Booking hell with First Great Western Train Website

wiseguydigital

Hello all,

Please can someone tell me how this can be legal?

I placed an order for a return ticket using the First Great Western website on Tuesday morning - £50 tickets - fine. I received confirmation and a message confirming that my tickets would be delivered by 3pm Tuesday. The delivery fee for a couple of tickets was a massive £6.

Today however, my tickets have still not turned up and I am going on my journey tomorrow morning. So I thought I would ring the support helpline given on the website. It's an 0870 number so I tried the alternative number given on SayNoTo0870.com, but that did not go through. So, begrudgingly I rang the 0870 from my mobile.

My total call time took 45mins and it was an Indian call centre. After explaining my situation over and over again and being told a) that my tickets HAD been delivered to me and b) that if they genuinely hadn't received the tickets, I should ring back after 5pm. I asked if they could ring me back as I was calling from a mobile. They said no, they could only receive calls.

I got put on hold at least 5 times, and after getting nowhere trying to get my £6 back and some tickets to pick up at the station, I asked to speak to the immediate supervisor. The same thing happened, I ran through my problem again and again and all I was told is "sorry, I'm afraid we can't help you". I took this person's full name for a complaint.

Suddenly I was transferred to another person, presumably a higher supervisor, whom this time was a little more abrupt and told me that I should be checking the terms and conditions of the website?!? When I asked the woman for her name she hung up.

So I have now spent 45 minutes talking on a premium rate number on my mobile (£11.25), I have not received my tickets (£50) and have had to pay £6 for a non-delivery. All I have had in return is a headache and now I have to go through the whole thing again tomorrow trying to get on the train!

So, as I said before. How can this be legal? How can companies be allowed to force you onto an 0870 number that invariably never helps you anyway (I have had this on many occasions). It's about time this practice was made illegal. It was the only way of me trying to get my tickets and it has cost me a fortune as well as added stress.

All I want are some bloody train tickets and yet I feel that I have been personally insulted by the staff. How do I make this go bigger as it's about time these large companies took responsibility for their call centres?

chuckley

did they send it tracked?! as it was such a late bookin i woulda guess it was courier or SD?! cant they give you the tracking number?

moonrakerz

wiseguydigital wrote: »

Hello all,

Please can someone tell me how this can be legal?

It's legal because you play their game and they write the rules!

I nearly always use the FGW site for my tickets, because I find it the best laid out one.

I never get tickets sent by post, I always collect them from the ticket machine on the station, you also have the choice of collecting them from the ticket office - both methods much safer than Royal Mail/offshore call centres !

dzug1

I think you misread the website. £6 is for next day delivery, not same day. The latter (only in parts of London) is £10 or £15.

Still they should have arrived today. Were you in all day to receive them?

wiseguydigital

I do apologise, yes I have found a missed mail delivery at home under my letters. Have no idea how I missed the booking options as I would always want to pick up from the station?!?! I lost a family member this week which may have something to do with it.

Even still, the missed delivery was for 2:30pm and the site specifically says the tickets would arrive by 1pm so in fact I am correct in the fact that I paid £6 for tickets to arrive before 1pm the next day and they didn't. I was also told when I rang that my tickets had been delivered and signed for, and was also not helped out by the customer service centre. This is all still true. Ultimately, I was also hung up on by a worker at the call centre. This has always been my main grievance, it was in original post and in fact the bit that frustrates me most.

How can a company charge 0870 rates, not help, then hang up and receive my money in telephone rates. Perhaps that should have been my question - a little more lucid.

dzug1

From the postal point of view, the tickets were, in a technical sense, delivered when the missed delivery card was put through your letter box - FGW would have been told the delivery had taken place if they tracked it.

Still late though, and they are entitled to reclaim the SD fee, probably £4.60 out of the £6. For you to get that it's probably going to cost more in phone calls than it's worth, alas

hippey

Goto the 'saynoto0870' site, get the landline number for First's Head Office Customer Service, and call them, they should have been with you by the time stated, the other posts are correct, they will deam ticket to be delivered with a missed delivery card, but if that was late it's not your fault.

It does prove though, always pick them up from a station, it is easier.
The FGW site seems very slow, I have used it before and it ain't the worst, but I have seen better.

metrobus

Every ticket ive bought online from FGW in the last couple of years (about 20) has arrived the next working day and that is just with selecting standard delivery which we pay nothing for.
For me there service is superb,its a bit ironic that by selecting the registered delivery you have ended up with getting your tickets later since you were not there to sign for them.

mrposhman

dzug1 wrote: »

From the postal point of view, the tickets were, in a technical sense, delivered when the missed delivery card was put through your letter box - FGW would have been told the delivery had taken place if they tracked it.

Still late though, and they are entitled to reclaim the SD fee, probably £4.60 out of the £6. For you to get that it's probably going to cost more in phone calls than it's worth, alas

I'm assuming you are trying to blame Royal Mail here yet its clear from the OP's post that a COURIER will have most likely been the deliverer based on the fact that he ordered the tickets Tuesday morning and was told they would be there by 3pm Tuesday afternoon - which funnily enough means a delivery of 2.30pm was fine.

The OP's posts clearly show disdain for FGW and not the courier / RM, try and keep to the debate, it bugs me how no matter what the query an attack always seems to be made on RM.

As for the poster, I feel sorry for you. I reckon a letter to their head office is best. Have you had a look at the regulators site? Their may be specific statements on their that cover service to customers?

Crabman

Hi wiseguydigital, firstly I'm sorry for your loss and imagine this debacle hasn't exactly helped at this difficult time.

First Great Western's head office number is: 01793 499400 (from saynoto0870)

If you ask to speak with someone in their London office, they will be much more helpful than the other call centre who seem to be fully scripted.

We had a problem not long ago that wasn't even their fault, but Jenny at FGW's London office found a way to sort it out, going way beyond what any of us expected. It restored a lot of confidence.

custardy

mrposhman wrote: »

I'm assuming you are trying to blame Royal Mail here yet its clear from the OP's post that a COURIER will have most likely been the deliverer based on the fact that he ordered the tickets Tuesday morning and was told they would be there by 3pm Tuesday afternoon - which funnily enough means a delivery of 2.30pm was fine.

The OP's posts clearly show disdain for FGW and not the courier / RM, try and keep to the debate, it bugs me how no matter what the query an attack always seems to be made on RM.

As for the poster, I feel sorry for you. I reckon a letter to their head office is best. Have you had a look at the regulators site? Their may be specific statements on their that cover service to customers?

TBH trainline do use RM SD
although i cant comment on whether they use it exclusivly
my office deals with trainline returns for all the SD items they send out with wrong addresses etc