You can be as nice as pie with someone but not give them what they want and still watch them turn on the tears. There is never any particular need to be nasty about it but just because someone starts crying or whatever doesn't mean that they should receive differing treatment.
Someone having an awful day can be stoic or in a right state and I take the circumstances into account when making decisions rather than the demeanour of the individual.
If someone hasn't got their railcard and half way through the conversation bursts into tears, I'm still going to be selling them a new ticket.
Classic example - a chap I see regularly who always has a ticket one morning didn't have one from a penalty fare stop but looking a bit more haggard than usual. I started as I always do by asking him if there was a reason he had boarded without paying. He said he was sorry, his mind was on other things as his daughter hadn't come home the previous evening and he was going mad with worry. I sold him a normal ticket and said I hoped all would turn out OK. I saw him again a few days later (with ticket) and asked if all was OK and he replied that yes, she had come home a day later and thanked me for my kindness and for remembering him.
On the other hand I had a regular traveller who was in the habit of getting on at a manned station, walked past the booking office and ticket machines, jumping on a train and "going to sleep" before getting off at an unmanned station. If you woke her up she would pay but insisted on a railcard discount etc, if you wouldn't give it her she would just refuse to cough up and get off. One day I "woke her up" before the train had left the origin and sold her an anytime single. She screamed blue murder, burst into tears, said I was picking on her etc etc and tweeted into the company saying I was bullying her.
So please don't judge the inspector by the passenger's reaction. There are some unpleasant, calculating people about.
LL your post rings oh so true !!!
Had a passenger a while back looking to refund an SDS (nearly a three figure amount), they'd been sold it for not being able to support an Advance with a railcard that they couldn't show to the RPI. To get a SDS they'd have had to have assured the RPI they had an in date one......
They'd just got off the train and were immediately applying for the refund, they'd "found" the railcard, a digital one that expired 364 days from that day !!! Father Jack didn't exactly come down in the last shower so the question was asked did they just buy the railcard after they were chinged up ? No was the answer, this digital railcard was a 3 year one and it's a coincidence that it expired a year minus a day from today !!! However I spied with my little eye an RPI, the one who'd got off the same train !!! The new TTK Avocet on train sales system will scan a railcard or ticket and show the purchase time and date.....
But how unfortunate- the mobile phone with the railcard on it ran out of battery (was turned off) just at that moment when the RPI came over. And a panic attack/hypo occurred, PCSOs and first aiders attended. Myself and the RPI were nasty nasty men, passengers (we had them back then) were enlisted as supporters. A taxi was ordered on the company tab to take this victim of the railway home....
But after the drama died down the cleaner came along saying they'd found a purse on the counter, belonging to who would you guess ? Containing an out of date railcard from the previous month, driving licence, £2.93 in small change, receipts and bank cards.
Next day dad of the loser comes to collect the lost property and to generally have a go.
He wasn't banking on being told the truth, the offspring had made him drive miles for £2.93 and a driving licence, the bank cards were destroyed as per cash regulations and the person was trying to commit fraud by trying on a dodgy refund. After digesting the story his words were that he'll kill them when he got home. He had transferred them first of all the ticket money while they were on the train and then £30 more to buy the railcard.
Drama is rarely relative to the facts.