Problems booking tickets on thetrainline.com
I "bought" a 1st class Apex return from Bristol to London advertised at £46.50 online only to receive tickets for a standard saver return through the post.
I appreciate this seemed like a good deal (perhaps too good to be true) but between me pressing the correct buttons i.e. next to the 1st class Apex text (which showed up through out the rest of the online booking, so I knew I had selected the correct product) on the page and me receiving my ticket.
theTrainline.com took it upon themselves to not give me what I ordered nor inform me that this was either not available or the incorrect price.
I have to say that I'm not entirely pleased with the way all this has gone, in fact I only looked at theTrainline.com in the first place because a colleague said he had booked a 1st class Apex return for the same day between Neath and London for £56.
So I am not the only one who saw good value 1st class rail tickets offered on the Trainline web site. Phew! Thank god for their customer service - "No madam, you are mistaken, that cannot possibly have happened" Arrgh... it did happen, don't you just hate being called a liar?
I for one won't be using theTrainline.com in the future because as far as I can see they made a mistake and refused to admit that they did! To add insult to injury they will now charge me an additional £10 to cancel the ticket that they screwed up in the first place. My colleague received the correct 1st class tickets, yet they messed up big time with mine... what a farce!
Thanks for letting me having a moan and get this off my chest!
By Maz
Comments from visitors
Had e-tickets to go down to London to look after our grandchildren. My husband was rushed to hospital and as he wasn't fit to travel I contacted "TRAINLINE" to cancel our tickets. I was put on hold on the phone while the advisor spoke to his line manager. Finally, I was told that as the tickets were "e-tickets" there was no way they could be refunded. He then explained that East Coast e-tickets were refundable but Glasgow to London weren't. This is not made clear when booking. My husband and I are Pensioners and losing £110.00 is hard in this time of austerity. It's hard to believe that if they were unable to refund these tickets that a Credit Voucher could not be offered. It would be interesting to know how many times this issue arises and who is getting all this money for nothing! TRAINLINE customer care is very poor. The fact these e-tickets are not refundable is not prominent when booking. No explanation as to why East Coast e-tickets are refundable and other routes aren't. Very confusing! Hope my gripe warns other fellow travellers to say "No" to E-Ticket option! I will certainly not book again through TRAINLINE.
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Flying Scotsman - 15-May-13 20:02
PLEASE PLEASE DO YOURSELF A FAVOUR AND DO NOT USE TRAINLINE.COM. THEY ARE UNPROFESSIONAL, DO NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY AND KEEP YOU WAITING ON THE PHONE WHICH COSTS YOU A FORTUNE. EVEN IF IT MEANS PAYING A BIT EXTRA THROUGH ANOTHER COMPANY. AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS. C
-2
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ANGEL - 10-Nov-12 15:10
My experience is bittersweet. I booked tickets, and they arrived quickly! However, they had sat our group of 7 in different carriages on the the reserved seat trains!! They have now kindly changing our seats for FREE, (though I originally phoned sunday got told they would phone LATEST by tuesday, it is now Thursday and I phoned them!). Oddly enough my initial price was £307 but I was only charged £293? so no complaint on price!!
All in all a 3* company advertising as a 5*
All in all a 3* company advertising as a 5*
-2
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40 minutes of MOH - 24-Mar-11 17:33
I ordered my train tickets online 2 days ago and still do NOT have the booking confirmation to my email. I do not agress with you charging 3.50 for online booking! Terrible.
When will you send my confirmation? Glad I have an extra day to figure this out myself...Bogus!
When will you send my confirmation? Glad I have an extra day to figure this out myself...Bogus!
+4
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anorada - 9-Dec-10 09:58
There website states they look for the cheapest groupsave tickets and then they don't
+6
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unhappy - 18-Oct-10 13:18
My gripe is the @**$ing Trainline.com website takes forever & a day to work. Somedays it would be quicker to walk by the time the site has gone through all its stages. Phew, feel better already. Great website!!
-15
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Mona - 28-Sep-10 17:39
I would boycott Trainline if I were you. I have one and only one method of booking tickets in advance: the ticket office.
+3
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Terry - 17-Aug-10 13:59
MyTrain.ticket they worst online booking service I have ever used.
I have booked online for a number of years as I work off shore so go regularly on long train journeys.
But I have to say if your booking online DONOT BOOK with Mytrain.ticket.co.uk they are by far the worst , on their website they have advertised an any time fully flexible/fully refundable ticket you pay a bit more because it is fully flexible Ideal as I sometimes require to travel either late on a tuesday or early wensday morning.
