Power Cuts

I thought I'd start a topic for discussion about powers cuts at Towers. Apologies if we already have one, but I couldn't find one.

Power cuts seem to have been rather frequent this season at Towers. Up until Saturday I had never experienced one whilst on park. However now that I have I can see just how poor the communication is when the power goes. We were all in the queue for Carnival when it went, and had been queueing for about an hour I think it was. We all knew the power had gone but not once did a member of staff tell us that it had. After a while the whole queue got told to leave. Once again no mention of a power cut, no mention of trying to sort things out, no apology, no form of compensation for queueing all that time. It was poor.

In my opinion it is something Towers urgently need to look into over the closed season. If they know that they are prone to power cuts then they need to put in proper plans of what to do when they happen. At least tell your staff to apologise to the guests, that isn't hard. I had heard all about the bad communication during power cuts but now that I have seen it for myself I am rather shocked.

I was checking the resort app all day - the ride times were not updating properly, and when there was a power cut there was no mention of it on the app or on social media.

I have comment on this before. A very basic fix to communication is flip charts boards, have one at every Fastrack sales guest information booth. Then have something like "Unfortunately we are suffering a power cut, the following areas are affected (list of areas)"

Make it common practice to give a reason for queueline evacuation, e.g "unfortunately, due to a power cut. we have to ask you to leave the queueline"

Then issue some sort of compensation at the queueline exit. and put ride operators out in the area of their ride with a senior staff member with a radio keeping them informed of any changes or updates to the situation. So they can answer guest questions.

even throw some more staff at guest services or run both customer service and box office together for complains from guests to cut down the queuing to complain.

What would cut the queue for Guest Services would be if people got a grip and stopped stomping off there in some hypocritical outrage that their time has been wasted queuing only for a power outage - which is not in Towers' control! - to occur, then demonstrate they are perfectly happy to waste even more of their precious day queuing to whinge, because they'll get a free Fastrack at the end. Makes my blood boil.

Sometimes, in life, shiiiiiiit (bloody censor! ) happens. Deal with it and move on. The reaction of some people to something which can only really be described as unfortunate, is just plain embarrassing.

That's my general view of people complaining at power cuts. The lack of communication on Saturday WAS shocking though. If the training at Towers is still as it was when I worked there, staff will have been trained to communicate throughout any sort of breakdown. It's bad on the staff working on the attraction at the time to effectively ignore the guests, then empty the queue with no word of explanation - and I was present at the situation Rob speaks of. However, it's a temporary maze, I imagine some of the staff will be temporary and may not have received the full rigorous training the ride staff will have.

Kaycee said:

What would cut the queue for Guest Services would be if people got a grip and stopped stomping off there in some hypocritical outrage that their time has been wasted queuing only for a power outage - which is not in Towers' control! - to occur, then demonstrate they are perfectly happy to waste even more of their precious day queuing to whinge, because they'll get a free Fastrack at the end. Makes my blood boil.

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As far as our own group goes, I can see your point - up to a point, which is why I decided not to waste any more time upsetting guest services. However, for the non-enthusiasts who'd paid £40 or so to be there, and lost a good few hours of their day as well as a fair amount of enjoyment/satisfaction probably did have grounds for complaint and compensation - we all know the power outage wasn't Alton's fault, and it probably caused staff a good deal more stress and misery than it did guests, but at the end of the day, customer service and placating unsatisfied visitors IS among the main roles of guest services. Really, they have nothing to lose by dishing out fastracks or vouchers, especially if it reduces the number of people leaving with a nasty taste in their mouths. After all, we are British!

Sorry, just my thoughts. Oh, and as for the Carnival debacle, queue line evacuation after 90 minutes without so much as an apology - yeah, I'm over it now and I know far worse things could have happened, but at the time, it was still unforgivable.

Although I know power cuts aren't Alton's fault I think giving out fast tracks it great. Seeing as some people could have saved for a long time to afford the trip.


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Are the power cuts not Altons fault then? I thought it was basically the case they'd built a power sapping theme park without properly planning proper infrastructure and power supply with it?

I really have no idea, electricity is witchcraft that falls out of plug sockets to me.

But it does sound like the communication side of things sucks when it happens. I've never really understood the general secrecy when rides go down, people would just appreciate being told what's going on. Why do they care if people know what the problem is?

They do tell you during a breakdown, but when the power goes out, the park has very little means of communication. Something the park should address. Simply telling staff to go out and inform guests would be OK, but backup power for communication systems and some park speakers would be better.

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Power cuts have been an issue for years at AT.

They should perhaps, inprove their infrastructure or/and question the suppliers.

BigDave said:

backup power for communication systems

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According to Ofcom licence website. AT has a licence for running a duplex channel system. This is normally used in a repeater configuration. So if the repeater system has not got a UPS (auto switching backup battery system) It would be dead in the water and their radio comms system would fail.

