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Complaints Handling Procedure

What to do when things go wrong

Download the Complaints Handling Procedure pdf document here.

Hello,

Here at Eurostar, we want to get things right for you, each and every time. But we realise that things might sometimes go wrong. This complaints handling procedure explains what you can expect from us if you make a complaint.

The procedure has been designed to:

  • Be customer focused, easily accessible, well publicised and easy to use
  • Ensure efficient handling of a complaint focusing on early resolution and provide a response within a clear, publicised timeframe
  • Ensure full and fair investigation
  • Complement our Service Quality Report
  • Respect confidentiality in line with the Data Protection Act and the General Data Protection Regulation where applicable
  • Ensure areas of improvement are highlighted to our senior management team so that they can in turn consider what plans are needed to solve the problem and improve your experience and that of other customers.

Share your comments with us

If you’d like to complain about any aspect of your Eurostar experience, from the point of booking through to the journey itself, we ask that you contact a member of our team first.

This could be the advisor you are speaking with, a member of our social media team, or a station or onboard team member. That way, we’ll have the best opportunity to act immediately to resolve any issue for you.

If your complaint can’t be resolved at the time by our customer-facing team, you have 3 months from the date of the incident to contact our Traveller Care team.

You can contact them directly or ask for a referral from the team member you’ve been speaking to. For any general questions you have about our service you can also refer to our Frequently Asked Questions section in our Help Centre here.

Our Traveler Care Team

We have a specially trained team of Traveller Care consultants who are dedicated to resolving your complaint.

You can contact the Traveller Care team online here.

You can also write to us at:
Eurostar Trsveller Care
2nd Floor Kent House
81 Station Road
Ashford Kent
TN23 1AP
United Kingdom

Otherwise, call us on +44 (0) 3432 186 186 or get in touch on Facebook/Eurostar or Twitter @eurostar and your details will be passed onto the Traveller Care team. They will then make contact with you via your preferred method (email, phone or letter).

The team are available from 08:00 to 17:00 (UK time) Monday to Friday and 08:00 to 15:30 (UK time) on UK public holidays.

Response Times

If you complain to a member of our team on the phone or in person, we’ll try to resolve the issue immediately.

If you complain via social media our team may take up to a day to respond and will try to resolve the issue directly.

If this isn’t possible and/or your complaint has been passed to our Traveller Care team, they will aim to respond within 28 days.

If your complaint is complex or we need to get extra information to provide you with a full response, we’ll get back to you as soon as possible once we've fully investigated.

If this happens, we will keep in touch with our expected response date and provide an update on our progress every 10 days.

We make every effort to meet these targets but in exceptional circumstances such as a period of major disruption, we may take a little longer to respond. If this happens, we’ll let you know on eurostar.com and by email if that’s how you contact the team.

A Fair Complaints Procedure

We will carry out a full and fair investigation into any comments and complaints we receive. We define a complaint as any expression of dissatisfaction by a customer or potential customer about service delivery or company or industry policy where a response or resolution is explicitly or implicitly expected.

When you send us your complaint, you’ll receive an acknowledgement and a case reference number. We’ll then contact you via the most appropriate channel given the nature of your complaint. You can also indicate your preferred method to be contacted (email, phone or letter).

To help us resolve your complaint as quickly as possible, please include as much information as you can in your first message – for example, your booking reference and receipts for any expenses incurred – as this will help with our investigation. If you’re not happy with the resolution offered, a case manager will conduct a further review of your case. He or she will contact you and aim to resolve your complaint.

If a case manager is unable to resolve your dispute, he or she can give you the details of Médiation SNCF Voyageurs and/or London Travel Watch to review your complaint.

Any referral we receive from Médiation SNCF Voyageurs/London Travel Watch will be reviewed by our Traveller Care team and a full response provided as soon as is reasonably possible. Please note that once an independent body is investigating your case, our Traveller Care team may respond to these organisations rather than to you.

Complaints involving other companies

If your complaint or claim is about another train operator or agency, we’ll provide you with contact details for them. If your complaint or claim is about a combined Eurostar and UK train company journey and your complaint is about another UK train company, we will send your complaint to them and provide you with their details. If part of a complaint involves any aspect of our service, we’ll directly address this before advising that the complaint is passed on.

Unreasonable, aggressive or abusive customers

While we respect the rights of our customers to express their views, we will not tolerate aggressive, threatening or abusive behaviour of any kind. We reserve the right to stop any correspondence or communication that could be construed as abusive, offensive or bullying in content. We will advise in writing should we need to do this.

Quality of response

When you contact our Traveller Care team, our aim is to resolve your complaint with our first response. We also aim to make sure wherever possible that you speak to the same team member from start to finish.

Complaints about staff conduct

All complaints involving staff conduct and safety related matters will be fully and fairly investigated.

For reasons of confidentiality, we will not divulge the outcome of any internal disciplinary procedure. Feedback will be provided to the relevant management and team member(s) as part of this process.

Compensation and redress

If you’re delayed by 60 minutes or more, you can claim compensation in line with our policy and as explained in our Conditions of Carriage. Compensation must be claimed within 3 months of the delayed journey.

Find out more or make a claim.

Any other complaint will be assessed on a case-by-case basis. If merited, we may offer as appropriate one or more of the following:

  • an apology
  • compensation as a goodwill gesture (normally offered in the form of
    e-vouchers)
  • an explanation of what went wrong
  • any practical action to be taken to correct the issue.

You should also note that you may have additional rights under relevant legislation, such as:

  • the UK Consumer Rights Act 2015
  • the EU regulation N° 2021/782 on rail passengers' rights and obligations.

Our Service Quality report

Diversity and equality

We will respond to complaints received in English, French or Dutch in those languages.

