Virgin complaint - am I wasting my energy?

Manxman_in_exile

The_Hawk wrote: »

I've had a look on the timetable and I can't find those exact trains but, around the times you quoted, off platform 4, there was a 14:40, followed by a 14:45 service, both to London Euston.

The first service (14:40) was a Virgin Trains service and the second service (14:45) was a London Northwestern (West Midlands Trains) service.

I'm guessing that you got on the first train, whereas your ticket was for the second service. As has been pointed out, Advance tickets are only valid on the specified service and there are a number of reasons for this.

Perhaps, in this case, the most significant reason would be, if your ticket was for the second service, then London Northwestern (West Midlands Trains) would have received all the money that you had paid for your ticket, whilst you then travelled on the first service, for which Virgin would have received no money, until they charged you for your new ticket.

I agree, with the earlier comments, that for a non-regular rail user, it must seem somewhat confusing but, I'm afraid the complicated fares system is one of the direct consequences of privatisation, and each 'attempt' by the Government to 'simplify' the fares system just makes it even more confusing.

If my assumptions, about which tickets you held and which service you travelled on, are correct, then you'll just have to put it down to experience. If, however, my assumptions are incorrect, please come back with more detail and I'll see if that makes a difference.

Just as with privatisation of gas and electricity utilities to give the consumer more "choices". It just ends up with the providers creating complicated and arcane tariffs which utterly confuse most innocent consumers.

Manxman_in_exile

Jmoo wrote: »

Fair enough, well sorry for asking. That's almost £50 I didn't have and that I won't be compensated for by work. I just feel sorry for others in that position who aren't all commuters like yourselves.

As stragglebod said, no need to apologise. If you don't know you only find out by asking.


I've never been a train commuter but used to use the train a lot for work. The finance dept of the NHS trust I worked for made all travel arrangements (assuming I gave them the correct information about destination stations etc.!). It was only when I retired and had to organise my own tickets that I realised how complicated it could be.


I suspect most people in this country don't appreciate how potentially serious it can be to travel on a train without a "valid" ticket. Most people wouldn't necessarily see this as a criminal offence - but it is. The legislation is both literally and metaphorically Victorian. And the train companies can carry out their own prosecutions.


If you want to educate yourself about these matters pop over to railforums.co.uk and go to "Disputes and Prosecutions".


BTW - when you bought the ticket, didn't they point out to you that it could only be used on a specific service? (I'm presuming you bought it at the ticket office in Brum.). Perhaps you ought to be complaining to CS of the operating company that sold you the ticket?

agrinnall

As lammy82 says, there are many announcements and warnings on the displays that WMT tickets are not valid on Virgin services. If you missed (or ignored) all of those then £45 isn't a bad cost for your error, some Virgin trains from Birmingham to London are considerably more expensive than that.

barbarawright

You have my sympathy. I recently did exactly the same thing at Birmingham and found myself on the slow train instead of the fast train going a few minutes later from the same platform. Fortunately, since it was very late and I was half-asleep, the inspector didn't look too hard at my ticket and I got away with it (though there's not much to get away with when you arrive 20 minutes later than you expected). It's confusing even for people familiar with train travel

dekaspace

I had a similar issue 10 years ago, except what had happened was there was a once a hour train, a single platform and the previous train was 57 minutes late, I got on and sat on the allocated seat (which happened to be empty on this one) ticket person came round and not only shouted at me but asked me to stand in the middle of the carrriage and loudly say in front of people "look at the person trying to cheat the system" everytime I tried speaking to them he spoke louder over me even though I offered to pay the full price ticket before he already demanded I stand in the middle as his own words "I don't believe you its easy to get the right train"

Barny1979

OP - The Advance ticket will be cheaper than adjacent services I believe, so by trying to travel on another train service, there is an advantage trying to be sought over other passengers who have paid a higher rate. Also the tickets you will have helped will have stated the services that the ticket was valid for, likely to be a Midlands Service, rather than a Virgin trains service. Also the platform at the station would have quite clearly stated the time of the service.