Compensation for Public Transport Problems

An account of how I gained deserved compensation from Stagecoach for unacceptable delays to their X8 service between King’s Lynn and Fakenham

INTRODUCTION

This post is mainly taklen up with an email exchange between myself and various people at Stagecoach, who since they took over Norfolk Green have run bus services ion my local area. Last week, after five successive journeys that were late, sometimes by very large margins I decided it was time to contact Stagecoach about the X8 route between King’s Lynn and Fakenham, which I use to get to and from work, at a cost of an hour’s wages per working day.

THE EMAIL EXCHANGE

This starts with my opening email, sent on Friday morning, 24 hours after the last of the five delayed journeys in question…

THOMAS’ OPENING GAMBIT

This is the text of my initial email, with the subject being “poor servcice on X8 between King’s Lynn and Fakenham”:

To whom it may concern

I use this service to travel to and from work, and it has been plagued by punctuality problems for some time. This week the situation has finally become so
unacceptable that I have decided I have to write to you. My working days this week were Tuesday, Wednesday and yesterday, and in chronological order the
experiences I had were:

Tuesday AM: bus was over 20 minutes late at King’s Lynn (it is supposed to leave at 8:45, and both 8:55 to Spalding and 9:05 to March which were running to time
came and went before it).

Tuesday PM: bus was over half an hour late.

Wednesday AM: bus was 15 minutes late at King’s Lynn.

Wednesday PM: bus was over 10 minutes late

Thursday AM: bus was just under 10 minutes late at King’s Lynn (The 8:55 to Spalding was already standing in bay C, so this bus used bay B).

Thursday pm: Mirabile dictu this bus was actually on time.

Five buses out of six being not just late but significantly late cannot be considered acceptable by anyone. I also point out that as someone who is very conscientious
about arriving in good time (especially given that this service runs hourly) I spent considerably more time waiting for this buses than documented above (5+ minutes for
each journey). As a final point, this bus service is expensive enough that each journey swallows an hours wages. I would like to suggest that what has happened this
week is sufficiently unacceptable to warrant financial compensation. My suggestion is that given an expenditure on my part of £20.70 compensation of £15 would be
appropriate. If you agree, you could send a cheque to:

Thomas Sutcliffe
117E High Street
King’s Lynn
Norfolk
PE30 1DD

As a final point, I have various press contacts with whom I could share this story, a well supported blog and an even better supported twitter account. Just how hostile
to you my final write up of this story is depends on the speed and nature of your response to this communication.

Yours sincerely

Thomas Sutcliffe

THE FIRST RESPONSE

That afternoon I received this initial response:

Message Received: Dec 11 2015, 03:14 PM
From: “Amy Fields”
To: “Thomas Sutcliffe”
Cc:
Subject: Re: Poor service on X8 between King;s Lynn and Fakenham

Good Afternoon Mr Sutcliffe

I am sorry to hear the circumstances that have brought you to contact us.
We will be looking further into the matter and I will be passing this over
to the Assistant Operations Manager her attention who will be in contact
in due course regarding this matter,

Would you be able to advise me if in the morning it is always the 8.45am
bus you catch in the morning and would you be able to let me know what
time you catch the bus home so that we can look at the correct journey.

Please accept my sincerest apologies for the delays you have been
experiencing.

Kind Regards
Amy
Stagecoach in Norfolk
Hamlin Way
King’s Lynn
Norfolk
PE30 4NG

Tel: 01553 776980
Email: amy.fields@stagecoachbus.com

Registered Office : Stagecoach (East) Ltd, Daw Bank, Stockport, Cheshire,
SK3 ODU. Registered in England & Wales No. 1673542

http://www.stagecoachbus.com/codeofpractice.aspx
http://www.stagecoachbus.com/conditionsofcarriage.aspx

I duly fired back this response of my own:

Dear Amy

Yes – the 8:45Am is my regular morning bus, and the one that applies to all the journeys mentioned in the initial email. My regular bus home, and again the one that applies to all the journeys mentioned in my first email is the 17:38. I look forward to learning the final results of your investigations.

