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COMPLAINT: Harassment by NS Employee on the Train Platform in Utrecht

  • 8 oktober 2019
  • 6 reacties
  • 454 Bekeken
F
Dear NS,

I am a infrequent customer on the NS and always purchase full price for a ticket on the train. Today I had to ride from Den Haag Central Station to Utrecht and hop a transfer to Amsterdam Bijlmer Arena for another appointment.

I have made several trips throughout your rail system and never had a problem on where I stand on the platform except when I come into Utrecht central station.

I always stand behind the dotted line and on other platforms there is no problem with any member of the NS crew, however, the last few times I have been getting harassed consistently on where to stand on the platform. I quite understand you do not want people too close to the tracks which I understand, however, it gives the NS no right to harass customers who are standing behind the dotted line.

Today was no exception, one of your employees asked me to stand my back to the wall and today, I just got fed up. I told him that I am already behind the lines and other stations it is no problem, and told him to stop harassing me. He took offense and as the train is coming into the platform, another NS employee is waving his walkie talkie and telling me that I raised my voice and that you should be more careful. I said that you can say whatever you want however, you harassing me over where I am standing is wrong and I did not raise my voice and any of them.

The younger employee took more of an offense, and as I enter the train, he comes in and tells me to get off. I said no, you have no right to harass me in any such way. There was a train conductor and asks what is going on, I explain to him what has transpired and then the employee explains. The conductor asks me some questions, and asks if I was raising my voice at him, I said no, not until after the employees starting continually harassing me when I was correctly standing behind the line. I told the conductor that he was lying and check the video camera.

I continued on my journey however, without the train conductor I would not have made my appointment due to the lies being said by your NS employee on the platform. Please have your platform employees in Utrecht stop harassing customers who are already standing behind the line. I will start recording these conversations as proof since no one believes what any customer says.

Have a good day.
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Beste antwoord door Emma NS 8 oktober 2019, 20:51

Hi Felix Lombardi!



I'm so sorry to read you feel this way... Really no one of us wants to have this feeling. It's not a good excuse, but because what @Robert B is telling you, there's not much more to explain for me to you. But I do really wanna know how you feel now? Were you shocked a lot? I hope you're doing fine and you got to talk about it with someone in your surrounding.



Let me know, okay? 🙂
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6 reacties

Robert B
Badge +3
Welcome to the NS Community!

You were probably standing near the escalators/stairs on platform 5/7.

Because of the limited space, employees try to spread people across the platform and also tell them to stand back as far as possible so arriving passengers can quickly exit the train and find their way upstairs or to the connecting train on the opposite side of the platform.

Although opinions about this approach vary, according to NS this is necessary to avoid congestion and delays. The same problem occurs at other stations with relatively narrow platforms (e.g. Amsterdam Zuid).

I'm sorry you felt harassed but because (many) people don't really care about following instructions (or are too busy listening to they own music), they need to show/use some authority and raise their voice in a way that I agree can be quite annoying.

Crowd control is not the easiest/relaxed job, so please don't take what happened too personal.
Alles hier post ik op persoonlijke titel, ben geen NS medewerker.
Emma NS
Hi Felix Lombardi!

I'm so sorry to read you feel this way... Really no one of us wants to have this feeling. It's not a good excuse, but because what @Robert B is telling you, there's not much more to explain for me to you. But I do really wanna know how you feel now? Were you shocked a lot? I hope you're doing fine and you got to talk about it with someone in your surrounding.

Let me know, okay? 🙂
F
Hello Emma NS,

Thank you for your response and your concern however, I have lived in NYC most of my life before I moved here. I have had numerous careers in the service of others, your employee does not know what that means. The way he acted, like a tough guy, is no way for an employee of NS to act no matter the consequences. It seems your employee takes offense from customers having a brain and the ability to speak, which I find absolutely offensive.

As I stated in my previous post, if I have to record conversations to protect myself than I will because I cannot trust the NS to do the correct course of action. Please fix this situation cause there will come a point where those employees will go over the line, lie about it, and get the person in trouble over their own inappropriate actions. I will legally protect myself to prevent that from occurring.

In the world we live in, everybody lies, no one tells the truth and everyone has their own agenda.

Have a good day.
T
Reputatie 1
NYC is incomparable to the Netherlands. We are direct in our communication, if you need to move for safety purposes, we will tell you to move. If you don't move, we will tell you with more authority. We don't ask you to "please move", "if it doesn't bother you", "perhaps maybe you can move over a bit", "that would be great". That's not how we work.

Listen to instructions given to you. It's for your own safety and that of others. And while you might find it rude, it's our culture to be direct in giving instructions to others. And don't forget the language barrier, the NS employee learned your language to service you better, but they might not comprehend it fully to carry over emotion correctly.

Also NS is a private company so it's up to them to decide if you can use their services. If you are troublesome, they can deny you service. Similar to any other company.

Disclaimer: I'm not an employee of NS, just a regular commuter.
V
Reputatie 6
@Felix Lombardy: the staff on the platform are there to theoretically ask passengers to move out onto the platform, so there is no or less overcrowding near the stairs/escalators and that passengers spread out and use all doors on the train. This speeds up the boarding.
I think that was what the employee was trying to do. However, I’ve noticed that the crowd control personnel vary when it comes to their social skills.
B
NYC is incomparable to the Netherlands. We are direct in our communication, if you need to move for safety purposes, we will tell you to move. If you don't move, we will tell you with more authority. We don't ask you to "please move", "if it doesn't bother you", "perhaps maybe you can move over a bit", "that would be great". That's not how we work.

Listen to instructions given to you. It's for your own safety and that of others. And while you might find it rude, it's our culture to be direct in giving instructions to others. And don't forget the language barrier, the NS employee learned your language to service you better, but they might not comprehend it fully to carry over emotion correctly.

Also NS is a private company so it's up to them to decide if you can use their services. If you are troublesome, they can deny you service. Similar to any other company.

Disclaimer: I'm not an employee of NS, just a regular commuter.
@trein_meneer
Speak for yourself.
This has nothing to do with culture
You are not like me, please don't make this a "us vs them vs you" discussion.
The only thing we have in common is that we speak the same language and that we have the same passport.

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