For customers whose first language is not English, French or Dutch, we’ll provide a reply in the most appropriate format possible. We can also reply in other formats such as large print. To arrange this, please contact our Traveller Care team.

We are also committed to meet the needs of people with disabilities. We aim to ensure that carers, support workers and guardians are able to act on behalf of a customer with the customer’s permission.

Confidentiality

We may divulge some or all of your details to third parties without obtaining consent where it is necessary for us to either fully respond to your complaint or to fulfil our own statutory obligations. This includes our sub-contractors, insurers, other train operators and London Travel Watch.

Monitoring and reporting

Here at Eurostar, we want to get things right for you, each and every time. We want to make every journey special and exceed your expectations, and to help us do so we collect customer feedback to enable us to improve.

Every year we survey around 120,000 travellers across all our routes, asking them to rate their satisfaction with a variety of aspects of their journey.

This data is used to give us a picture of what all our travellers think about key aspects of their Eurostar experience, such as booking, check-in, stations, lounges, food and the onboard environment. The survey also includes key questions including how likely they are to recommend and use Eurostar again, and whether or not we offer value for money.

The surveys are conducted via an online questionnaire, emailed to customers one working day after they have travelled.

The results are published monthly and presented to our senior management team. In any areas where satisfaction is low this team creates and implements plans to address them. The results are then revisited to ensure any actions have had the desired effect.

In addition we ensure data is collected by our contact centre and Traveller Care team to ensure we have a clear picture of the reasons for contact and volume of complaints received. Again, these are reported on and shared with our senior management team to address and inform future plans.

We also have both internal and external audits in place to track how well we deliver our commitments.

Claims for losses, property damage and personal injury

If you’d like to make a claim against Eurostar for losses, property damage or personal injury, this should be made by emailing or writing to our Traveller Care team. It will then be dealt with in accordance with our Conditions of Carriage and if necessary, referred to our insurers. If there are safety implications, the details will be passed onto the appropriate department and our safety team.

Training and developpement

We’re committed to ensuring that our team have the knowledge and skills needed to deal with a complaint about our service. We provide a mix of training sessions featuring group and individual exercises and discussions, as well as an ongoing programme of onthe-job training and support for the members of our complaints handling team.

In our training we cover topics including customer service, complaints investigation and resolution skills.

Where policies or processes change, or we identify a training need, we provide additional briefings or training to individuals or the whole team.

Review our procedure

We will review our complaints handling procedure every year.

Independant review and mediation

Médiateur La Médiation SNCF Voyageurs
The Médiation SNCF Voyageurs provides a free, independent alternative dispute resolution service (ADR) for Eurostar passengers.

You can contact the Médiation SNCF Voyageurs in English or French either online or by post. The applicable rules and procedures when submitting a request to the Médiation SNCF Voyageurs are governed by a Mediation agreement (‘Protocole de mediation’) entered into by and between the French National Associations of Consumers, SNCF Voyageurs, Eurostar and Thalys.

The Protocole de Médiation is available at https://mediation.sncf-voyageurs.com and in the SNCF Voyageurs annual report.


Find out more about SNCF mediation.

Request a mediation.

Or write to:
Médiation SNCF Voyageurs
TSA 37 701 59 973
TOURCOING CEDEX
France

London Travelwatch

London TravelWatch is an independent consumer watchdog set up by the UK Parliament to protect and champion passengers’ interests. One of their responsibilities is to look at cases where passengers are not happy with our response when something has gone wrong.

We will make every effort to address your concerns in a fair and reasonable way in accordance with our conditions of carriage, our complaints handling procedure and our customer charter. However, if you’re not happy with our response you can contact London TravelWatch. They will consider your case and where the feel it is appropriate will follow up on your behalf.

Find out more about London TravelWatch.

Email: enquiries@londontravelwatch.org.uk
or write to:
London TravelWatch Freepost
(RTEH-XAGE-BYKZ) PO Box 5594
Southend on Sea
SS1 9PZ

In addition, a European online dispute resolution (ODR) platform exists to facilitate access to Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) for complaints. If available, the platform can be accessed at http://ec.europa.eu/odr and claims submitted to the platform will be addressed in accordance with Regulation EU 524/2013.

EU national bodies enforcing your rights under the EU regulation N° 2021/782 on rail passangers' rights and obligations

If you have submitted a claim to our Traveller Care team but are unsatisfied with the response, or if you have not received any response within three months, you can contact:

In France:
Direction Générale de la Concurrence, de la Consommation et de la Répression des fraudes - D.G.C.C.R.F. (Directorate General for Competition, Consumption and Anti-Fraud)
59, boulevard Vincent Auriol
75703 Paris Cedex 13
Website :
https://www.economie.gouv.fr/dgccrf
Tel. : +33 144 871 717

In Belgium:
Service Public Fédéral Mobilité et TransportsService Relais des voyageurs Rue du progrès 56 BE-1210 Bruxelles / Federale Overheidsdienst Mobiliteit en Vervoer - Dienst Reizigersrelaties
Vooruitgangstraat
56 BE-1210
Brussels Tel.: +32 2 277 36 58 or +32 2 277 30 49
Email: PRS.DPF@mobilit.fgov.be
Website:
https://mobilit.belgium.be/fr French,
https://mobilit.belgium.be/nl Dutch,
https://mobilit.belgium.be/en English

In the Netherlands:
Inspectie Leefomgeving en Transport (Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate)
P.O. Box 16191
2500 BD The Hague
Tel.: +31 88 489 00 00 (Mon-Fri 08:30- 17:00)
Website:
https://www.ilent.nl/ Dutch,
https://english.ilent.nl/ English

You will find further details on your EU rights and obligations under the EU regulation n° 2021/782 in our Conditions of carriage and on the national enforcement bodies’ respective websites.

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