Thomas Sutcliffe

RESPONSE AND RESOLUTION

Finally, this afternoon (given that I sent my initial email on a Friday morning I considered Monday afternoon to be not unduly tardy), I received this message…

Message Received: Dec 14 2015, 04:06 PM
From: “Lisa Addison”

To: thomas@thomassutcliffe.freeserve.co.uk
Cc:
Subject: X8 Service

Dear Thomas,
I am writing in response to your email dated 11th December 2015 regarding
service x8
Thank you for bringing this to my attention and I apologise for any
inconvenience caused
I have investigated your comments regarding the Kings Lynn and Fakenham
departures due to depart at 08:55 and 1738 hours respectively. On
investigation and after tracking the services via our Greenroad system,
which is GPS based, I can confirm that unfortunately the journeys stated
were indeed operating excessively later than scheduled. One of the reasons
for this is due to traffic related issues in both arriving into Kings Lynn
in the mornings but also the service departing from Norwich in the
afternoon. The second is that the vehicle that operates both the AM and PM
journeys operates a school service prior to the X8. This more than not
incurs lateness primarily down to departing the school grounds and then in
turn operating light to the relevant starting points thereafter i.e Kings
Lynn and Norwich respectively.
I appreciate that the above is not acceptable therefore and as a matter of
course I have copied our commercial manager into this response in order
that this ongoing reliability issue can be addressed.
As a token of goodwill and part compensation I will post, via a postal
order, the sum of £15 for inconvenience caused.
May I take this opportunity to apologise for the inconvenience caused and
you can be assured that further investigations will be forthcoming into
the reliability of the X8 service.
Yours sincerely
Lisa
Lisa Addison
Assistant Operations Manager
Stagecoach In Norfolk
The Bus Station
Vancouver Centre
Kings Lynn
PE30 1DS
—————————————————————–
Tel :- +44(0)1553776980
Email :- lisa.addison@stagecoachbus.com
Web :- www.stagecoachbus.com

I concluded the exchange by sending this brief acknowledgement…

Dear Lisa

Many thanks for getting in contact with me regarding the problems I have highlighted and for agreeing to compensate me as per my request.

Thomas Sutcliffe

CONCLUSION

An acceptable resolution has been arrived at. I woulkd point that although I expressed myslef quite forcefully in the opening email there was no bad language on either side, and I cast no aspersions on the ability of anyone at Stagecoach to do their jobs. I do hope you have all enjoyed this post even though it includes no pictures.

JAMES AND SONS’ NOVEMBER AUCTION

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to this post about James and Sons‘ November auction, which took place on Wednesday.

GETTING THERE

I managed to catch my intended bus, departing King’s Lynn at 6:50, and at that time of the morning it was no great surprise to enjoy a clear run to Fakenham, alighting at Oak Street at 7:30. Fifteen minutes later I arrived at the auction venue, the Prince of Wales Stand at Fakenham Racecourse. I was the first James and Sons employee to arrive at the venue. I took a few pictures of the auction lots out an display…

THE AUCTION

In spite of a few technical hitches we got underway at our scheduled start time of 10AM, and the last lot went under the hammer at approximately 2:30PM, a little behind schedule because some of the lots attracted very intense bidding (i.e for the right reason). I am going to cover a few of the truly outstanding highlights and a couple that were of personal interest…

LOT 34

This was a file of photographic negatives of 1940s vintage (approximately 800 pictures worth – I did a count in response to pre-auction query), estimated at a modest £10-20, it soared to an eye-popping £300, the result of an internet bidding war involving at least four people.

LOT 183 – CANADIAN TOKEN

This Prince Edward’s Island halfpenny token was valued at £15-25. We knew that it was a rare item, but obviously it was much rarer than even we had supposed. A frenzied internet battle pushed the price up to a barely believable £410. Appropriately enough the successful bidder proved to be a Canadian.

LOT 452

We had suffered a disappointment in the militaria section, with irrefutable proof that what should have been the star item of the whole auction was actually a clever fake rather than the real deal. However, a couple of items fared well. This item, a collection of Arabian/ Ottoman empire medals attractively displayed in a glass fronted box had been valued at £45-60, but internet interest pushed the hammer price up to £190

452

LOT 481

This German Luftwaffe Pattern officer’s Sword was valued at £90-100 and sold after some lively bidding for £240.

