The 7 Circles of Hell (or as it's more commonly known, an average customer experience with Virgin Trains)
Be advised - lengthy rant to follow...
In late May I left the office for my weekly return from Birmingham New street to Euston. My return ticket had been bought a week early and was waiting in the app on my phone. So far, so good.
On arriving at the station I found my train had been cancelled due to signal failure. No probs - I thought - I'll ask this information desk for advice.
"Get on the 6.30 - not the half going to Edinburgh - the other half is now going to Euston" I was cheerily informed. Two further station staff (one New Street, one Virgin Trains) on the platform pointed me and my ticket to the correct carriage and off I pottered, happy not to be waylaid or inconvenienced by more than a few minutes.
Or so I thought.
On the train, the ticket collector lets me know that while my ticket was for West Midlands Trains - his train was a Virgin Train.
Not a problem - I explained the cancellation and three members of staff advising me to get on. But no dice - this jobsworth wasn't for budging and proffered a fine for ￡121 on the spot. I laughed it off, knowing that I could resolve the issue with a brief phone call the next day.
West Midlands rail offered me a refund on my cancelled train. 17 Quid. Leaving me only ￡104 shy of my target to break even.
Four weeks on, the fine has escalated to ￡156 and now rests in the purview of a right wing paramilitary organisation, trading under the name IRCAS. Virgin had washed their hands of the dispute and sold the debt to their money collector of choice.
Several calls, emails and Tweets to Virgin Trains have resolved nothing. They told me to raise my concerns with IRCAS. Unbelievably, the debt collector aren't in the business of rational thought, and their automated phone line simply requests payment. What a shock...
Back to Virgin Trains and their now maddeningly jolly call centre staff and I'm stuck. I had a valid ticket, was told three times to get on a certain train and now am running out of options.
Part of me wants to waste the time of Virgin's PR and Customer Care teams to the tune of ￡156 - except off the back of my current experience, I feel this would take well over a month. The other part holds out hope for a common sense human resolution. That hope is dying with every nonsensical phone call I make.
On current reckoning, a resolution is unlikely to happen, but perhaps people will read this and take their travel dollars elsewhere to save themselves unnecessary abject misery of dealing with Virgin Trains.
NED & Board Advisor
6 年Not the experience you would expect from two significant service providers. I too have travelled by train for over 20 years. I did think that if your train was cancelled, there was a general agreement your ticket was valid on the next available train. I have been in similar situations when leaving Kings Cross , booked on Grand Central, my ticket honoured by Virgin. Doesn’t sound to be the case between Midland and Virgin sadly. Perhaps when renewing franchises the DOT will put consumers first and insist on this provision
A highly pragmatic organisational and operational resilience, customer conduct, regulatory compliance, and financial crime professional who always adds unambiguous value. Also keen to develop further non-exec roles.
6 年Don’t know what you’re complaining about Harry ! Sounds like a fairly positive Virgin train experience from my years of joyful travel...