Crosscountry new booking system

Emily_Joy

Crosscountry trains have changed their website and booking system. The advance tickets bought prior to 16th of October cannot be managed neither via the app, nor online. Crosscountry famously claimed that all advance tickets purchased on their website are amendable - you can change time & date, but not the route.

I am commuting on Crosscountry so I bought a lot of tickets till the end of December back in Summer, which I need to change now. The only option to do that is to call them, which is a major inconvenience. I am wondering therefore whether I would have grounds to request full refund for the bookings I don't need anymore/not going to use on the grounds that it is a major change to Terms & Conditions of sale?

fwor

In legal terms, it sounds as though you would not be able to compel them to refund, because the tickets are still amendable (unless of course their T&Cs state how they can be amended and online/app is stated) - a phone call is not what most people would define as a "major inconvenience". 

If you ask, they may refund as a gesture of goodwill, but that would be at their discretion, I would think.

Emily_Joy

fwor said:

In legal terms, it sounds as though you would not be able to compel them to refund, because the tickets are still amendable (unless of course their T&Cs state how they can be amended and online/app is stated) - a phone call is not what most people would define as a "major inconvenience". 

If you ask, they may refund as a gesture of goodwill, but that would be at their discretion, I would think.

I have over 20 upcoming bookings with them and I need to amend at least 8, likely more than once (because I need to swap October bookings for February bookings, and February advances are not on sale yet. Sigh. Previously I could have done it online (and it was stated that they can be amended, indeed, online or via the app).

ThorOdinson

I couldn't even log in to the stupid thing. It's badly broken at the moment.

Emily_Joy

To update on "a phone call is not what most people would define as "major inconvenience". 

On 27th of October I called them to amend time & date on 4 tickets for the coming week. An angent made changes for me according to my request, but they have been made on old system and I have no control on those bookings. The phone call was about 50 minutes long.

On 5th of November, after a bit of rest I called them again. An agent told me that I should book new tickets myself and they will refund the old ones. I was very happy with this and changed 4 tickets. It took about an hour and a half on the phone. 

On 6th of November I called them again to make changes to another 2 tickets. An agent told me to make new bookings but they could not refund the old ones and passed me onto someone else in another department. They fortunately were able to arrange a refund. This took about an hour.

On 7th of November I tried to change another ticket, and have been pushed between different agents for an 75 minutes. At the end, I got a 20 minutes lecture from Customer Services representative telling me that under no circumstances the old ticket can be refunded, they can only be amended, that the previous person gave me wrong advice, they are very sorry, but they will not issue a refund. Full Stop. 

Today I called them again to change the ticket for this Monday and to amend the booking I previously changed on 27th of October. The agent was not able to amend the ticket, but instructed me to buy a new one and send them a screenshot for refund to be issued. They refused to amend the ticket from 27th of October because it was made after the system changed, they said. The phone call was 45 minutes long. 

So far, I've spent 5 hours on the phone (lines open from 9am to 5pm) to make amendments that I have previously been able to do online, at the time that suits me, and within less than an hour.