I suppose if you Google'ed before buying anything online, you would probably be put off ever buying/booking anything online, but the fact that 99% of the time, it all works fine, is little consolation when I doesn't all go fine. Especially when it involves travel. And especially when it involves traveling to see your family. And when it comes to dealing with the imbecile automatons at TheTrainLine.com - if things go wrong - you're luck is out!
This episode kicked off when the usual ticket I purchase for this journey (which involves train change in London) simply wasn't available - unless I wanted to start my journey at 9 in the evening and arrive at 7.30 the following morning! After inquiring as to why this should be via customer service email, I was informed it was due to engineering works that weekend "Sorry" - great! So now I have to buy two separate tickets ensuring I get the timings correct, having to pay booking fee twice AND having the joy of the second leg of my journey split into three with connecting bus service covering the engineering works section. Great.
Interesting side note, previously my outward journey is usually available as a single ticket, all the way through, all in one ticket and costing a reasonable £19. The return journey, however, is always £10 dearer, or more. 'Two singles could be cheaper' prompts the online booking form. Why? And why only in one direction is this so?? Oh well - I usually have to get two tickets on my return which costs similar to the outward single, so I can live with that.
So - I set about booking my outward journey - still plenty of trains, but the second leg will be a bit slower than usual - never mind. Book that leg first then go back to get a ticket for the first half of the journey. Bollocks! Fare I had just seen at £13.50 is now gone! Sod it - buy the connecting £16.50 ticket and be done with it. All selections carefully made, card details entered and click 'Buy now' button. Whats this? A pop up window asking for more details about my account - this didn't happen just now when buying previous ticket - so why now. Could be fishy - better check this out first - clicked 'Cancel' and look into this first to make sure it isn't some fraud attempt. OK - checked it out it is genuine - so went on to book ticket. get usual email confirmation - all seems well.
Few days later - whats this on my bank statement - they have debited my account twice for the journey I booked - so much for the 'click safe' security feature - it failed! So it looks like I now have two tickets when I should have only one. Only got one email confirmation - not good! OK - here we go - try and sort this via customer services.
Initially they were "We don't normally refund..." but then agreed to do so, responding with:
> I have found that the two different Booking Reference Numbers for your
> journey from Bristol Temple Meads to London Liverpool Street are 613031XXX
> (Ticket Collection Reference Number G3LFXXXG) and 613040XXX (Ticket
> Collection Reference Number J2GXXXF).
>
> Please do not collect ticket with Ticket Collection Reference Number
> J2GXXXF.
OK - sorted - just need to make sure I have the correct collection reference number and all is good. Not!
Two days later I see two email notifications back to back from Thetrainline.com notifying me that both tickets have been refunded and that payment will be made at some point in the future (in 5 working days they say but if you used credit/debit card...).
WHAT THE F..!!
Idiots!!
It is obvious that whoever deals with this stuff cannot read - or cannot be bothered to read, as my correspondence with them confirms. Anything more than a sentence of ten words, seems beyond their reading ability, prompting a generic auto-responder:
> "Thank you for contacting back to us.
>
>Unfortunately, I am unable to ....... Please write back to us for your queries.
>
>Please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience that this may have caused."
response. Fantastic - so now I have no ticket to to meet the second half of my journey, and chances are any available cheap tickets will now be long gone.
OK - time to get serious. Lets try phoning. 0870 number eh? Good thing my friend has unlimited mins. on their phone, here goes.
Get through to a gruff sounding bloke, who conjures up an image of an overweight, crisp eating rugby oaf who doesn't give a flying f&%k about his job, customers, people etc.! Line is terrible - get an echo of everything I say. All is futile as I only get as far as confirming my personal ID details, before three beeps indicate the call is terminated!
Superb!
Well I tried. Now tired. Angry. Pissed. Go for a walk and then have a pint and forget about it, hoping it will magically sort itself out later/tomorrow...
Tomorrow brings another email response:
>Thank you for contacting back to us.
>
>Unfortunately, I am unable to find your response in the chain email. Please write back to us for >your queries.
>
>Please accept our sincere apologies for any inconvenience that this may have caused.
- because I am too lazy to be bothered to read, that's why!!
Right then, time to sort this out myself, and if they have refunded both tickets - I'm gonna need a replacement, and I don't think anyone at Thetrainline.com is gonna sort that out for me any time soon. Over to First Great Western to get tickets from now on - and luckily for me, there are still tickets available at the same price!!! Grabbed one - and look - no £1 booking fee!! WTF?! Why on earth had I been using Thetrainline.com paying them £1 every ticket, when I could get exactly the same service, for free, direct from the train operator company?? Well - I will be from now on - thats for sure!!
