Virgin Train/Mobitix

nancy3227

same problem here. I bought the mobitix ticket last friday. tried a few times but all failed. yet all the failed transactions have been charged. phone the india centre and they asked me to send my statement to the edinburgh office to get a refund. will never use this site again...

j247

The same thing has happened to me. I have been charged for every failed attempt at purchasing a ticket. What is stranger is that tickets are now arriving for some, but not all (!) of the supposedly failed attempts. What is even stranger is that the money which has been taken from my account exceeds the total of failed and successful tickets purchases according to the info on the mobitix website.

I spoke to someone from technical support (who was not in the least concerned) who will arrange a refund (for what amount, I dread to think) but I was told this will take 10 days. I am out of pocket over £200.

I am appalled.

NurseME

I cant believe im not the only one this has happened too.
I made serveral attempts to but my mobitix but their was a system error, in the end i gave up but on Monday morning mt bank statement said i had been charged for all the tickets i had failed to get- over £75 worth. Please can people post details of how they are getting their refunds.

The helplines from virgin are a waste of time. Thank you

j247

I've not had any luck getting through to virigin all day. Have sent an email, but, predictably, no reply.

Meanwhile, tickets keep arriving on my phone. Approx. 15 of them now, many for the same journey.

I seriously hope that they do not try to avoid refunding us, arguing that we did in fact receive our tickets, and that they are non-refundable.

Has any one else had more luck or securing any response from Virgin?

evanscott

I am aghast with how this is operating. Trains have been around for much longer than aeroplanes and you would have thought they could sort it out . . . . .

I have tried to contact people in Virgin and the Trainline today and ended up as you guessed in a call center in a country far far away who strangely didn't have the telephone number of Trainlines HQ. With perseverence I found it 0x2x0x3x1x2x8x2x0x0x0

NurseME

I have tried every number and every website to try and get my refund but as i do this im still getting tickets though my phone, tickets that i dont even want and tickets that i already have. I have a total of £133 in tickets taken out of my account.

I was told by virgin to write a letter to customer relations but i dont think that would be a quick fix.

Anyone else had any luck x

unstoppable

A word of warning for everyone using the send to mobile option (well that's the only option there is anyway):

I ordered ticket for my mum (using her details) but she doesn't have MMS enabled phone so I thought I'd send ticket to my phone and get her phone MMS enabled by ringing her network in the meanwhile, then I could forward the ticket to her phone. But you can't do that! Once you get a ticket, it is bound to that handset and you CANNOT forward the ticket to another handset! Seems so stupid to me, because they already ask you to show your credit card with the ticket in the train anyway, so what's with all this extra "security" for the phone???

What's worse is you CANNOT get through to their support number, their website is down AND they decided to close their support helpline early so my mum's left wasting money for a ticket she cannot use tomorrow. At the moment I'm livid :mad:

ConsumerRights_2

I would suggest that everyone who has had problems stand up and be counted. Those who fail to use the system are helping Virgin and the Trainline trial the Mobitix just as much as those who succeed in obtaining tickets via this method. Why should those who have been unlucky enough to have the 'wrong phone' or experienced difficulties as a result of problems with the Trainline's server (or any other reason) be penalised by having to pay full fare?
Also, has anyone else noticed that the Virgin Trains homepage is still advertising "print your ticket at home or send it to your mobile" (the print your ticket at home service has been withdrawn). If the companies themselves cannot be bothered to launch the service properly, who are they to patronise us regarding our ability to use the system.
I have emailed both Virign and the Trainline, and an unsatisfactory response will prompt me to contact the "ombudsman": http://www.passengerfocus.org.uk/ and advertising standards regarding the mis-advertising on the Virgin Trains website.

In general we pay far too much in this country for inadequate and poor quality rail services, and when we do complain the operators rarely step up and accept responsibility: nobody cares, and they should.

alicnik

Hi everyone,

Feel bad for all you guys with £100+ out of your accounts, Virgin are idiots. I was told that I definitely wasn't being charged and then, hey presto, charged I was. Nothing in the realm of an apology of course.

I wrote to them via the Mobitix helpline emailing service thing. Attached a screen shot of all my tickets in My Account and then a secure screen shot of my online bank statement showing debits to thetrainline. Accompanied it with a very polite "I'm an impecunious and impoverished student, a repeat customer, love your service normally, etc." note totalling up what I thought I was owed.

Got a full refund in 6 working days. Could have been worse.

Once I got my money back I rang up Mobitix and tore two line managers several new ones. Satisfaction. But no apology.

In all fairness to Virgin, Mobitix is thetrainline who are a disgusting company to deal with. I understand they're a subsidiary of Virgin but their customer service is worlds apart. Whenever I've had to call real Virgin they've been lovely and very apologetic.

Anyway, hope everyone gets their money back.

OAP65plus

Suffered all the same problems and never managed to get any of three different mobile phones registered. Previous [EMAIL="P@H"]P@H[/EMAIL] facility to print at home, which worked perfectly, was still advertised on the website (think it has now been removed) but never came up as an option. Customer service at both Virgin and thetrainline.com absolutely non-existent! Just refer you to another (expensive) phone number! Four numbers and seven agents later and no help whatsoever! Instead of two of us going to Manchester to visit our Grandkids for total £26 just one was able to go after paying £57 for ticket on the bit of the Virgin site that does work! What a surprise! Have now contacted www.bbc.co.uk/watchdog to suggest they may like to follow this story up. Perhaps those who have lost money may like to do the same?