Terrible Customer Service

As I write this, I’m in the midst of a frustrating train ride from Machu Picchu to Cusco. What was supposed to be an hour long scenic train ride turned into a hassle. Thirty minutes into the journey the train came to a stop. We waited and waited and waited. Five minutes turned into thirty minutes, thirty minutes turned into an hour, an hour turned into two hours.

Frustration ensued amongst the passengers. We were restless. Some had places they needed to be. My friend Bryan had to catch a flight in the evening and he was stressing out that he might miss it. Another train car full of Peruvians exited onto the tracks in protest. One man took his backpack and abandoned our train and tried hitching a ride onto a passing train. He was stopped by security.

What made this situation worst is how the company, Peru Rail, handled it. There was no transparency. They didn’t tell us what was wrong or how long we should expect to wait. They didn’t update us at all during the two hour delay and we didn’t know what they were doing. Eventually, they got the train running but there was no apology. We arrived at our destination and it was like it never happened.

Peru Rail could’ve handled the situation much better. Fundamentally, communicating with us that there is an issue and their doing everything they can to fix it goes a long way.