Amending train tickets online - be warned!

[Flay]

I purchased two tickets to London from East Coast. Mrs Flay then suggested we get an earlier train, which can be done online for a fee of £10 per person. I logged in and found an earlier train which to my delight was in fact listed as being cheaper, so made the changes. The charge shown looked like it was for the new tickets, and I assumed that I would be refunded for the originals.

But no. It appears that there was "only one ticket left at that price" (or so they now inform me), and instead we were charged for two higher priced tickets. The web site did not make this clear.

So I have now paid an additional £67, more than double the original ticket price, for the privilege of arriving a little earlier.

East Coast apologised saying their web site was not advanced enough to make such warnings, but they refuse to recompense me!

I dare not tell Mrs Flay...

[Dave2002]

I purchased two tickets to London from East Coast. Mrs Flay then suggested we get an earlier train, which can be done online for a fee of £10 per person. I logged in and found an earlier train which to my delight was in fact listed as being cheaper, so made the changes. The charge shown looked like it was for the new tickets, and I assumed that I would be refunded for the originals.

But no. It appears that there was "only one ticket left at that price" (or so they now inform me), and instead we were charged for two higher priced tickets. The web site did not make this clear.

So I have now paid an additional £67, more than double the original ticket price, for the privilege of arriving a little earlier.

East Coast apologised saying their web site was not advanced enough to make such warnings, but they refuse to recompense me!

I dare not tell Mrs Flay...

Keep complaining. If you're persistent enough you'll perhaps get something back. Take the matter up with Trading Standards and push .... It's easy for an organisation to keep fobbing you off, and probably work on the principle that you'll get bored and give up - which at times, when one almost loses the will to live, is what most of us do. Customer service in the UK is still pretty rubbish, though has got better over the years. I heard of one organisation which had a customer service help desk. If a complaint came in the assistant said something like "Oh - I'll just check with my manager", then switched the line off for 50 seconds, then responded "Sorry, I've just checked, and we can't do anything this time" - apparently that knocks out around 80-90% of complaints.

We haven't had quite that bad experience, but we have got close to it. We have used East Coast quite a bit recently, and the web site isn't always clever enough to book two seats at the same time, so it's a bit touch and go as to whether the seat reservations can be changed afterwards - though we have mostly been lucky.

Sometimes connecting trains don't show up on East Coast - but on other booking services - so one has to be very determined to get reasonable trains to the required destination at reasonable prices.

However, I will say that overall we have been fairly pleased with East Coast and if a train is late they will sometimes completely refund the ticket price - even on a return, which is a lot better than some other operators - not, of course, mentioning South West Trains!

PS: If you bought the tickets with a credit card, then complain to your card provider.

[MrGongGong]

I'm having a rather entertaining correspondence with East Coast about the "Quiet" coach
It seems that they think its fine for people with children to book seats there so that the children can "sleep"
and that they claim that unless someone is creating a serious disruption (whatever that means ?) they can't say anything

My suggestion that I book seats there so that I can do some trombone practice en route seems to be falling on deaf ears so far

Actually I find East Coast to be better than others

[Barbirollians]

I'm having a rather entertaining correspondence with East Coast about the "Quiet" coach
It seems that they think its fine for people with children to book seats there so that the children can "sleep"
and that they claim that unless someone is creating a serious disruption (whatever that means ?) they can't say anything

My suggestion that I book seats there so that I can do some trombone practice en route seems to be falling on deaf ears so far


Actually I find East Coast to be better than others

Sorry Mr GG I am with East Coast here .

[MrGongGong]

Sorry Mr GG I am with East Coast here .

What is the point of having a so called "quiet coach" when it's fine for people with noisy children to sit there ?
Don't get me wrong, I like children (couldn't eat a whole one though ), I work with them, have some etc
BUT I want to be able to travel in peace
No phones
No noise
Without earplugs

[teamsaint]

Thats what happens when they have those first class saver tickets...........

