Virgin Trains are bunch of con artists IMHO. Be warned!

As there is still some confusion on certains points let me (briefly, I hope) try and address those:

1. I would change the title if I could (maybe I can but I don't know how). Probably a more accurate one now that more information is available is: Virgin Trains' policies create an unfair, and confused, contract term, IMHO, that can result in financial penalty through no fault of the client. (A bit long-winded, perhaps - abbreviations gratefully accepted.)
2. To Dazbyd: I don't see why a ticket cannot be reissued? There is no physical - or to my knowledge - legal reason as to why not. I like the positive story by the way... see below for naother negative that has a positive.
3. Robt... yes, you got me. I am a 'he' :cool:
4. To Clive Woody, I didn't forget my wallet. I actually lost a wallet, mobile phone, and other items, in New York a few days earlier. Fortunately, I have another wallet with other cards in (... eggs & baskets...) which is how I was physically able to pay for the replacement.
5. I am hoping it doesn't havce to go to court but I have had professional legal advice and the lawyers I spoke to are of the opinion that this forms a unfair contract term. I have not ased about the effect of the refund of £95.50 but will do if I don't get a satisfactory answer from VT to the letter I sent today asking them to explain what I feel are certain anomalies in their response of last week.

OK, here's another experience. I turned up at Euston on 7 January to find the 06:17 had been cancelled along with all other trains. This in itself cannot be pinned on Virgin Trains because it was down to overhead lines being damaged by a contractor (or so I am led to believe). But here' the rub... in order to get any information all passengers had to queue at the ticket office (I would think this highly inefficient, perosnally, as presumably (caveat), many people were needing the same advice, but anyway... when I got to the front of the queue the lady told me that teh only way to get to Mancherster was to go to St Pancras and get the 06:36 to Nottingham and change and that my ticket would be valid on East Midland trains. So, off I went, got to St Pancras where I was informed that a) there was no such train as the 06:36 and hadn't been for over six months and b) that Virgin Tickets were not being accepted. So, another piece of poor service from Virgin. BUT, before everyone thinks that all I do is complain, here's the positive thing that happened (and that can make all the difference):
The train guard said that it made no difference whether I got on the train or went to the ticket office, the walk-up fare would be the same. So to ensure I got to Manchester, I should get on his train (6:37 to Sheffield) and pay when he came round (viz, the difference between that and VT who wouldn't even allow me on the train without a ticket). He also said that there was a possibility of VT phoning in to East Mids prior to the train departing and authorising travel. Then he came round and said that, no, VT had not requested tickets to be accepted BUT that he would wait 45 minutes before charging me on the offchance that they might still call. And every time he came past me he made a point of calling in to his line controller to see if the situation had changed. Finally, about an hour in he came and said that VT had just called in to ask that East Mids honour tickets. And it doesn't stop... he then went and got a timetable, marked he connecting trains to Manchetser AND told me which platforms at Sheffield each one went from.
So, when I got to work I went to the East Mids website. Now, at VT you can write in about a godo experience and name a member of staff. Unfortunately I couldn't find such a link at East Mids' webiste so I wrote to Customer Releations and told them of the experience and how it had made what could've been a stressful journey into something a lot more pleasant.
Sadly, never heard back so don't know if the praise was passed on. Hope it was though.