Dear VT,
I am writing to complain about the six hour diversion and overall poor service on Virgin Trains on Sunday 4 January.
I was travelling on the 11.55 train, as the 12.15 train I had booked had been cancelled because of the plane crash. We were told a power line failure meant the train was delayed before Watford. We waited for an hour on the train, and then returned to Milton Keynes half an hour later. Some escaped at Watford, but I had brought my bike so I couldn’t leave.
We waited for two hours outside Milton Keynes station for a bus to take us to London Euston. There weren’t enough coaches, and it was freezing. By now there were crowds of hundreds of people. Randomly I met an old friend from primary school, who you had also decided to divert to Milton Keynes to wait in snow.
We decided instead to take the bus to Luton Station, as there were too many passengers pushing on to too few coaches. At Luton Station, I bought another ticket to London. No-one said we were allowed to travel on the train to King’s Cross with the original ticket to London. That was annoying.
After I paid for a ticket to Central London, the person behind the counter asked me if I had a valid Virgin ticket to London – yeh, that’s right, after – and then I was told it would be refunded immediately. I was given the receipt back and considered the payment voided. However, I’ve checked my account and it was never voided – I’ve paid twice for the same unsatisfactory service, which took a total of eight hours.
This whole situation has really disappointed me, and I’m frustrated the card transaction wasn’t cancelled at the station like the ticket person said – this has really shocked me, as it was taken without my consent. The ticket only cost £7.85, but it should never have been charged.
The way you funnelled everyone back to Milton Keynes was ridiculous too. You should have just let us make our own way back at Watford. It wasn’t far, you made it further.
I’ve travelled with Virgin many times between London Euston and Manchester, in standard and first class. This is the second time I’ve been delayed, and I’m really frustrated right now about the whole situation.
Regards,
Patrick
i travel every week to different parts of scotland and engand and i have never seen such a total disgrace in my life with your trains,they never used to be like that ,people and crammed on trains buggies ,kids people with disabilities ,what the hell is going on ,you charge over the odds to get on the train and have to stand for near 3 hours ,and you say it is safe enough well it is not,if there is an accident the amout of people that can be killed and especially kids with ramming them all on a carriage is disgusting ,obviously the peoples health and safety is not an interest to you with the amouth of money you ask for tickets .total disgusting ,i will be setting up petitions at train stations and writing into papers as the people are not thought about in the health and safety act ,thankyou
Yesterday I travelled from Edinburgh to Southampton on Virgin.
The weather in the north was bad and I expected delays, and this was born out by the fact that the train was late getting into Edinburgh, so left late, and then had to travel slowly southwards, but all onboard were seated and warm and moving in the right direction, although some of the services you would expect, such as hot drink machines, were reported as not working.
After a couple of hours there was a surprise announcement to tell us that the service would be terminating at Preston and not Birmingham New Street, we could get on the Glasgow to Birmingham NS train that was ‘about 20 minutes’ behind us.
The reason given was ‘there are weather problems further south that are affecting travel’ then the announcer must have realised that this was a bit weak – how was the Glasgow train to get through – and changed this to ‘we need to get the train back up north’. I asked how we were going to get one fairly full trainload of passenges onto what is normally a pretty full train, and was told ‘we would have to take our chance’.
When we got to the right platform on Preston Station we found that the Glasgow train was already 55 minutes late and so the 20 minutes was clearly another lie. At that stage a number of the passenges decided to make other arrangements. The rest of us, including a number of young children, remained. Questions to the Virgin Platform 4 staff received monosylabic replys (do they have to attend customer unsupport training do you think?)
When the train arrived, I believe, most people were able to find seats and we again proceeded south, people joining the train at subsequent stations were forced to stand due to our presence.
We were then told that THIS train would be terminated at Wolverhampton! No reason was given for this decision. When the train arrived at Wolverhampton people had 3 minutes to change platforms and so there was a mad charge over the Stairs to make that train, with the elderly and those with small children struggling along. The Virgin staff were yelling for those trying to board to get on quickly (we know that Virgin staff are paranoid about Virgin being fined for dwelling on a platform too long) and the whole thing was a H&S nightmare, but not a concern for the Virgin staff.
I was lucky enough to not have to join that train, I joined the Bournemouth train that followed and had a slow boring ride to Southampton Airport and arrived home about 3 hours later that I had anticipated.
If you checked, I am sure that you would find that there are consequences to Virgin for not having rolling stock in the north for the start of the day, and they would prefer to discomfort passengers than take any chances, after all they have a virtual monopoly to protect themselves from customer dissatisfaction.
The attitude of a business is normally shaped by the man at the top – enough said?
Basically all I can say is that Virgin Trains are scum. I can see why Richard Branson is a billionaire. It’s because he and his companies rip people off. If I didn’t need to use Virgin Trains from Wolverhampton to Glasgow I wouldn’t. However they seem to have the monopoly on the trains so I have to choose and use them. The service you get for the price is ridiculous. A few years ago I even got arrested when arguing with a manager of Virgin Trains over the phone. I basically told the stuck up cow that the way she was speaking to me was wrong and she wouldn’t speak to me like that if we were face to face. She phoned the police on me and said I had threatened her with my tone! I was arrested for questioning about making threats over the phone. All I said to her was that the customer is always right; but apparently to her and probably Richard Branson’ the customer is not. His people hide behind the phrase “it’s in the terms and conditions, etc”. The man and his workers are just plain and simple greedy, horrible people.
To whom it may concern.
Please would you urgently provide me with the contact details of your Customer Services Department.
I travelled on a Virgin train from London Euston to Crewe and return on the 2nd January 2016, and due to overbooking / double booking on the part of the booking agency, I, despite me having booked seats for my family and I, was forced to sit on the floor for the entire journey back to London Euston. The safety of my family and fellow passengers was seriously compromised as a result of the aisles been cluttered with people standing in them, as well as their accompanying luggage. The safety and evacuation procedures as displayed in your trains as by law, could in no way have been implemented should the need have arisen.
I expect to hear back from Virgin regarding this poor service delivery as soon as possible. I would also request a full refund for the tickets purchased for our return journey – These tickets where in fact not used for the purposes originally intended for.
Lastly I would just like to add – I had to take my daughter to see a doctor this morning due to ill health , i.e. tight chest / coughing and breathing difficulties – this in all likelihood as a direct result of her having to sit on a wet floor for two hours plus on one of your luxury trains.
Thank you kindly.
Tony Coetzee
I have travelled with Virgin trains many times and are always a satisfied customer. Was there no other seats to sit in. You could have gone to find a guard and you may have been upgraded to first class. As your seats had been overbooked or even some other seats in another part of the train. I am sure it would not have been a full train that left Euston. I usually go from Euston to manchester, and there are usually some seats that are unreserved. Good luck I hope you get what you want.