Virgin Trains Online Rip-off and Scam

Riq

I booked tickets using that pickup at fast ticket option and it said to bring the same card to confirm payment.
So I think you just missed it.

I haven't read the rest of your post as it seems you have a vendetta against Virgin for whatever reason. Citing all sorts of cases here and there.
I am guessing this is a straight copy and paste from forum to forum.

chuckley

2robbo wrote: »

@ chuckley, “value advance for london to midlands tends to be £10... admin cancellation fee is/was £10... therefore no refund... that t&c makes 100% sense. if u buy one thats e.g, £20 u will get £10 back...” Please refer to actual fact when you are commenting, Virgin Trains told me that I am not entitled to any refund on my Value Advanced ticket. And who are you to decided whether I “deserve” a refund or not???

did u travel with said ticket?? up to departure theres a £10 admin.. if uve used the ticket thats another kettle of fish.

you dont deserve a refund because u stuffed up and failed to read the ordering pages. I really hope u dont get the refund from Virgin.

@ Keith, “Chiltern is a town to town service, Virgin is inter-city/express service. If you did get the Chiltern service from Marylebone it will take 2 hours 22 minutes, however, with virgin the journey takes 1 hour 29 minutes” Again, please refer to actual facts. The Virgin Trains journey I was due to travel on was scheduled to leave Marylebone Station at 06:50 and arrive at Brimingham New Street at 08:59. That makes the journey time 2 hours and 9 minutes, hardly an “express service” (or maybe still an Express Service in your book?)

stop making things up Virgin dont do trains from Maylebone. therefore another mistake u made... euston to brum on virgin is 1 hr 30 mins, im guessin the 2 hour journey u talkin is chiltern...

@ dzug, “Oh and Chiltern (in your terminology) ripped you off as well. The fare for your journey with them can be £18. Well even £10 online. Sue them too while you are at it.” I am not a miser and I am completely happy with my journey via Chiltern Trains. You obviously have too much time on your hands with your 2,000 posts just on this forum, keep it up!

u get told of cheaper fares by another member, to which u have no comeback so u resort to picking at their post count?? LOL!!!!!!!

@ ringo_24601, “I like virgin.. you're obviously not savvy enough to use online systems properly - stick to riding your bike if you can't work it out.” How do you know how “savvy” I am to “use online systems properly”?? You are obviously not “savvy” enough to realize that loyalty to a company gets you know where in terms of consumer shopping and services as Martin Lewis has said on TV many times! You also appear to be someone with too much time on your hands with your smary comments and your 3,000 posts in 2 years – good for you, eh!

Your post quite clearly shows u are not savvy at all. to the point where u stated u were due to travel virgin from marylebone to brum... yet not knowing which train company u were using from your departure station sure is savvy innit!!

i look forward to whatever else you feel to make upto fit your totally useless argument against Virgin.

chuckley

evesham1988la wrote: »

I have just searched National Rail and the train service the OP has said he was to travel on was run by Chiltern and not Virgin at all. I'm guessing he/she booked through the Virgin website but travelling on a Virgin train never came in to it.



Mon 28 Apr
London Marylebone (MYB) to Birmingham Moor Street (BMO)

Journey Summary Details - Option 1DepartsArrivesDuration06:5008:592:09
Calling Points: Travel By: Train (Retail Service ID: CH040400) Train Company: Chiltern Railways service from London Marylebone to Birmingham Snow Hill

LMAO LMAO LMAO

dzug

Much as I hate to admit it, OP does have a valid point, though not the one he directly made. It was buried amongst his rantings and links to websites with images too small to read.

On the CC issue - no comment. Others have said enough.

On the fares issue, he is victim of a 'feature' on Virgin's website that is intended to be helpful to customers but in this case backfired. And didn't work properly anyway.

If he had booked on other websites (including Chiltern's) for a journey from London Kings Cross to Birmingham at 0600 returning the same day the default would have been the fastest route - ie via Euston/Rugby - at a fare of £129. To find cheaper fares you have to dig deeper.

Virgin look for cheaper fares in the first pass (usually half savers, but in this case a saver single) which may be via slower routes. For the return journey the advance purchase via Rugby was both cheaper and quicker so that was offered. (However it should have offered a cheap day single for the outward journey at £32.40. Why it didn't I don't know.)

But apart from this it acted correctly within its terms of reference. OP was offered what he asked for - even if he didn't know it.

Better still would have been to specify a route High Wycombe when the cheap Chiltern fare would have been offered straightaway.

BIGGER_THAN_THE_GAME

The cc argument reminds me of people who went to court regarding being burnt by spilling hot drinks over themselves.
This ridiculous action forced companies selling hot beverages to put a warning this hot tea/coffee contains hot liquid and may burn or scold on contact.:rotfl:

Brimmury

It doesn't surprise me that Virgin Trains are trying to rip-off you off with the refund amount that they are offering you. For example, the Virgin Group headed by Richard Branson tried to rip-off the British Tax Payer in 2007 with their outrageous derisory bid for Northern Rock. Rightly, the UK Treasury rejected Virgin's offer for Northern Rock, which would have seen Richard Branson profiteering largely at the UK Tax Payers' expense.

Common sense should also be applied by Virgin Trains and they should have refunded your money without much contemplatation. As such, all they have done is fester ill feeling, which is not good for a brand. For example, it is interesting that the person going by ticketcollector in this thread refers to Virgin as "Virmin" (I don't think it is a typo).

2robbo

I have no personal vendetta against Virgin Trains. The fact is I was not able to travel with them and of the £61.50 I paid Virgin Trains they want to refund me only £36.50, which is nearly half of what I originally paid. This smacks of some big company trying to ripp me off!

At the time, the Virgin Trains booking system kept on timing out on me, about 3 times, which meant that, say, half-way through trying to book I had to restart the process from scratch. So, in the end I was eager to get through the whole process without it timing out on me. The fact is that the need to take the card you booked online with is a prominent requirement and should not be buried away in Terms and Conditions, it should also be on the confirmation screen in my opinion. The booking process could also be made simpler as it currently requires about 10 click through pages in order to complete a booking online with Virgin Trains.

I wrote to Virgin Trains customer service on 14 April 2008, and am waiting for a full response which their site says should be done “in full within one month”. If no response or an acceptable refund is not forthcoming then I will take them to the Small Claims Court. I will let you know how it goes.