well Ian with the opinion that you have of Cumbria and its people you are certainly not going to be missed..the people of west cumbria give excellent service to those who are polite and courteous ..maybe it was your hostility and ego that they found objectionable..

Ian, maybe the Companies who set up Call Centres should be the ones responsible for training their staff up correctly in Good Customer Service,don't you think?!

This comes as no surprise to me. Call centres rely on staff that can provide great customer service and as a fairly new resident to Whitehaven I have to say that great customer service is not something that West Cumbrians are particularly good at. I am shocked at the appauling service I get when shopping or eating out in Whitehaven and Workington. No customer skills anywhere I go. I have resigned my job and can't wait to get away from this place. On that basis if I owned a call centre in Whitehaven, I'd move it somewhere else too!

Very strange how Employers who are reliant on local people using their local services should choose to ask us to use services that are far from local for details of their local services.

It is so negative and stressful for these poor workers to be put in the position to have to up sticks and move,most likely from other relatives.

I hope that the people making these upsetting suggestions can exercise their brains and think and care enough as to "oh yes we care enough to give those workers we suggest have to move and that have been faithful employees for many years, a helping hand with Removal costs and set up costs in new area and pay rises". A relocation package seems to be for those only at the top in Management or Executive positions,bah humbug.

TBL: Try this number: 01946 598201 - it's charged at local rate! Hope this number helps anyone who needs to call Traveline to avoid paying premium rates for information that is freely available to internet savvy users (SayNoTo0870 website).

Tim: Up to 6 million people in this country have never used the internet and a lot of them wouldn't know how to. Many of them would struggle to get access to the internet, due to their location in out of the way places for example, (the very same people who may most need to access the service), let alone know how to use it - never mind find the information they needed online. I guess it's alright that these (potentially) 6 million people (a "miniscule number" in your words) then have no way of accessing the information they need when they need it? This is what would happen if the company stopped maintaining "such an expensive service".
In response to the last question as to why, I'd suggest "the company" provides this service (or at least contributes to the costs of providing it) may be due to licensing conditions attached to the permission to operate the routes? From what the article says though, I understood the service is contracted out by a consortium of transport providers and not just paid for by any one provider? In which case I'd say it's being run as a public service - something which seems to be a bit of an anathema to a large group of people in society these days - usually those least reliant on any public service. You'd have thought people would just be glad that this is a public service not being funded by taxpayer’s money.
As I understood it, the main thrust of the article was the illogicality of relocating 9 jobs hundreds of miles away in order to provide a service that could as easily be supplied (using modern technology) from home, a service where local knowledge is invaluable in providing an enhanced level of service and a service where the local dialect of either Cumbria or Devon could easily cause problems in communication, in relation to place names for example.

To the readership in general I'd say this. These 9 people should be sympathised with - not slammed for not being in a position to (needlessly) uproot their families hundreds of miles away.

Finally, aimed at the "I'm alright Jack" brigade, could anyone explain to me why every article in this newspaper these days seems to provoke some sort of vendetta against the poorest and most unfortunate people in the country? Whatever happened to the compassion and sense of community that once existed in this country and that made "Britain" so "Great"?
Don't answer that, I already know the answer. The Tory controlled government of the 1980's and their ludicrous sell off of the country's assets, often at large discounts - to say nothing of the 3 million people of my generation who languished on the dole in spite of "getting on their bikes" to seek work. Some of us couldn't even afford the bike so had to use Shanks's Pony, and in my case my thumb came out to hitchhike wherever I needed to go for job interviews! When you've travelled hundreds of miles across country without transport and slept on the streets, sometimes for days at a time, in order to try and secure work, then you can condemn me as a benefit scrounger.
Till then - accept that I, and many others like me, are reliant on benefits due to reasons beyond our own control (I became seriously ill at 25 years old and have never been well enough to work since) - and count yourselves lucky you don't have to walk in our shoes.
And please don't give me all that "hard work" claptrap you usually spout - some people are born with the good fortune not to be disadvantaged in life by circumstances beyond their control. I manage to count myself lucky even with my problems as I realise there are a lot of people in a much worse position than me, why can't you do the same?
Ask yourself this - can you be sure that your job will still be there in a few days, weeks or months, let alone next year and beyond? If not, and the worst should happen, I suppose you'll walk into another job with no problem? Or suppose that you couldn't carry on working for health reasons - will you then be condemning yourself for the position you have been unlucky enough to find yourself in through no fault of your own?
As I said - count your blessings - for tomorrow that finger of fate could be pointing at you!!!

Before long their will be no jobs in cumbria apart from shops which are closing down by the day as their is hardley any good paying jobs around, no one has spare money after bills to buy anything. Everything moving south, maybe we should just join Scotland.

Cumbria or devon list everything you would miss then move

Can any of those who suggest they move to Devon explain how they can do that to back up their comment? What about house prices? What about their working partners, will they be able to relocate or find an alternative career immediately? What about their children at school, particularly those taking exams?

As usual some people make glib uncaring and stupid comments without thinking of the reality. It's most concerning that these people are allowed to vote and sit on a jury. Heaven help us!

I do sympathise, but it has to be said that Devon is lovely. I can't think of many places that I'd rather be forced to move to.