Telephone bookings

["Exnarc" <gwrly@netspace.net.au>]

My old gripe "SERCO". (Supposably short for "SERVICE COMPANY"

I rang GSR the other day to book a trip for my son on the Ghan from
Melbourne.

Like every business these days I was put on hold to wait for an operator to
take my booking.

I waited and waited and waited and waited.

Finally after 12 minutes of repeated messages of how good the refurbished
Overland was and how much they appreciated my custom, I finally got onto a
very polite lady who took my booking, she was excellent, however the wait
was not.

If SERCO are going to make a go of GSR why don't they provide more people to
take bookings? I know that its the holiday season and bookings are heavy,
but I think most people would hang up before they got an answer if they had
to wait over 10 minutes for service. We railfans are more tolerant I guess?

Has anyone had simular experiences with V/Line or Country Link, or the
airlines, where they have had to wait over 10 minutes?

I'm curious if this is just GSR or are the others as bad?

Bob.