[Petrushka]

I once accidentally lost the return half of a ticket from London St Pancras to Derby. I still had the outward portion and, crucially, I thought, the seat reservations and debit card receipt and all the tickets save the missing one were in numerical sequence. However, even with all this weight of evidence the East Midlands Trains people in London would not let me travel and I had to purchase a single ticket at full whack. There was no room for initiative or flexibility on behalf of the staff even when I spoke to the Ticket Office Manager.

[teamsaint]

I once accidentally lost the return half of a ticket from London St Pancras to Derby. I still had the outward portion and, crucially, I thought, the seat reservations and debit card receipt and all the tickets save the missing one were in numerical sequence. However, even with all this weight of evidence the East Midlands Trains people in London would not let me travel and I had to purchase a single ticket at full whack. There was no room for initiative or flexibility on behalf of the staff even when I spoke to the Ticket Office Manager.

dreadful treatment.
Whereas on a recent trip to London, I sat near what were clearly two serial fare dodgers, who basically just used every trick in the book, legged it at Basingstoke, and got off scott free.
Unless of course being let off the train at Basingstoke WAS the punishment.......

[Honoured Guest]

I once accidentally lost the return half of a ticket from London St Pancras to Derby. I still had the outward portion and, crucially, I thought, the seat reservations and debit card receipt and all the tickets save the missing one were in numerical sequence. However, even with all this weight of evidence the East Midlands Trains people in London would not let me travel and I had to purchase a single ticket at full whack. There was no room for initiative or flexibility on behalf of the staff even when I spoke to the Ticket Office Manager.

While I feel sorry for the result of your carelessness, the staff acted quite correctly. You might have given your ticket to someone else for them also to travel with it, similarly whining (if challenged) that they'd accidentally lost their seat reservation.

You need a valid ticket or pass to travel on a train ...

[teamsaint]

While I feel sorry for the result of your carelessness, the staff acted quite correctly. You might have given your ticket to someone else for them also to travel with it, similarly whining (if challenged) that they'd accidentally lost their seat reservation.

You need a valid ticket or pass to travel on a train ...

Not always.
For instance from unmanned stations with no ticket machines.

Whining isnt a very nice word in this context.

[Petrushka]

While I feel sorry for the result of your carelessness, the staff acted quite correctly. You might have given your ticket to someone else for them also to travel with it, similarly whining (if challenged) that they'd accidentally lost their seat reservation.

You need a valid ticket or pass to travel on a train ...

According to the letter of the law you are quite correct, I realise that. However, you also need the seat reservation to make the ticket valid and I had that. I travel by train every day and realise that there are a lot of clever fare dodgers out there but I made a point of going to the ticket office at St Pancras in order to try and sort it out and not wait until I got on the train and give the guard a hard time.

[MrGongGong]

Does pedantry increase the amount of goodwill and happiness in the world ?

[Honoured Guest]

Whose pedantry? There is more scope for fraudulent travel if discretion is used to allow someone to travel with no ticket (despite evidence of purchase) because someone else may be attempting to travel with that ticket. You may consider that travel fraud is a trivial offence (which of course it is, in comparison to murder, etc) but it is not victimless because the lost income has to be recovered by increasing the price of all tickets, or by cutting services. I think that people's attitudes to various crimes is a defining characteristic of them. "oh, well, I didn't mean to run over that pedestrian / Knock that cyclist off his bike / etc. I just didn't see them..."

[Roslynmuse]

I wonder how many lost tickets are picked up and used by unscrupulous fare dodgers?

[teamsaint]

Whose pedantry? There is more scope for fraudulent travel if discretion is used to allow someone to travel with no ticket (despite evidence of purchase) because someone else may be attempting to travel with that ticket. You may consider that travel fraud is a trivial offence (which of course it is, in comparison to murder, etc) but it is not victimless because the lost income has to be recovered by increasing the price of all tickets, or by cutting services. I think that people's attitudes to various crimes is a defining characteristic of them. "oh, well, I didn't mean to run over that pedestrian / Knock that cyclist off his bike / etc. I just didn't see them..."

The TOCs choose when they want to be diligent,and when they don't.
If they don't want to confront two serial dodgers, because they dont want to commit resources, they don't.

Discretion,good customer service , taking people at face value if the situation is appropriate,are all part of a mix that will increase train travel and income streams, not reduce them.