thetrainline.com

thegreatsoprendo

I'm having some trouble with thetrainline.com and wondered whether anyone could assist me with my understanding of the legal position here and the best approach to resolving this issue?

Being a diligent money saver, last week I pre-booked booked tickets for travel to London for 2 adults through the aforementioned site, one with a travelcard and one without, as I knew that this would be cheaper than buying tickets on the day.

Although I booked them both together, I got two booking confirmations, 1111AAAA & 2222BBBB (these obviously aren't the real confirmation codes!). When I got to the station, I put my card into the machine and was asked for my booking confirmation. I put in 1111AAAA and the machine printed one set of tickets (the one with the travelcard) but not the other.

TO get the other set of tickets, I started again from scratch, this time using the other confirmation, 2222BBBB, but the machine said it couldn't locate my booking. I tried several more times, but got the same error message each time.

By this point, the train was about to leave, so I was forced to purchase another ticket, which cost £22.60 versus the pre-booked price I'd already paid of £14.00.

So essentially, I pre-booked and pre-paid for two set of tickets priced at £20.30 and £14.00 respectively (£34.30 in total). The £20.30 tickets were issued without any problem, but the £14.00 tickets wouldn't issue despite multiple attempts using different machines. Purchasing a replacement for the £14 tickets on the day cost £22.60.

I therefore asked them to refund the additional £22.60 I was forced to pay to replace the tickets that the machine refused to give me, which I think is an entirely reasonable request. With the e-mail I sent them, I also included a scan of the receipt for the additional ticket along with my collection receipt for the pre-booked tickets which clearly shows the value of the collected tickets being £20.30 (i.e. only one of the 2 sets).

This morning I received a reply from them effectively washing their hands of any responsibility, stating that the tickets I booked we're available for collection and that if I was unable to collect them, I should contact the train operating company (Southern) for whom they've given me an 0845 contact number.

My understanding of the legal position here is that I had a contract with thetrainline.com to provide a service which was not provided for some reason that was no fault of mine as the customer. I believe I should, therefore, be pursuing thetrainline.com for the refund which I believe I am entitled to and shouldn't be passed from pillar to post in the way they are suggesting. If they wish to investigate this with other organisations in the supply chain, they are welcome to do so, but shouldn't expect me to do their legwork for them.

Is my understanding correct, and what would people suggest as the best way to resolve this issue?

moonrakerz

I know this isn't the answer to your question: BUT

Don't use the trainline.com:

1. They charge more for the tickets.
2. Use the TOC you are going to travel on, then you stand a better chance of resolving any problems like this without having to buy new tickets.

pinkshoes

Don't email! I would WRITE to the trainline, sending recorded delivery, requesting the refund within 14 days.

It's quite obvious it's their fault as you managed to collect the other tickets without any issue!

Jeff_Bridges_hair

Write to them as the trainline are just a travel agency so your contract was with them. And then never ever use them or raileasy again..

qwerty40

@thegreatsoprendo

Hi,

I work for theTrainline.com Customer Relations team and am keen to get this resolved for you.

Can you e-mail me at [EMAIL="customer.relations@info.thetrainline.com"]customer.relations@info.thetrainline.com[/EMAIL] marked for my attention and I'll investigate.

Thanks

Elaine

TheSaint_2

Thats a win for consumer power - Good to see theTrainline.com have the good sense to watch forums like this for opportunities to keep customers happy

thegreatsoprendo

Well, that's a turn up for the books!

Thanks Elaine, you may have just saved me drafting a snotty letter and a trip to the post office! I'll send you an e-mail this evening (can't access personal e-mail in work).

thegreatsoprendo

Just to close this one off, I got an e-mail from Elaine (qwerty40) yesterday to apologise for the issues I had with collecting my tickets and to say that she has arranged for a refund of £22.60 to be credited to my card.

I can confirm that this refund has now appeared on my account, so it just remains for me to thank everybody who replied to my thread and particularly to Elaine for resolving the issue so quickly and efficiently.

Result! :j

Hugh_Jass

Well done on getting a result. I use Trainline all the time and usually when you've bought multiple tickets - you only have to enter one code and your card in once for all the tickets to come out.