First Great Western sneakily switching ticket type to non-refundable?

Trainalot

Just wondering what you make of a situation on First Great Western's website where it can look like you are buying a normal single ticket, which would be refundable if you wanted, but when the transaction completes it is with another ticket type, same price, but not refundable.

You'd only discover this if you later asked for a refund. This could seem like a real misrepresentation by them, morally I'd say they should refund it and clean up the website.


Just go on their site firstgreatwestern.co.uk, put in a future journey, and usually the first result is titled "Cheapest Standard Single". Tick the box there and up pops a box about the journey with a Next button to buy it. It does NOT call this ticket by another name and does not say it is non-refundable.

Two rows below this listing you see another ticket type offered called "Advanced Single specified train only no refunds".

Do those two look or sound like the same ticket? To me those are two different names for two different products, which deserve to be on two separate lines, so they are on two separate lines.

Four screens later in really small print before checkout for the Cheapest Standard Single there may be a message mentioning the Advance ticket, but even if it does appear should you really be looking for a tiny message about something you never asked for? If they substitute one product for another shouldn't there be a big message telling you that? That sounds very misleading, a bit like Bait and Switch.

It seems their take on this is that the Cheapest Standard Single does not exist and there is no problem and customers should see that. I don't know how they expect customers to know that.

wealdroam

But surely "cheapest standard single" isn't a particular ticket type.

Standard refers to the class... standard class as opposed to first class.

Single just indicates that it isn't a return ticket.

And we all know what cheapest means.

I've just tried with a journey from Weston Super Mare to Bristol TM and it shows the cheapest standard single as £5.70.
A bit lower down it explains that that cheapest standard single ticket is in fact an Off Peak Day Single in this case.

So, cheapest standard single is a generic term.

Trainalot

wealdroam wrote: »

But surely "cheapest standard single" isn't a particular ticket type.

Standard refers to the class... standard class as opposed to first class.

Single just indicates that it isn't a return ticket.

And we all know what cheapest means.

I've just tried with a journey from Weston Super Mare to Bristol TM and it shows the cheapest standard single as £5.70.
A bit lower down it explains that that cheapest standard single ticket is in fact an Off Peak Day Single in this case.

So, cheapest standard single is a generic term.

Hi thanks for that, good to know you are seeing the same as me - "cheapest standard single". A standard single is your basic normal ticket without restrictions, I have bought that many times in stations and that is the term used for it. I have a box of old tickets where they do in fact say standard single.

To me the real problem is there is a buy button next to this text on their website, so it looks like you are buying a Standard Single, and the cheapest one of those available at that time of day. That is what I wanted, it was the first choice presented, so I bought it believing it was what it said it was.

I have used FGW regularly, buying tickets in stations and online with no problems until now. I have to say on this one their customer service so far is beyond poor - just trying to fob you off on the Rail Regulator rather than Trading Standards and tell you patronisingly there are never problems with their website. Frankly, the treatment was really rude and aggessive - if you disagree, they try to just talk over you and accuse you of not listening, rather than accept that you disagree with them and have shown them where you see a problem.

So I'd say beware of this bunch and do not be fobbed off to the Rail Regulator, that seems to be a tactic to avoid dealing with the customer.

Quentin

Trainalot wrote: »

A standard single is your basic normal ticket without restrictions....

Wrong.

A standard single is a single journey ticket to sit in standard class. (There are two classes - "standard" and "first")

The "cheapest standard single" is the cheapest single standard class ticket available for the journey you want to make.

Nothing to do with having restrictions at all.

You are definitely barking up the wrong tree here!

wealdroam

Trainalot wrote: »

Hi thanks for that, good to know you are seeing the same as me...

Let's get this right...
Whilst I see the same as you, I definitely do not interpret what I see in the same way as you.

Trainalot wrote: »

A standard single is your basic normal ticket without restrictions...

I thought I had explained that quite clearly above, and Quentin has also done so.

Trainalot wrote: »

To me the real problem is there is a buy button next to this text on their website, so it looks like you are buying a Standard Single, and the cheapest one of those available at that time of day.

To me the real problem is that you appear not to be able to understand that you are buying the cheapest standard single when you click that button.
I have tried to help you by explaining what those three words mean.

Please explain which of those three simple words you are having trouble with.

Trainalot wrote: »

That is what I wanted, it was the first choice presented, so I bought it believing it was what it said it was.

And it was what it said it was.

Trainalot wrote: »

I have used FGW regularly, buying tickets in stations and online with no problems until now.

The process hasn't changed.
Those words have been used for quite some time.
Why is it that you suddenly now seem unable to understand them?

Trainalot wrote: »

Frankly, the treatment was really rude and aggessive - if you disagree, they try to just talk over you and accuse you of not listening, rather than accept that you disagree with them and have shown them where you see a problem.

I can relate to that.
You appear not to be listening to what is being said here either.

AirlieBird

And it has nothing to do with FGW. This is the same with all websites that use the default thetrainline interface as FGW do.
If you put your mouse pointer over the price it'll tell you the name of the ticket, so it's not hiding anything.

System

Seems quite clear to me

The cheapest ticket for a standard class journey in a single direction. This could be and advanced ticket or even an off-peak ticket with the conditions that go with that particular ticket.

Livingthedream

Might just be easiler for the OP to use a different Train Companies' Website, one based on the webtis system which is totally different to the trainline's version. ie East Coast, London Midland or Southern.

All three of them will quite happily sell tickets for FGW trains or routes, you might miss on a few FGW promo's but nothing sneaky or untoward will happen.

Trainalot

wealdroam wrote: »

.
You appear not to be listening to what is being said here either.

Thanks for the replies, I wouldn't ask if I didn't want to know what other people's views are. It is a bit different to me hearing someone offer an explanation and give some reasons for it, which is what is happening here, to someone telling you black and white that a website does not say what it does - it took some effort to get them to actually look at the website to see that the words Advance do not appear next to the ticket listing, nor does that listing say it is not refundable.

Trainalot

AirlieBird wrote: »

And it has nothing to do with FGW. This is the same with all websites that use the default thetrainline interface as FGW do.
If you put your mouse pointer over the price it'll tell you the name of the ticket, so it's not hiding anything.

Interesting point, also made by FGW. Problem: how do you know to point the mouse there? You can select the ticket and get to the next page without ever seeing that, which is what happened to me. Looks like a web design issue to me - I actually had to ask FGW if they were web developers when they kept unnecessarily claiming there were never any probs with their site, and they finally accepted that at times websites do not work perfectly. So while you can say it is not deliberately hiding that, it is also not at all guaranteeing that people will see it.

Where I see the problem is that this top line offering the standard single does not give any specifics, and because it is on a separate line from all the others it does look like a different ticket. It may have been added recently - I don't recall seeing it before.

Trainalot

Quentin wrote: »

A standard single is a single journey ticket to sit in standard class. (There are two classes - "standard" and "first")

The "cheapest standard single" is the cheapest single standard class ticket available for the journey you want to make.

Nothing to do with having restrictions at all.

I don't disagree with you - I would take generally a standard single to mean a single ticket in standard as opposed to first class. Maybe I have been buying tickets too long and seen too many different categories and promos come and go - previously a single ticket was just a single ticket and those ones were not discounted or restricted, and did not have special names, whereas tickets that have restrictions would be called things like Super Advance Tickets, Apex tickets and so on - you really had to ask for those by name and the special name clearly implied terms and restrictions.