Our next auction, on December 9th, consists entirely of militaria, specifically badges and cloth patches collected over a lifetime by a Suffolk gentleman. Unusually for a James and Sons auction it will be taking place at our shop, 5 Norwich Street, Fakenham, NR21 9AF

LOT 504

This splendid Kelly’s Map of Bucks (actually Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire) dating from 1920 sold to yours truly for £18. More can be found in this post on my London transport themed website where it has been given a whole post to itself.

DSCN7755

LOT 577

Whereas the bid I put in on lot 504 was made more in hope than expectation, this item given its nature really had to end up in my possession, and duly did so. Like lot 504 it has a post to itself on my website.

DSCN7760

THE CLEAR UP

A two stage process, beginning with getting the stock that was still at the racecourse (either unsold or sold to bidders who were not present to collect) back to the shop and concluding with transferring the rostrum and a few other items to our storage unit in Syderstone. This done, my colleague Andrew dropped me off in central Fakenham on his way home, and I had time for a well earned pint at the Bull Inn before catching the bus home, arriving back at my flat almost precisely twelve hours after having left in the morning.

James and Sons Auction

A personal account of yesterday’s auction.

INTRODUCTION

This is my personal account of our auction which took place yesterday at The Prince of Wales Stand, Fakenham Racecourse. This story features two days worth of action, the setup on Monday and the auction itself yesterday.

SETUP

Three of us were involved in loading the van up with everything we needed to take down to the racecourse for the auction, and once we had unloaded at the racecourse the other two then headed to the silo in the village of Syderstone that James and Sons use for storage to retrieve the rostrum and the stools that the two of us who are on the rostrum occupy while I endeavoured to lay the stuff out to best advantage. My efforts were largely successful – when I arrived the following morning very little of what had done was changed. I noticed a new decoration behind the bar while setting up…

I am certain given the high moral and ethical standards of the people who run the Racecourse that the turtle to whom this shell previously belonged would have died before 1947.

THE DAY OF THE AUCTION

A seriously early start was necessary, since I had to catch the 6:50AM bus. Fortunately the bus ran smoothly (there is no excuse for not doing so at that time of the morning!), and I was at the racecourse significantly before 8AM – and as it happened the first James and Sons employee to get there on the day. In between doing the IT setup and assisting customers I was able to take some photographs before the day started…

This lot is going to be the subject of a blog post all to itself - for the moment suffice to say that it sold to the photographer for £25. — This lot is going to be the subject of a blog post all to itself – for the moment suffice to say that it sold to the photographer for £25.

Lot 435 was the subject of a last minute query. The pictures of the front side of the item were online right from the moment the catalogue was put up, but someone wanted images of the back... — Lot 435 was the subject of a last minute query. The pictures of the front side of the item were online right from the moment the catalogue was put up, but someone wanted images of the back…

...and my briefcase was the only available dark background I had against which to image it! — …and my briefcase was the only available dark background I had against which to image it!

435

Lot 612 - an antique folding camera - there are many more cameras due to feature in our next auction, including at least ten of the folding type. — Lot 612 – an antique folding camera – there are many more cameras due to feature in our next auction, including at least ten of the folding type.

612 lens Dragon Lot 1

THE AUCTION

The auction started quietly, until lot 7, an Indian bronze figurine which stood 13cm high and was slightly damaged. The estimate was a moderate £15-20, but the final hammer price was an eye-popping £120.

Note that no attempt had been made to hide the damage to the base of this figurine.

Apart from lot 51 finding a good home, the next significant highlight was lot 222, a set of three challenge coins which were estimated at £5-10 but ended up making £22.

222

The stamps (generally a strong area at a James and Sons auction) started at lot 251, and lot 274, an album page of Chinese stamps with an estimate of £10-15 sold for £75. Lots 298 and 301, achieving £180 and £55 against top estimates of £100 and £15 respectively also generated considerable excitement, while in percentage terms lot 295, in selling for £170 against a top estimate of £20 was the star lot of the whole auction. Lot 364, an album of GB stamps, was estimated at £40-50 and actually went for £95. The coins and banknotes later in the auction also sold well, with lots 507-9, lot 519 and lots 569 and 570 among the coins doing especially well, and the banknote albums that were lots 590-8 inclusive all selling for good prices. An additional plus about the coin lots specifically was that a lot of the bulk coin lots were sold in the room to one of our regular large buyers, which meant that apart from assisting him to carry them to his car we were done with them. I have no pictures available here at home of the coin or banknote lots, but here are those of the stamps I do have…

274

Lot 295, in percentage terms the star lot of the auction.

