To
the Duty Manager, Eurostar, St. Pancras International.
Subject:
Matters pertaining to incident on 27 February 2018.
Belief
is not enough...
9
April 2018
Dear
Gildas,
As
my family’s economy is still reeling in disadvantage from the
consequences arising from your inordinate “managerial”
intervention, the incident of 27 February in St. Pancras
International
remains
in the forefront of my memory.
I
was evicted from the train without just cause. An honest
explaination is due from you personally Monsieur. The rationale of
your behaviour
is
profoundly illogical.
The
mysterious complaint to which you claimed to be responding, is
without foundation.
Accepting
the possibility that an actual complaint was made, one wonders why
the matter was not delegated to the good offices of the train
inspector/ guard. Why the Duty Manager would be called is beyond my
knowing. the possibility that an error of identification may have
been made, targetting me as the “wrongdoer”, that is if one is to
accept that any “wrong” had in fact been done.
Detail
of your inadequate explaination is memorable if only for the lack of
data.
The
implication of the little detail you offered will I hope be seen in
context objectively.
Suspending
disbelief:
It
is alleged that a fellow passenger had overheard a conversation to
which they claim I was a party. The person, the complainant was
“eaves dropping”. Reportage unverifiable. He/she didn’t like
the alleged subject matter. The most efficient solution to the
individual’s complaint would be to mind their own business in
future, as he/she was not party to a private conversation, he/she
may not be objective about the context of the alleged subject matter.
Bear
in mind Monsieur, I was also a valid ticket holder,with contactually
the same rights responsibilities and status as all other passengers
on the train.I was not treated fairly.
It
would have been an easy task, if the alleged complainant had
solicitted your help, to gently inform him/her that they had no
legitimate grounds for complaint. Had there been a complaint at all?
It is not clear that if there was one, that it would justify
managerial intervention to the extent that you performed your
perceived duty. A duty , I must add in which Eurostar International
should have no reason for pride.
The
alleged complaint as it pertained to me was groundless.
It
was with some reluctance that I co-operated with your injunction to
leave the train. Little else I may have done given the circumstance.
I asked your name on the platform, you flashed your card so fast I
was given no time to read it.
“there’s
a man who is evading being identified,” thinks I.”Why?”
It
would, I consider, have been a matter of polite protocol to exchange
details of identity. No matter, the details are public information,
easily found.
Your
parting shot to me on being asked for more information appears to be
a non sequitur.
“ Someone
had complained that they had overheard the word,”sterilisation”.
I
have no notion whatever of what was alleged to have been said. I
wasn’t party to the conversation.
In
an effort to discover your name I did a Google search, not wishing to
cast aspersions on any others who may also bear the title of Duty
Manager.
As
a subject of conversation, “Sterilisation” is not a matter I
would consider apropriate to share casually with strangers in
transit.
How
is one to understand the true context of a single word.
Memory
serves me well. I have no idea of what would cause you to react so.
I could give no credence to your reply. It didn’t make sense to me.
The probable cause or otherwise of your personal iritation was not
my main concern at the time, I was being prevented from returning
home to Brittany.
My
search for details of your identity revealed your name. It also
revealed that you came from a very large family. “Fair play to
your Mam,” Sez I. Enormous by current European standards, beyond
the average 2.5 children. I have two children to my name, both
adults now.
It
struck me that the word, to my knowledge, you were the only one that
used it, triggered a reaction disproportionate to any need.
If
the word was used in complaint by an unidentified third party, the
reaction must be considered to be as a result of your own
relationship with the word.
Suspending
disbelief that any complaint was made I must conjecture that your
reaction to the word and to your subsequent managerial style was due
to both your unnatural prejudice against me (or the likes of me) and
your peculiar obsession with the word.
You
a Frenchman, Breton , by the sound of your name, may not be unaware
of your own nations constitution.
The
right of association.
The
right of freedom of expression.
My
natural right, sacrosanct to speak with anyone on any subject. The
content may only be ajudged by the person with whom I may have been
privately engaged.
There
was no occasion whereby any passenger or staff member would have
legitimate cause for complaint. My memory is clear.
My
only contact conversationaly in the waiting area was with a gentleman
sitting next to me,the content was relatively trivial(?), anomalies
in the weather, global crop failures, less than five minutes in all.
He didn’t appear to have a grievance or complaint. My distance
from all other waiting ticket holders was too far from anyone else
to be overheard. I was sitting at the end of a row, with no other
person beside either of us.
