Virgin Train or bank's fault?

mnorton

I'm just looking for some advice, I hope somone can help.

I made a booking with Virgin Trains, which totalled to £812 on Mon 4th Jan. When I first tried to purchase these tickets I used my credit card, which was declined, I then tried this transaction again whilst on the phone to my bank (as they didnt know why it was declined) but the transaction was still declined. So for ease I used my debit card instead. I entered my details for this card once and this was accepted straight away.

I checked my account on Tues 5th Jan and this had been taken from my current account. I then tried to use my debit card for a purchase of £6.70 and it was declined, My bank said there was another transaction pending from Virgin Trains for £812. I could already see this transaction on my statement and it had aready been deducted from my balance so was confused as to why there was another transaction pending for this amount of money. The bank said it was up to Virgin Trains.

I used the aftercare number that was given to me in my confirmation email. After over 2hrs on the phone being transferred from department to department I was told I would be contacted in 15 days. I said I needed to be contacted by the end of the day to resolve this, as I was left with an available balance on my current account of £0 (actually £300 overdrawn!). I wasn't contacted by any Virgin staff within 7hrs so I rang back that evening and had to explain the whole situation again. I'd wasted most of the day on the phone to Virgin when I was supposed to be working. I was on the phone again for nearly 2 hours still getting passed from department to department, each time explaining my situation again. I was then told I would be called in the morning. The second amount of £812 was never debited from my account but while it is processing I could not access this money. So for 4 days I had been charged £1624 for these tickets! I still have not been contacted by Virgin.


The money is now accessible in my account but am now left with a £40 phone bill, Im annoyed at the level of customer service I received after spending so much money and dont know if there is anything I can do about it? I know that I now have the money back but for 5 days I was left with no funds.

Any feedback or advice would be much appreciated

catflea

Just for interest, which bank are you with?

Ring/Write and ask for details of both transactions - date, time and Authorisation number.

If the Authorisation numbers are different then its Virgin trains who have double posted the transaction - if they are the same then the bank has had a problem and temporarily duplicated the transaction. I would suspect the former tbh - when I worked for a bank they were known for it!

I would suggest a written complaint to Virgin detailing both transactions - dates / times and auth codes. Include a copy of your phone bill showing the calls to Virgin (highlighted) - cross out anything you dont want them to see - and demand your money for calls back and money for lost earnings

mnorton

Thanks for that, I will do that now.

mnorton

Ok, so my bank is HSBC sorry, forgot to say that in last post.

The authorisation numbers are exactly an hour apart, same day. Different authorisation codes, but the pending trasaction had an earlier time of 12.15 and the transaction that was actually processed and taken from my account was at 13.15.

Not sure what this means, does this mean that Virgin are at fault here?

catflea

Virgin have processed the payment twice, just so happens that it was an hour apart!