298 301 - a 301

THE CLEAR UP OPERATION

Once all the customers had departed with their purchases we had to load up the van, get everything back to the shop, return to the racecourse to pick up the rostrum and stools and drop those off at the silo and finally return to the shop to load up the van ready for travel to the collectors fair that will just about be under way as I write this. I was able to get the 17:38 bus home, meaning that I got back to my flat a mere 12 hours after departure, thoroughly exhausted. It is not just the heavy lifting, of which there was a large amount. Also, I find being on the rostrum, as I was for the first 470 of the 650 lots draining, and though I handle it fairly well these days I still find the direct customer service work involved on auction days hard.

The August Auction

An account of setting up and running an auction, with references where appropriate to being on the autistic spectrum.

INTRODUCTION

This is an account of yesterday and today (set-up and then the auction itself). Most of the pics are from yesterday – the exceptions are a couple of pictures of items that fared especially well.

SETTING UP AND RUNNING AN AUCTION

Yesterday was the day on which everything for the auction was transferred by van from James and Sons premises to the auction venue, on this occasion the Prince of Wales Suite at Fakenham Racecourse. Once there it had to be laid out to best advantage, and the person most responsible for sorting that out was me. Largely lots were laid out in number order, although there were breaks in the sequences for small stuff and stamp albums which were set up on a set of tables to which only staff were permitted access and also for the prizes (as deemed by yours truly) among the small items which were laid out in glass exhibition case. My ability to carry out this task comes from two attributes both of which are linked to me being on the autistic spectrum – the fact that I am exceedingly comfortable with numbers and the fact that I am very pattern conscious.

Fortunately the friendly and helpful folks who run the racecourse had already put out tables (although we did move a few) and provided us with chairs to set out as we deemed best.

I was able to get back to James and Sons for about an hour after we had finished setting up, and before leaving at the end of the day I disconnected the mouse from my work computer and took it with me because James and Sons do not have a spare mouse and for what I do on auction day, even though I use a laptop a proper mouse is much easier to use than the laptop’s scroll pad.

Here are some pictures from yesterday…

What the venue looked like when we arrived on Tuesday morning.

A close up of some of the things in the case.

DSCN4791

DSCN4793

AUCTION DAY

I will not state exactly what time this morning my alarm clock was set for – suffice it to say that for some of you it would have been more like a ‘getting in’ time than a ‘getting up’ time. I departed King’s Lynn on the 6:50 bus, and of course at that time of day there was no traffic on the roads, so the bus arrived in Fakenham exactly as scheduled – just after 7:30. The walk from Fakenham town centre to the auction venue, which is quite scenic, occupied a further 20 minutes and as it happened I was the first of the James and Sons team to be at the venue. about 20 minutes later my colleague Andrew arrived and we able to connect all the wiring and get the computers set up for running the auction. In between locating lots for people who wished to see them in the flesh before bidding (a task to which I am well suited because of another of my autistic traits – a near photographic memory which means that I generally know precisely what I am looking for and have a jolly good idea of where it will be) I also carried out sound and video checks and made sure that the computers were working as they should.

The way these auctions work is that David runs the auctions, and has the auctioneers view screen open on his computer. I meanwhile use the live auction app from ATG Media (who run www.the-saleroom.com) and as well as recording bids, making sure that we are on the right lot and addressing any technical issues that may arise it is also my task to alert David to internet bids. I do find both the direct customer service work I do before the auction starts and then being up on the rostrum quite tough, but because it only happens once a month I can manage it.

Although this was one of our smaller auctions, there were a few highlights. Just a couple of examples: Lot 345 was a plastic box chock full of Panini Trade Cards, valued at £20-30 – and the hammer finally came down at £65. Even more remarkable to me, although there had been an inquiry about this item before the auction, lot 532 which was a “Pedigree of Hugh Fenne of Yorkshire” had been valued at £30-40 and sold for £80.

