I write in response to Mr Turner's recent letter regarding the response from First Great Western to a complaint.

The '...we assure you that your concerns have been recorded for the attention of our senior managers' paragraph is one from a limited stock of standard responses employed by that company.

It is the classic customer service department brush-off, and a technique at which FGW excels.

As in all large corporations, individuals within FGW care little for any issue raised by a single passenger. They are merely operating under the corporate complaints department formula.

I am a seasoned complainer, and there are only two ways to make FGW take notice of any issue.

You can form a campaign group, big enough, and newsworthy enough to attract the attention of MPs and unfavourable press reports. There's no such thing as bad publicity, but as soon as a large target starts to court it, it takes steps to appear like it is trying to address the issue creating the bad press – sometimes, in extreme situations, addressing the issue itself.

Secondly, you grass FGW up to Her Majesty's Inspector of Railways. Nothing panics a large organisation more than the firm slap of a regulatory body. So, when an inspector of the railways gets involved, railway managers start to jump.

So, Mr Turner, either get lots of your friends involved, not to mention prospective and currently sitting MPs, or think of a railway regulation breached and tell the inspectors.

OLDFIELD PARK RESIDENT Full Details Supplied