Here is the letter that Roy H Thompson wrote.

National Raid East Midland Travel Lions on the Savannah 26th October 2012

Everything planned for my business (development work) assignment in Mongolia, I booked my return train tickets while on the East Midlands train down to Heathrow on 29th September for my return on 26th October.

Two train tickets:

LGW to St Pancras any time first class fare advance purchase around £15

London St Pancras to Sheffield 10:55 to 13:04 Coach G Seat 34A code £33 quid first class - everything super duper...

Early hours of 26th my Air China flight was cancelled/delayed just before takeoff in Beijing - horrible smog and no visibility - we were told 08:00 which was another 6 hours and we were left to our own devices in a cold airport lounge with some 'rich tea' biscuits and bottles of water (but that's another story isn't it?).

I arrived at Gatwick seriously jet-lagged and tired, I've been travelling for ?? hours from Mongolia (about a day and a half) and my biological clock was on Beijing/UB time +7 hours. I was exhausted.

The ticket Gatwick to London St Pancras was no issue, I put my c/card in the machine, typed in the code number and I was winning! I got the ticket, hopped on the train, it was warm and comfortable, and I phoned my wife to say that it's 'so far so good'.

At St Pancras I went up to the East Midlands ticket machines and started talking to someone who was friendly, he said that if I had evidence of a delayed flight then he could help, and did I have a smart phone, unfortunately not, stuck back in the electronic middle ages. He said that they could help but I should go down to the ticket office on the basement floor. I really wish that I hadn't. That's the most offensive and just plain awful customer service I've experienced for a very long time. Essentially "I dont care, we can't do anything, take it or leave it, take it up with the airline".

It's not my fault I beg, I beg pathetically but she is relentless in her cold callous "I don't care it's nothing to do with me" attitude. I'm severely sleep deprived and jet-lagged, it's I don't know 11pm UB/Beijing time. I'm not on my best form. She tells me that the ticket I purchased for £33 is now now longer valid and the new cost for the same seat on this train will be £146 take it or leave it.

When I bleat out that this is not fair treatment she goes into a rant telling me that it's nothing to do with her, I should not be talking to her like that etc. etc. Pictures flash through my blurry consciousness of some heavyweight security guys coming along to 'escort' me out of the office and the building. I just tell her to give me the ticket.

It's rip-off Britain, no flexibility, zero customer service, and for someone struggling badly its the cold callous face of the 'new' lean and mean Britain, and the worst of it is, it simply fulfilled my expectations of the inevitable. Any sign of weakness, of vulnerability and the predators are there to strike, and East Midlands/National Rail, you are just lions on the Savannah waiting for the wounded animal to come along.

Can't we go back to the naive and innocent days when we could walk up to a service provider whenever we needed a service and get a fair price, value for money? Now it seems that the customer is far from being the King. Instead we are the victims in some orchestrated rip-off system which is now light years away from the ideals of a liberal and democratic society.

I guess I'm just getting to be one of those aging individuals who are always on about how better things were back then. I guess the new marketing philosophy is that the customer is king when s/he does what we say. I'd like to say that I will avoid rail travel in Britain but of course I can't.

Sincerely,
roy h thompson