Lot 532 in all it's glory — Lot 532 in all it’s glory

A close up of the title portion of lot 532

Once the sale was over we then had to load up the van with everything that needed to go back to the shop, go back in to the centre of Fakenham, unload everything into the shop, and then make a trip back to the racecourse for the signs we had put up to advertise our presence, the stools on which David and I had sat at the rostrum and one or two other things.

Fortunately, this was all accomplished in time for me to catch the 15:38 bus back to King’s Lynn (there is a gap in the X8’s schedule meaning that the next bus back after that was not until 17:38 – and that bus can usually be relied on … to be late).

Tomorrow will be largely devoted to updating the database with details of everyone who took part in the auction – and what they bid on and what they won and so on,

Antiques Road Trip Comes to Fakenham

The BBC Program Antiques Road Trip will be at James and Sons’ auction at Fakenham Racecourse on April 29th. The program pits two experts in a head to head contest to turn a starting kitty of £200 each into as much money as possible. A total of twelve lots will be going under the hammer, and one of the things I did in the course of yesterday’s work was to image them…

This is lot 603A, the first Antiques Road Trip lot, which will go under the hammer at 2PM.

And yes, you can open up the bonnet to check out the engine.

The last of the Antiques Road Trip lots, number 700A (three images)

Lot 685A - two images — Lot 685A – two images

A close up of the decoration on lot 682A

Lot 682A - letter opener with enamelled penny black handle — Lot 682A – letter opener with enamelled penny black handle

This toy car, lot 660A also warranted three images

Lot 625A - three images — Lot 625A – three images

If you are anywhere near Fakenham on April 29th do not miss this auction. A full catalogue can be viewed online. The lots shown above will start going under the hammer at 2PM.

Thursday and Friday

On Thursday, the printed catalogues for James and Sons next auction got to the shop. Here is a cover shot…

Catalogue Cover 001

A full catalogue can be viewed online by following this link.

As well as producing images to resolve queries, I imaged a couple of lots that had not previously been done.This gave me some good pictures to choose from…

This is the first image for lot 452, which needed 18 images in total.

The relevant detail from the front cover

This is one of the ten maps mentioned on the front cover.

Lot 497 was a box full of stamps and postal history items. I have included only the small high quality bits in this blog.

This vast collection of buttons was hard to do anything approaching justice to, so it was no surprise to get a query about it them. This was the main image I produced in response.

I then produced a close up shot of some of the finest items in the collection.

The label on this toy was just one thing that was requested in addition to the original image.

One of the two new images I produced to show the toy in its full glory.

The bus journey home that day was not a good one (n.b. Norfolk Green usually provide an excellent service – stories like this are very much the exception) since the engine of the bus were on overheated and shut down. Since were on Queen Elizabeth Way, in between Knight’s Hill and the hospital, the driver tried to keep it going to reach the hospital where we could pick up other buses into town. Sadly, he was not able to achieve this, and we had to wait within sight of the hospital for a replacement bus to pick us up, while the driver of the original then had to wait for a maintenance vehicle to arrive and tow his bus to the depot (I presume). Opposite Gaywood Tesco, someone having failed to spot that the destination board on the front of the bus said “PRIVATE HIRE” by way of indicating that it was not picking up tried to get on and had to be told twice that this bus was not picking up. Meanwhile, to put in perspective how unimpressive it was for someone who was not apparently incapacitated in any way to want to get a bus in to town from there, one passenger (’twas I) had decided that as it was bright and sunny outside he was going to walk the rest of the way to the town centre.

