First Great Western

kernewek

Just thought I'd post this. Happened a few months ago but seeing the thread on the trainline reminded me...

Went to visit some friends in London and booked a First Class ticket online with FGW to Paddington. Whilst in London I was unfortunately the victim of a street robbery. Had my mobile, wallet, including cash and cards and said train ticket taken from me at knife point, obviously I handed it over and the little scum bags ran off. Anyway, quickly went back to friends house, rang police, who drove me around looking for the robbers, obviously didn't find them. Cancelled cards and phone. All insured so no probs. Train ticket, I assumed as I had booked online wouldn't be a problem as I had a crime reference number and they had all the details of the booking. Not so. There was no way they would replace the ticket. I understand their point of view but there are circumstances that are sometimes exceptional. I had no access to money and was now stranded 350 miles from home, with all my ID stolen as well. The response was 'buy another ticket' from First Great western customer services. Well what with? magic beans? What annoyed me is that they just had to look at the booking I had made to see that I wasn't taking the mickey. I'm sure they keep records of these things. In the end I just turned up at Paddington and demanded to see the station manager who gave me a standard ticket. Well beggars can't be choosers. However I managed to persuade the guard to let me sit in first class after explaining the situation. Fair play to them, but it would be nice to see a bit of compassion from customer services in what was exceptional circumstances as opposed to being rigid about their policies thus causing even more stress.

jd87

There is no system available that lets the staff at the station see your booking so you have to understand the position they were in. Over 3 million train journeys are made every day. The computing power that would be needed to keep track of every booking and let staff at every station access this information would be quite difficult.

kernewek

jd87 wrote: »

There is no system available that lets the staff at the station see your booking so you have to understand the position they were in. Over 3 million train journeys are made every day. The computing power that would be needed to keep track of every booking and let staff at every station access this information would be quite difficult.

I didn't call the station. It was the central call centre. Can't fault the station staff as they had some compassion and sorted the problem.

Littlehelper_3

I had a similar issue once when my girlfriend wasn't watching my backpack at Kings Cross and it was nicked, but unfortunately booking train ticket online does not safegaurd you in such cases.

It's not like booking an air ticket and loosing the e-ticket confirmation. If you lose your tickets, or if they are stolen, then you have lost your right to travel and have to buy a replacment like I had to.

But, if you took out travel insurance, or booked the tickets with your credit card, you may be covered for damages / loss. I'd have a chat with your card provider to see if you can claim as I'm sure you won't get a refund from the train company without the tickets, but have a try at that too and see how you get on. Nothing ventured nothing gained.