Hannah Cooper sent a message to Joseph Boardman that said:
Hello,
I wanted to share with you the terrible service my friends and I experienced while riding on train #313 last night. We were picked up in Hermann, MO. at 5:30pm heading to Kansas City, MO. After traveling 7 miles, a boulder hit the train\'s engine and it was disabled. We sat on the train for 3 hours waiting for the crew to see if they could fix the problem and decide what they were going to do with passengers. at about 8:15 we were transferred to another train going the opposite direction and were told that buses would be waiting for us in Washington, MO. which would take us back to Kansas City. Once the train took off, we were told that no buses were coming because of the short notice. We were then told we would be going all the way to St. Louis, MO. where alternate transportation would be available. Once we arrived, there was no transportation and the lobby was filled with about 45 people who had nowhere to go. We were told that we would not be given a hotel room for the night unless we originated in Illinois. The train station has since said this was not true, but the staff at the train station were the ones telling us this. If we did not get on the train before St. Louis, we were expected to sleep in the station until the next train at 9:00am. People were obviously very upset at this point and the staff at Amtrak was not at all accommodating. There was no manager to speak to and the staff was arguing and yelling at everyone. One lady in particular covered her name tag so we could not see it. She was an older African American lady with glasses and a gray afro. She was very unprofessional and did not remedy the situation at all. The level of service provided was horrible. I felt as though I was forced to go to St. Louis on the promise that accommodations were going to be provided. In lieu of sleeping on the concrete floor of the train station or paying for a hotel, my party and I took a cab to the airport and rented a car to drive 4 hours home in the middle of the night so we could make it to work today. This was also due to the fact that when we called to reschedule our train ticket for the following morning, it was set to pick us up in Hermann, MO. when we were still in St. Louis. We spoke with the employees and they let us know that we would not have even been picked up because that was not a stop they planned on making. The decision to drive just seemed like the most secure and guaranteed form of transportation for us. This was my first time riding with Amtrak and I will never ride with you again. I want to shed light on this situation as you need to seriously work on your customer service and the way emergencies are handled. I am asking that my train ticket be refunded as well as the price of my rental car and the cab ride to get there. I feel that this is the least that can be done after this entire ordeal and to show that your company has some decency and cares about its passengers.
Thank you,
Hannah Cooper
Ph. 913-680-7404
