Eurostar blazes! But not with any competence, believe me

Well, I bet you thought you’d got rid of me – no blog for quite a while … and just as you thought it was safe to come out, here I am again.

For the last week I’ve been in Brussels doing our first EADIM seminar. It’s been the best of times and the worst, because the speakers have been magnificent – and the delegates far more knowledgeable and sophisticated than we ever expected. What’s more, two came from Australia and one from South Africa, which is pretty encouraging.

But today we finish … then we have to get back to London … via Eurostar … if it’s running. It is the worst of times. We have nowhere to stay. Plane flights are a major rip-off. It costs £900 to rent a car and drive back to London. Thanks Hertz.

I have no idea what will happen, because the monkey at Eurostar in charge of telling people what’s happening is 100% bloody useless. Their website tells you the square root of f**k all. Their phone service is studiously vague.

Welcome to the information age, where everyone has the technology – but nobody has a clue.

Maybe they should hire an astrologer to predict the time when trains might run again.

No wonder the damn trains are practically empty. Wankers.

About the Author

In 2003, the Chartered Institute of Marketing named Drayton one of 50 living individuals who have shaped today’s marketing.

He has worked in 55 countries with many of the world’s greatest brands. These include American Express, Audi, Bentley, British Airways, Cisco, Columbia Business School, Deutsche Post, Ford, IBM, McKinsey, Mercedes, Microsoft, Nestle, Philips, Procter & Gamble, Toyota, Unilever, Visa and Volkswagen.

Drayton has helped sell everything from Airbus planes to Peppa Pig. His book, Commonsense Direct and Digital Marketing, out in 17 languages, has been the UK’s best seller on the subject every year since 1982. He has also run his own businesses in the U.K., Portugal and Malaysia.

He was a main board member of the Ogilvy Group, a founding member of the Superbrands Organisation, one of the first eight Honorary Fellows of the Institute of Direct Marketing and one of the first three people named to the Hall of Fame of the Direct Marketing Association of India. He has also been given Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Caples Organisation in New York and Early To Rise in Florida.

4 Comments

  1. peter

    Drayton – the main travel complaint is always about a lack of information. It seems to me (and correct me if you think this is a jump too far) that the absence of a good spokesperson and information output is down to management. And that reticence is because of resentment towards management:

    “Management don’t give a fuck about me. so why should I give a fuck about customers?”.

    In other areas it’s due to shame, or secrecy concerning crime, hidden practices or a scam (Army, police, medical profession, masons, cartel etc).

    Hope you end up back. How many delegates did you get?

    Reply
  2. Richard Young

    Train to Ostend then ferry (unless they still run the jetfoil…) to Ramsgate. Although having looked at the frankly appalling websites for the ferry services (one of which doesn’t give you the option to travel without a vehicle!) I can appreciate why you might still be frustrated.

    Reply
  3. Steve

    Train to Paris, drink wine and eye up the women until the tunnel is fixed…

    Then, once the tunnel is fixed, stay in Paris…

    No more nu-Labour, no more Gordon (“looks like a sad face drawn on a scrotum”) Brown spending all your money in a desperate attempt to buy the next election…

    Steve

    Reply
  4. peter

    Why don’t you political guys save your comments for the end of the next government?

    They will sound exactly the same:

    ‘Siempre las mismas palabras’

    Reply

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