FGW: ^We are not authorised to give out information.^

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

From the Penalty Fare Appeal Support website:

By Sam Matthews

First Great Western or, as it is known by its commuters, Worst Late Western, is ^not authorised to give out information^ according to an Email response we recently received from their ^Customer Services^ Department.

We asked a pretty simple and to the point question.

We asked for the Opening Hours, Location on station, Facilities and Access Entitlement for First Class Lounges at London Paddington and Cardiff. Not a hard question for Customer Services is it?

Their response to our simple question, from a Calvin, Abelar, was as follows:

Thank you for your email of 24 May 2012, with regard to the information on First Class Lounge facilities.
Our Customer Service office has been established as a contact centre for First Great Western passengers ^ to offer advice and information on a personalised ^one-on-one^ basis. We are not authorised to offer details for the purpose of wider publication or media. As such, we would be unable to provide the information you have requested.

So there you have it! FGW^▸ (First Great Western) is not authorised to provide you with any information.

First Great Western pride themselves, or claim to, on ^Putting Customers First^. Their own website states:

At First Great Western, we work to achieve our vision of putting customers first by exceeding your expectations of journeys by train.
From our welcome at the station, to the service you can expect on-board our trains, right through to your arrival at your destination, we make sure that your journeys with us are safe, comfortable, convenient and enjoyable, and that you always feel welcomed and valued.

So it seems that they have not learnt, despite all the recent disruption and past problems with punctuality that information is key. Putting Customers First is not First Great Western^s vision in its Customer Service Centre.

We have requested comment from First Great Western over this, we will let you know their response as soon as we get it.

[BerkshireBugsy]

I do get despondant at some of the responses I get from fgw cs but in this case I think the article chooses to misrepresent the reply from fgw

The text if the reply says clearly "...not authorized to giveout information for the purposes of republication" which I can understand.

This is not the same as "we are not authorized to give out information" As per the title


Just my 2c (please don't quote me in that!)

Edited to correct typos caused by it being far to early in the morning

[EBrown]

The reason is simple. I've discussed this with John and Sam (From PFAS). They should have written to the press office, not CS.

[mjones]

Could not CS have told them they needed to contact the Press Office? Or better still, forwarded the request to them?

[EBrown]

Even better, pointed them here http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk/Your-journey/On-board/First-class

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) tweeted that it was being investigated. :O

[LiskeardRich]

at most companies, employees are not permitted to give any information to media enquiries, which this enquiry would of been classed as. any decent Media employee would know to contact the media office at the company, and that they would receive that response from customer services.
And this info is available freely online as well

[mjones]

At most companies the 'Customer Services' department would also know how to handle such an enquiry without looking evasive. It isn't hard: "Thank you for your enquiry which I have forwarded to our press office". 

And if the information is already available on a website then the Customer Services department ought to be able to provide  link without referring to a press office.