After attending to matters at Nelson Street, I got some close up pics of decorated windows at King’s Lynn Minster…

Friday featured both some imaging to resolve queries relating to the April auction and starting to image for the May auction. It also featured in a big way one of other regular duties, that of porter. I have some good images to share, including a map from just outside Fakenham Library…

However, I did get away early owing to the fact that none of the people who had keys could stay on beyond 3 o’clock. The bus home did this time survive the journey. Queen Elizabeth Way was slow again, but this time that was caused by nose to tail traffic, and the bus was stationary long enough for me to snag two excellent shots of the ruins of Bawsey Abbey…

The Case of the Crooked Camera Repairers

The story that is the raison d’etre for this post is already in the hands of Adam Lazzari, the EDPs chief reporter for Fakenham and Dereham. It concerns the situation with my Nikon Coolpix P520, and the plain text version is here:

THE CASE OF THE CROOKED CAMERA REPAIRERS

This is the story of the fate of my Nikon Coolpix P520 up to today, when I uncovered evidence that admits of no interpretation other than serious criminality on the part of Messrs Christopher Robert Simpson and Mark Gregory formerly of The Camera Repair Company, Dereham.

The significant milestones are as follows:

October 27^th took camera in for repairs, handed over a deposit and was told I would be contacted as soon as they had identified the fault.
A week and a half later I was told that the fault was a damaged USB port and associated damage to the motherboard. I was assured that they could fix it in approximately ten working days, so although I was going to have to pay for the privilege I agreed to the deal.
Three full weeks (i.e 15 working days, since there were no public holidays in the period concerned) later I phoned them to ask what was going on and was told that they just needed to perform quality checks and would then be able to return the repaired camera to me.
On the Saturday following having mean time heard nothing I phoned them to find out what was going on, and was told it should be ready by Monday.
Thus on the Monday following that I went to Dereham expecting to pick up the camera and was told that one of them was doing a job in King’s Lynn the following evening and that they would return the camera to me then.
That following evening no one showed up, so…
On the Wednesday I made another trip to Dereham expecting to return with a functioning Coolpix P520. I was then told that the replacement board had malfunctioned and that they needed another which they were waiting for. They also said that as soon as it was ready they would deliver it to me. So I waited, and waited and waited some more, hearing nothing until…
I decided that today, with them having had three full working weeks since Christmas to get things sorted I was going over to Dereham one more time and come hell or high water would return with a camera, which brings us to what I as a classical music lover call…

DIES IRAE

I arrived at the shop to find it shut and locked, and with a notice from Brown & Co Estate Agents attached to the door, explaining that the shop had been repossessed and that more information could be obtained from them. Therefore, I travelled on to Norwich (no extra cost – on First Eastern Counties one gets a day pass rather than a return ticket) to find the branch indicated (I wanted to do this face to face, not over the phone). There I found out that I was far from being the only person in this situation and that the repossession had been because they owed the estate agents a large amount of money. Additionally, I was informed that when the agents went to repossess the shop and change the locks they found it already stripped bare, and they have not been able to make contact with the individuals who ran it.

Additionally to what is mentioned above in the word document (attached below), the website is still active, but I have not bothered to attempt to contact them by that means as I do not consider it worthwhile.

THE CASE OF THE CROOKED CAMERA REPAIRERS

This major issue apart, I am in decent fettle, and I will finish by sharing some of my more usual type of picture (taken with older and lesser camera, a Samsung) with you…

Here for your information is a photo of the repossession notice taken with old Samsung…

Combined Christmas Meal for James and Sons & The Great Centenary Charity Auction

The combined Christmas lunch for James and Sons & The Great Centenary Charity Auction took place at the Thai Restaurant in central Fakenham, just a few doors down from James and Sons own premises. This event has already been covered on facebook, @great_auction and @aspitweets but this account will deal with it a little more fully.

A total of 17 people were able to come to the meal, and both the food and the service were above reproach. My spare ribs and sweet & sour pork were both well spiced but not such as to cause problems, while the egg fried rice was dry and not remotely sticky, and offered a tiny amount of resistance to the teeth, so had not been cooked to death. The available range of drinks was narrow and not very suitable for me – I would not generally choose canned John Smiths but nothing else they had looked remotely drinkable. Overall I think it is a perfectly respectable establishment and I hope it survives the arrival in Fakenham of J D Wetherspoon, who as usual have everyone beaten on price. It cannot however even be considered the best Thai in Northwest Norfolk – Thams of West Rudham has that distinction, although they are quite expensive.

In other news yet another exposure for the Union of Knaves, Idiots and Parasites (UKIP for short): Tommy Robinson, former leader of the Evil Dimwits League (EDL) has thrown his lot in with them.

I have some photos to share, as always…

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