A UPS with enough power to run their repeater for 8 hours would cost less then a grand to buy. if they cut the amount of radio traffic it could cost as low as £400. however these are just ball park figures as i don't know the system they are running.

It is not hard to run a radio system off grid for 4 to 6 Hours. I have the capability to run a two way radio for about 24 hours, before resorting to my car as a power source.

The internal telephone system would also fail if there is no UPS to keep it powered as well. also the external connections will be linked to a switchboard system. leaving the park with emergency direct line for phone use outside the park, if they have though to have this capability.

Would you go to guest services if you get a power cut in your own home just have quiet moan and get on with it

Powers cuts can be very common with the whether and at peak times normally sorted within 1 hour

But I can I see why it's a problem at towers when nobody comes and informs you

josht said:

Would you go to guest services if you get a power cut in your own home just have quiet moan and get on with it

Powers cuts can be very common with the whether and at peak times normally sorted within 1 hour

But I can I see why it's a problem at towers when nobody comes and informs you

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I don't often pay £40 to be stood in my own home for 7 hours though.

And nobody pays £40 to enter towers either.

5% or the like.

Haha!

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In regards to no communication, I was in the smiler queue at the time and the staff were very good with regular announcements by a member of staff (delay due to power cut, ride closed due to power cut caused by external factors, waiting on engineer to come and reset the ride) Only issue I had is that staff are not told how wide it is (park wide, area only) so if people left the queue (which they did) they had no idea that they were better off waiting as out of the queue you are wondering round aimlessly.

I've counted very little occasions when power cuts have lasted for hours and hours at Alton. At most power cuts the past few years have lasted an hour or two (worst case scenario). While it's not ideal it hardly ruins your day, the way I've seen people go on about it it's like the whole park shut down for 6 hours and they can only do one ride before going home.

I've been caught up in several park power cuts, and a power cut in the waterpark the one year (which was quite an experience) - it does annoy you slightly as you can often end up spending time just standing there waiting for everything to get back up and running but then when everything is back to normal you just continue with the day as normal. I've never gone running down to Towers Street to queue for over and hour to complain only to get a Fastrack ticket. Just FYI too, I live no where near the park so visits are rare. I just never see the point in complaining. It's not like Towers has much choice in the power going off.

I actually find it quite hilarious those going to Guest Services are complaining about missing an hour or whatever on their day because of a power cut while they've just queued for an hour to make the complaint! Yep, you've just missed out on 2 hours of your day. You could have done a few rides within that hour of waiting to moan!

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The main thing that really needs to be addressed is how staff are trained with power cuts. Most of the time staff usually look just as confused as guests and have no direction at all, whether this be due to no procedures or no communication is anyone's guess but Alton really needs to look in setting something down as power cuts seem to be happening a little more often these days. Even if it's just a simple procedure of evacuating guests from queue lines and informing guests of a power cut.

I'm not sure how the power to Alton works but maybe they should look into it and see if anything can be done.

Towers do give out compensation for time lost during power cuts. My issue is the expectation from the guests that Towers should. Entrance price does not protect you from unfortunate things happening, and this is one of them.

And as has been said, sure less than 10% pay full admission price, so it's a weak argument.

I just have a problem with the entitlement culture and think people are failing to deal appropriately with adverse events, which in the grand scheme of things, don't really matter. Shown perfectly by the demonstrated willingness to waste more time queuing for GS to see how much they can squeeze from the park by (in some cases) shouting and screaming like toddlers. my opinion!

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Kaycee said:

I just have a problem with the entitlement culture and think people are failing to deal appropriately with adverse events, which in the grand scheme of things, don't really matter.

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When you pay for a big family to go, and you go once a year, this is a big issue. We aren't talking about wider culture here, this is an expensive leisure day.

That being said though, the day I went with the few hour cut, I did not bother going to Guest Services, and just had a natter with the staff about the grief they get from the public about it. I was however extremely disappointed in the complete lack of communication offered to the guests overall. That most certainly is something you can rectify, very simply.

I visited GS later in the day to complain about that issue. There is a stark contrast between problems out of Towers control, and those well within it.

Just do what the water companies do. Send someone out on the bubble truck with a megaphone or something lol!

Just give someone in each area a clipboard. Doesn't even have to have anything on it, as soon as people see a clip board, they'll ask ;D

Just out of curiosity, have power cuts been a problem for a while, or since the Smiler opened? Just I dont think I can recall so many power cuts taking place last year..... I may wrong though. Just wondering if the current power into Alton cannot cope with the pressures on it and is need in upgrading. Maybe there is some debate between the power company and Alton as to who is responsible for this...

Power cuts have been a problem for the last few years. When the smiler was constructed they added new cabling and a substation. We hoped this would resolve most of the power issues, but clearly not.

That said, I don't think the park is entirely to blame for these power cuts and they just have to ride them out. I think what they do need to work on is getting some sort of system in place to keep the guests happy and to get power restored to the park ASAP.