But it was ANYTHING but flexible only useable on day of stated travel and refund takes 28 DAYS with the added cheek of a £10 charge. So I contacted customer services to try and amend the booking , Customer service an Absolute disgrace no help, very cheeky and with the added bonus of a £10 charge. I have booked online before and once I contacted customer services with other companies and had nothing but a helpfull and friendly service.
Need less to say I wont use them again and will not berecommending there services to any one in the end it cost me more in time and money than it would have just to pay at station.
I have booked online for a number of years as I work off shore so go regularly on long train journeys.
But I have to say if your booking online DONOT BOOK with Mytrain.ticket.co.uk they are by far the worst , on their website they have advertised an any time fully flexible/fully refundable ticket you pay a bit more because it is fully flexible Ideal as I sometimes require to travel either late on a tuesday or early wensday morning.
But it was ANYTHING but flexible only useable on day of stated travel and refund takes 28 DAYS with the added cheek of a £10 charge. So I contacted customer services to try and amend the booking , Customer service an Absolute disgrace no help, very cheeky and with the added bonus of a £10 charge. I have booked online before and once I contacted customer services with other companies and had nothing but a helpfull and friendly service.
Need less to say I wont use them again and will not berecommending there services to any one in the end it cost me more in time and money than it would have just to pay at station.
+15
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GMAC - 20-Jul-10 15:29
Virgin is jsut a master in ripping its customers off the money! I bought my ticket online for the very same price as if I bought it over the phone. I could not make a trip and was told that e-tickets are non-refundable and non-changable, but if I booked over the phone (exactly the same price), they would happily change my journey. Yes, Virgin, we got your point. It is so easy to overlook your funny condition for online users and so easy to rip your customers who happened to change their travelling plans off the money. What a customer service! Or...expensive price = poor customer service?
+5
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Mon - 20-Jul-10 12:45
I agree - NEVER buy tickets from trainline! It's be interesting to know how much money they make through their £10 a ticket "change fee" and "no - refund" policy. Seems to me like its money for nothing!
-7
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Dave - 24-Jun-10 18:49
Call 08719774178 to Speak to Hugh Beauchamp
This is the email I got off him today regarding tickets I ordered on 28th April
Thank you for your e-mail. I sincerely apologise for the amount of time it has taken to process your refund, and for the frustration that has been caused when you were contacting us. The customer support team should have referred you to us much earlier to get this refund processed. I will be feeding back your comments and correspondence to the relevant teams to make sure this doesn't happen in the future.
I have refunded you in full for your tickets this morning, and the total of £313.60 will be reflected back to the original payment card in 3-5 working days.
Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay and the inconvenience. I have left a contact number with someone at your home telephone number, so if you would like to discuss the matter further, please don't hesitate to call.
If you have any further queries, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Best regards,
Hugh Beauchamp
Customer Relations Advisor
This is the email I got off him today regarding tickets I ordered on 28th April
Thank you for your e-mail. I sincerely apologise for the amount of time it has taken to process your refund, and for the frustration that has been caused when you were contacting us. The customer support team should have referred you to us much earlier to get this refund processed. I will be feeding back your comments and correspondence to the relevant teams to make sure this doesn't happen in the future.
I have refunded you in full for your tickets this morning, and the total of £313.60 will be reflected back to the original payment card in 3-5 working days.
Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay and the inconvenience. I have left a contact number with someone at your home telephone number, so if you would like to discuss the matter further, please don't hesitate to call.
If you have any further queries, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Best regards,
Hugh Beauchamp
Customer Relations Advisor
-11
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Chiqqy - 8-Jun-10 17:50
Trainline have stolen the vouchers I sent to their office in part payment for my journey. They now claim they never arrived, and I never had any booking, despite the fact I have proof of delivery from Royal Mail.
-8
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maddy - 8-Jun-10 08:58
My wife just bought a ticket with the trainline, but their booking website threw some errors and when she had a look at her emails she saw she had been charged twice. She rang them and they told her she's getting her money back but they are going to charge her a £10 cancellation fee! I think you are better off staying away from that website if you dont want to get robbed too. It's clear from her experience and some other comments here that their website doesnt fully work as intended.
0
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Dissapointed - 4-Jun-10 14:04
Bought tickets for return trip to London from Northumberland on the 7 May 2010 for travel on 20 May. When the tickets hadn't arrived by 17 May we contacted the Trainline (10p per min!!!!) and were told that a fax would be sent to our local station, a 25 mile roundtrip. Before going to pick them up we contacted the station and discovered that a fax had not arrived ('not the first time' according to station clerk). Rang back Trainline and gave them the fax number and they said they faxed it again as we were on the phone. Checked with the station and still had not arrived so we rang the Trainline back to cancel the ticket which they eventually refunded (10 days) minus a charge for £10 for cancelling tickets we hadn't received. Bought the tickets from mainline station (70 mile round trip)
Tickets arrived 29 May - 8 days after my wife had returned from London.
