Paper mail sent on 5th March 2009 to: Customer Relations, Virgin Trains, Freepost BM661, Birmingham, B5 4ER
Dear Sir,
Re: My booking reference xxxxxxxx
I note that you have not responded to my email of 3rd March and wish to draw your attention again to this matter. I have included the original email at the end of this document and it may be viewed on my website http://waggingthedog.wordpress.com under the heading “Virgin Trains – Watch that shonky website”.
Today, following non-response to your email I again rang your customer services people (on freecall number – why don’t you advertise that VirginTrains Customer Services can be contacted on 0845 722 2333?) to follow up on the issue.
As I implied in my last email the details are as follows:
1) On Saturday 1st March I logged onto my account on your website and changed my address details. At that point I specifically removed old address details from the system and checked that the only address you retained for me was the current one.
2) I then order tickets from my elderly pensioner parents to travel from Buxted to Newcastle in May.
3) The system asked me if I wanted the tickets delivered to the billing address and I confirmed this.
4) On Tuesday on reading your automated email response about the booking I noted that the tickets had been delivered to the wrong address. They had in fact been delivered to the old address which I had removed from the system.
5) Your staff informed me variously that they would refund the ticket value and issue new tickets at a charge of £10, and then that they would reissue new tickets but I would not get a refund until the old tickets were returned, at which time I would have to pay a fee of £10 for the refund.
6) That the problem with the website could not have occurred.
Today your staff basically reiterated position two except that they put it like this:
- You will have to buy new tickets regardless of where we sent them to, regardless of fault, we take no responsibility.
- If you find the old tickets you will need to send them back to us and we will refund the value less £10.
I tried to enter into discussion as to why VirginTrains would not accept responsibility for an issue that was clearly their fault but the person seemed unable or unwilling to conceive of such a thing.
I repeat my request from the previous message, is there anything you can do to help with this situation please?
Yours sincerely
Email to Virgin Trains, UK. 3rd March 2009
Dear Sir,
on 28th February 2009 I logged on to your website (username xxxxxxxx@gmail.com) and after updating my address details (see attached screen dump) I booked two train tickets from Buxted to Newcastle upon Tyne.
Today I checked the email confirming the booking and found that the tickets were delivered to the wrong address, an old address that I do not use and which is many hundred miles from where I live. I immediately rang your Customer Services line (note this is a premium rate, timed 0870 number). After about 10 minutes I was allowed to speak to a customer services representative.
She told me: I must have made a mistake and not updated the address.
She said that this was my fault and that I would have to pay £10 for issue of new tickets because the Virgin Website operates correctly.
I asked what she meant by this and she said I would have to pay £10 plus the price of two new tickets.
She said that a new set of tickets would be issued with new seat numbers and that the cost of the old tickets would be credited to my account.
I asked then “why not just charge me £10 and reissue the same tickets with the same seat numbers?” She said that wasn’t the way they worked.
I said “will I be charged any more she said £10 per ticket only”.
I asked why I had to pay anything when it is the Virgin website which has not worked correctly. The woman said that I must not have pressed “save” on the screen when I changed my address.
I then, while I was speaking, logged into your website to see if my address had been perhaps not updated correctly. Imagine my surprise to find that in fact there were two address recorded for me, only two, and both are the correct address. I informed the woman of this and she said regardless I would have to pay the £10 per ticket for new tickets.
I asked to speak to a supervisor.
After further time on your PREMIUM RATE 0870 telephone line the supervisor came to the phone and told me that he couldn’t help me except to tell me that I would have to buy two new tickets and IF the old tickets were returned to Virgin I would be given a refund on them and a £10 administration charge.
At this point I gave up, knowing that I had already spent a considerable amount on the telephone call and clearly these people were not trying to help.
Is there anything you can do to assist in this matter?
I do not have any way to retrieve the tickets that Virgin sent to the old address.
My parents are coming to visit in May and need their tickets to get to Newcastle. These people are not wealthy, they are elderly pensioners and I was doing this to help them out. You help would be appreciated.
Tags: booking tickets online, travel UK, Virgin trains, virgin website, virgintrains.co.uk