The
man on the train with whom I attempted to share some sympathetic
kindness in offering a throat lozenge to sooth his hacking cough,
smiled throughout our brief encounter.
You
Gildas have either been played for a fool, the proxy of some
mischievous, anonymous, sociopath causing you to create the
unecessary drama that ensued; or that you were motivated by some
other deeply hidden personal fixation of your own.
Put
bluntly, the allegation of complaint was a lie. Whether by a
malicious third party or yourself.
A
contrite explaination is due. Inordinate expenditure, inconvenience
and damage was incurred resulting from your poor managerial style.
A
formal letter of complaint has been lodged with the Director of
Eurostar. If it serves you are welcome to a copy once receipt of the
letter is acknowledged. A copy of this letter to you will also be
sent to your executive. This letter is merely my personal initiative
to draw if possible some rational response from you. Your own
behaviour must bring into question your professional ability to cope
adequately with crisis. Your unmitigated intervention created the
crisis.
I
am firmly of the view,that you acted without due cause, in abuse of
your authority.
Whatever
the alleged cause it would have been more appropriate to delegate the
task of investigation to the inspector on the train. The tranquility
of our carriage was not disturbed until you showed your face
expressing a third party’s false allegations. Hearsay, gossip.
It
is said that a dog that barks for a bad master is a bad dog. I am
not calling you a dog, however you are an instrumental accessory to
the malicious allegation.
I
don’t believe that any complaint was made. Give the identity of
the person and address of the person if there truly was one. How, if
at all did the person identify me. They were not present when you
approached me with your unjustified complaint.
Given
the involvement of the station police, who have a recorded incident,
I presume that you by administrative convention have also made a
report. I would like to see details as recorded on the day by you as
per your duty.
I
might be forgiven for being drawn to the conclusion that the service
to which I was subjected, known in the common parlance as “the
Bum’s Rush”, was being visited upon me purely for the sporting
pleasure of the management. Namely yourself. How may that not be so
Monsieur? It is solely by your personal initiative, or lack thereof,
that I was subjected to the public humiliation and indignity of
eviction.
J’accuse.
My
ticket was renewed by the dedicated negotiation of the British
Transport Police with the ticket office. It must not escape notice
that added terms and conditions of my travelling on Eurostar were
fabricated for the occasion , that I should be chaperoned by my wife.
Had
I been left in peace I would have had no difficulty in finding my own
way home, on schedule, unsupervised.
Please
indicate to me the part of Eurostar’s conditions of carriage that
states I would be forced to have my wife travel from Brittany to
London plus the return journey, at great expense and inconvenience.
A compensative action is required. Our subsistence economy was
stripped of the small reserve of cash to cover the emergency. The
crisis caused by your callous intervention is felt in our household
even now. The ensuing financial hardship is the most difficult and
the slowest of all inconvenience to recover.
Bills
that should be paid on time have had to be delayed. Shortage of funds
means that our ability to travel in our rural region is severely
restricted. Petrol is not a cheap commodity.
You
called me a “trouble maker”. How does my alleged “bad
behaviour”, compare with the trouble your personal managerial style
has caused my family and myself? My meagre pension doesn’t
accommodate such unwelcome intrusions into our usually solvent
economy. You acted without due consideration to the effect of
consequence to others.
I
have made casual notes on the incident, like it or not, I published
on my blog,, written the day
after the incident occurred. You are invited to read it. Your right
of reply will not be blocked. Perhaps it may stimulate some memory or
failing that, may be inspiration to your imagination. I know not
which.
In
the event that no resolution or compensative action is forthcoming,
from yourself or your executive, I will publish all matters of
correspondence apertaining to the subject of concern.
I
hope you are able to cope to deal with my complaint. This one ,from a
passenger, is about either you or your official company policy,
whichever is the culpable entity that unduly influenced my eviction
from the Eurostar train. One hopes also that there is the moral
courage to face up to home truths directed towards drawing attention
to certain shortfalls in your service.
I
was not, am not blameworthy. What I seek is common justice with the
added assurance that such indiscriminate targeting of individuals as
was meeted out to me will be avoided in future as a matter of company
policy and managerial practice.
With
that I will close, a clear account of your own is anticipated with
keen interest. Thank you for your attention.
Yours,sincerely.
R.O.Godden.
