Cowardice?

I feel the need to address this. I am a simple woman (don't ask Kris-he will tell you differently!) I have my friends and family, but I am not a 'popular' person, nor am I well-read as far as my blog goes. In fact, I THOUGHT that only 3-5 people even read my meaningless ramblings to begin with. But apparently there are those out there who are ready to jump up and defend Amtrak at a moment's notice. I thought that perhaps I would type Amtrak about 25 times in this blog, in the hopes that the 'person' who left me the anonymous comment is once again searching simply to find out what people are saying about Amtrak and perhaps read this blog as well. For those of you who didn't catch the comment on my last blog it was as follows:

"Jamie - You need to get out more. Every company that sells reserved travel has some sort of fee associated with changing reservations. And you moved from an off-peak res to a peak res, so I'm sure the fee reflects the higher cost of a Friday return. If this is the worst thing a company has ever done to you, then count yourself lucky."

And if you know me, you know that I could not let this pass until I confront it. First of all, I realize that in leaving my blog open to comments from anyone (so that those I care about can leave their thoughts without having to sign in to anything), I am leaving myself open for judgement or criticism. And that is fine. HOWEVER, if you choose to leave a comment that is anything like the one above, have the courage to leave your name!

First of all Mr./Mrs. Anonymous, I would LOVE to get out more. I would LOVE to have the money to travel as often and in whichever way I wanted (and though it apparently offends you greatly it would NOT be via Amtrak now!). So, while you were probably trying to insult me with your hateful little suggestion, I would gladly take your advice if I were able to.

Second, though you may disagree, I am NO idiot. I am not so naive or stupid or blind to the world around me to expect that companies can just let people cancel reservations whenever they want or change their reservations, as I attempted to do. Of course there has to be some sort of fee for changing your reservation. You don't even understand the reason I wrote the blog. It was not simply because I was upset about the $64 (though it is horrible business practice to charge THREE TIMES the original price to change a reservation). If I was truly only upset about the fee, I would not have given them my credit card at Amtrak last night; I would have found another place to stay for the night and kept my reservation as it was, even though I was dying to get back to the rest of my family. So my anonymous 'friend', don't randomly leave comments when you don't even know the whole story.

My blog is not written to trash companies that irritate me, like Sprint, Charter and Amtrak (though this does happen from time to time). In all of my rantings against Sprint and Charter, no one has ever left me an anonymous comment trying to tear me down for voicing my feelings about what was a very frustrating experience I had to endure in the company of my seven-year-old daughter. And I am far from being an emotionally stable mother of four children under the age of seven, so forgive me for letting my emotions (oh and the horrible circumstances of my first Amtrak experience which went WAY beyond the extra money I had to pay) ruin my first impression of a company that I had hoped could provide an easier and cheaper form of travel for my family.