Adele Wilson: KiwiRail chief customer officer on the operator being ordered to compensate Kiwis for ferry disruptions

Interislander's operator is promising to cough up for ferry disruptions.

A Commerce Commission investigation found KiwiRail may have breached the law by suggesting cancelled sailings were out of their control.

Mechanical events leading to cancellations will now almost always trigger compensation.

Chief customer officer Adele Wilson says people incurred some high costs from cancellations. 

"As we were trying to catch up the schedule, we had another event - and so people who'd been rebooked, unfortunately some of them were delayed again."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
KiwiRail has been ordered to pay compensation to Fairy passengers
after a bunch of bunch of cancelations back in twenty
twenty three. Now, what happened back then was that the
company said no to reimbursing anyone. Now the Commerce Commission
has told it needs to cough up. Adele Wilson is
Kiwirail's chief customer and growth officer. Hey, Adel, hi here,
how I am? I'm well, thank you. I imagine you want

(00:20):
to get the apology out of the way.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
I certainly do. Yeah. Look, we've the incidents in early
twenty twenty three, precedented disruption impacted thousands of people and
we got it wrong. And look, I really do just
want to unreservedly apologize to all New Zealanders who were
impacted by that disruption, and more so by our decision

(00:46):
to delay compensation at the time. We know that caused
a lot of stress. And yeah, it's a huge sorry
to all of those people.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Okay, So how much do you think you're going to
have to end up paying.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Look, we don't have a really a view on the
total amount. We so far have contacted over one hundred
and ninety people and have doubt whether one hundred and
twenty claims to date, and the amount of both claims
has very hugely depending on what people's circumstances were at
the time. So look, there's no cap on it. We're

(01:24):
just taking it as it comes and looking at each claim,
claim by claim, what's.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
The highest value you're going to pay out So far.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Look, it's ranged from claims in the thousands of dollars
down to just people saying, oh, just the price of
my ticket is.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Because it's not just the tickets that you're refounding, right,
is it also things like accommodation flights to replace blah
blah blah.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yes, yes, exactly, it's the reasonable cost that people incurred
as a result of the disruption. And the unusual thing
about these disruptions, whether it was rolling and then as
we were trying to catch up the schedule, we had
another event and so things overlapped and people who'd been rebooked,

(02:12):
unfortunately some of them were delayed again. So there are
some high costs that we're looking at that people incurred.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
Yeah, and Adele, are you planning to change the way
that you do this in the future, like no repeat
of the same type of thing.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
Absolutely, so we've made several changes. The big change we've
made is to our rules. What we used to do
with mechanical events is we waited until the investigation was
finished to see whether the event was inside our control
or outside our control. And what that meant is people
have had to wait for a very long time, and

(02:45):
of course in this case, we also gave confusing messages
about whether they would ever get compensation. So we're not
going to do that anymore. Mechanical events, We're going to
treat those as though they are within our control unless
the clear it's very clear at the time that it wasn't,
and we're going to pay people their compensation immediately so
that they can get on and make their other plans

(03:07):
and sort themselves out.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Adele, thanks very much, look after yourself. That's a Dale Wilson,
Keirel's chief customer and Growth officer. I'm going to talk
to the Greens about the climate very shortly. Also have
to tell to tell you about the gas situation, but
listen very quickly. Just a heads up, keep an eye
out tomorrow for any news on Mark Lundy. Blast from
the past. But Mark Lundy's been before the parole board

(03:29):
today and this is actually Mark's third time appearing before
the parole board. Obviously times one and two they said no,
we're not letting you out, and mainly they said no,
we're not letting you out because he was like, I
didn't do it, I'm innocent, and often they don't like that.
They like you to admit that you're guilty and then
sort of like say you're sorry and stuff, and then
they let you out. Anyway, So it's this third time
appearing before the parole board. If they decide, if they

(03:52):
make a decision as to whether to let them out
or not, which I'm assuming they're going to have to,
because what's the point of the appearance unless they make
a decision. They are like to release that decision tomorrow.
So keep an eye. I mean, what are the chances
that he gets out. The guy's been in for twenty
three years and as I say, trouble thus far has
been not admitting admitting his guilt. So it'll be it'll
be absolutely, I mean, if he doesn't get out, much

(04:14):
the same if he gets out.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Interesting for more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive listen live
to news talks.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
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