tablet, including me, and none of us can replace our laptops with them, at least not yet.