We’d like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum.
This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are – or become – political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.
The MSE Forum Team would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year. However, we know this time of year can be difficult for some. If you're struggling during the festive period, here's a list of organisations that might be able to help
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
Has MSE helped you to save or reclaim money this year? Share your 2025 MoneySaving success stories!
Warning: new Virgin Trains website deliberately overcharges
Thinking I was doing Virgin a favour by reporting a pricing error on their new (and rather user unfriendly imho) booking website, I was surprised to be told (after several email exchanges) that the overcharge is deliberate.
I wanted a Saver Return from Nuneaton to London Euston travelling out on Friday 7 Sep at 10:35 and returning on Sunday 9 Sep at 18:56. The Saver Return is priced at £30.50 on the direct route and £35.00 if routed via Coventry. I was successfully able to book the £30.50 fare on the old version of Virgin's website which is still available at virgintrainsfares.co.uk.
On the new website, Saver Returns are sold as as two one-way "Half Savers" which is a pseudo-ticket type only available on this website. For the outbound journey, these are correctly priced at £15.25 and £17.50 according to the route. However, the return journey is priced only at £17.50 for standard class (although they do have first class correctly priced at £25.25 (=£15.25 + £10 upgrade). I thought this was clearly a programming bug, but no, Virgin insist this is correct, and the official advice from them is not to book online but to book through their Telesales operation.
Isn't this sharp practice (or even fraud)? - to deliberately quote a higher price rather than the correct one?
Martin
I wanted a Saver Return from Nuneaton to London Euston travelling out on Friday 7 Sep at 10:35 and returning on Sunday 9 Sep at 18:56. The Saver Return is priced at £30.50 on the direct route and £35.00 if routed via Coventry. I was successfully able to book the £30.50 fare on the old version of Virgin's website which is still available at virgintrainsfares.co.uk.
On the new website, Saver Returns are sold as as two one-way "Half Savers" which is a pseudo-ticket type only available on this website. For the outbound journey, these are correctly priced at £15.25 and £17.50 according to the route. However, the return journey is priced only at £17.50 for standard class (although they do have first class correctly priced at £25.25 (=£15.25 + £10 upgrade). I thought this was clearly a programming bug, but no, Virgin insist this is correct, and the official advice from them is not to book online but to book through their Telesales operation.
Isn't this sharp practice (or even fraud)? - to deliberately quote a higher price rather than the correct one?
Martin
0
This discussion has been closed.
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply
Categories
- All Categories
- 352.9K Banking & Borrowing
- 253.9K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 454.8K Spending & Discounts
- 246K Work, Benefits & Business
- 602.1K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 177.8K Life & Family
- 260K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.7K Read-Only Boards