By Chrissy Iley
I have to rant about the beast that is Virgin Trains. Call it chemistry; I am just unlucky with Virgin.
My friend was staying with me from the States and was going from my house in London to her mum’s in Birmingham.
First of all the Virgin site would not take an American credit card so I said I would use mine. The prices of trains were wildly varied. I got her one for £24 leaving around 5pm. Earlier than that they were nearly double.
She said it would be OK so I entered my card details but then she said no, she wanted to look on Trainline. She found an earlier train for £15. I had given my card details but did not press confirm.
And here is the point when booking a Virgin train. They take your money as soon as they have your card. If you try to unconfirm it, too bad. I got through to a lot of people who said eventually they would refund my card – minus £10.
This seemed still very expensive for not confirming a ticket. Then they said they could not give me the full refund because they could not believe she was going on an earlier train, as there was no proof she got it on Trainline.
This seems like a red herring anyway, it didn’t matter when she was going, I did not confirm the ticket. I waited 40 minutes for customer service, gave up, waited another 25 and then I got a call back. During this call supervisors were spoken to, tears were shed and they eventually agreed. I felt like I had gone to Birmingham and back several times, what in fact I could have done. One tiny misplaced click that never happened and an afternoon on the phone with Virgin Trains.
The moral of this story is don’t book with Virgin. Use Trainline. And don’t give your credit card details unless you are absolutely sure, because confirmation is just a formality.
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