Canadian Railroads > VIA Call Centres

Just a shout out to VIA's excellent customer service. I called this afternoon to change my March reservation now that Prestige Class won't be available. The very friendly agent in Moncton answered the call in less than a minute. The cancellation and re-booking was done in quick order  and we had a nice discussion about restrictions, Canadian politics re: Covid etc. No preaching about mask wearing. She simply said "I assume you know the rules."  Too bad Amtrak can't provide that same level of efficiency. 

My most recent attempt at calling Amtrak and waiting for an agent was answered in less than a day.

Yes, my experiences with VIA call  centers has always been good.
When are you rescheduled for now?

Of course besides corridor cuts, their non-corridor trains are running mostly 1 day per week, not 2 or 3 days. For 30 years, anything more than 3 days per week outside the corridor is considered a luxury and are gone, even after Greyhound's demise. Not all things up in Canada are wonderful. They have great on board customer experience, and it's nice they can answer the phone, but there are so few trains to call them about. 

I have only used VIA call centers a handful of times. I called them a few months ago and I wasn't waiting on hold for more than 10 min. Amtrak's call center, however, has been a major struggle this pandemic. Last night I called them and was on hold for an hour and forty minutes.

In my experience VIA call centers always go above and beyond.   I never us the website other than to check in advance what I want to ask for.