DO NOT BUY TICKETS FROM THE TRAINLINE!!!!!!
Tickets arrived 29 May - 8 days after my wife had returned from London.
DO NOT BUY TICKETS FROM THE TRAINLINE!!!!!!
-18
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Phil - 3-Jun-10 16:25
Bought tickets with thetrainline for travel the following day. Confirmation came through to say payment successful, gave me a ref number for collection. However, when I went to collect my tickets on the morning of my journey there were no tickets available. With minutes to spare before my train boarded, I rang thetrainline, only to be told that my payment had not gone through, nothing they could do. I had to rebuy my tickets and make a mad dash to catch my train. DO NOT USE THEIR SERVICE. THEY ARE RUBBISH
+7
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gs - 29-May-10 23:34
I've made the fatal assumption that Qjump would send me *my* tickets. Due to travel from Farnborough to Leeds tomorrow, but instead have a ticket from Bangor to Crewe, in someone else's name, for last Friday. What a bunch of muppets.
+13
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Rich - 27-May-10 23:23
I encountered a problem booking tickets from Bolton to Edinburgh. The first attempt ended with a message saying there was a problem with the transaction and my basket was empty. I naturally assumed the booking had failed. The second time all went well ending with the booking confirmation screen & booking reference. But to my horror I then received two e-mails confirming two bookings.As the tickets were non refundable advance tickets the robbers at The Trainline are refusing to refund my money and won't accept that it was the misleading first message on the booking site that led to the double booking. My letters to Watchdog & Which? are in the post.
+6
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Unhappy bluemooner - 12-May-10 20:00
I bought a refundable ticket in December 09 but cancelled it before the travel date. Cancellation was completed online and the tickets sent back to them by special delivery. On 15 Jan 2010 I received an email that the process has been completed and I will get back the refund. However, until April, I still haven't see the refund in my credit card account. When I chased them, they initial reply was the money was paid and asked me to check the bank. I asked them to confirm which account they sent to. They replied they have not received the ticket. When I told them I have evidence the tickets were recevied by them, they apologised for miscommunication. They asked me to send them the statement for them to investigate. If you can see the sequence, it is basically a standard answer. So they can hold on the money longer. It is over £200 of refund! I have seen many complaints about how they deal with refund. Be careful if you buy tickets from them.
I booked via ScotRail but it ended up Trainline dealing with refund!
I booked via ScotRail but it ended up Trainline dealing with refund!
-7
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Fairtrader - 10-May-10 03:58
As with most of the posts here I have found that trying to get a refund out of trainline.com is impossible. They sold me tickets from Euston to Whitehave with a change in Carlisle. The morning I was due to travel I wanted to check the connection time in Carlisle only to find that the connection did not exist. I immediately called them and they asked me to send them the tickets back for a refund (I had to drive the 600 mile round trip instead). My wife did this, handing the envelope in at the post office to send. Like many of you they claim never to have received them and customer services keeps saying "you must send us the tickets", despite the fact that I have two emails and a voicemail message from them confirming that a refund would be made. Infuriating. I am now taking legal action to recover the £139 they owe me and have also contacted my credit card company with a view to getting them to refund me and charge it back to trainline.com as a disputed transaction. If I succeed in doing this and trainline contacts me I will tell them I cannot do anything unless they can send me the tickets.....now that I would enjoy! That's the problem when decent companies are taken over by private equity sharks - it's all about cutting costs, maximising cash flow and ignoring customer service. I hope their antics become widely known and people start avoiding them (including the big train operators who use them for their own sites).
+4
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biggreeny - 3-May-10 17:33
I agree. They are useless. The customer service is non existent. The favourite trick is to hide behind the terms and conditions that the train operators have on the tickets. I'm sure the train operators will say that they are not responsible because they did not sell you the ticket directly. The trainline.com are generally more expensive than going direct, and they charge a booking fee, and they charge a credit card fee (what type of company charges a credit card fee for heavens sake?). I think if everything goes smoothly then they are OK because you do not have to deal with the customer services team - I use the terms "customer services" in the very loosest sense. As soon as you have a problem the shutters go up and they are completely unhelpful. they just do not want to know, and they will not accept any liability. Go direct to the train operator and do not give this company any of your hard earned cash.
-1
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simples - 13-Apr-10 15:44
