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Timeline and Summary
Prior to Incident
- Generally aware that a season ticket in combination with an
extension ticket is valid on any service as long as the combination
covers the whole journey.
Subsequently confirmed as National Rail Conditions of Carriage
(NRCoC) section 19 and confirmed by Virgin ticket office staff, at least
with respect to paper travelcards.
- Generally aware that a travelcard season ticket stored on Oyster
has exactly the same validity as a travelcard season ticket on
paper. Subsequently confirmed as
NRCoC section 9.
Wednesday 18 March 2009
- Complainant was in possession of a zone 1 - 2 travelcard season
ticket, stored on Oyster.
- Complainant purchased an Anytime Day Return ticket from Boundary
Zone 2 to Milton Keynes at a local ticket office for £31, saving £3.50.
- Complainant attempted to board the 0843 Virgin departure for
Milton Keynes from platform 3 at Euston.
- Complainant was prevented from boarding train by Virgin staff who
did not have the readers that most National Rail staff have to check
that an Oyster card contains a valid travelcard season ticket.
- Virgin staff accused complainant, in front of a crowd, of
attempting to travel without a ticket.
- Virgin staff claimed that complainant needed to buy an extra
ticket.
- Virgin staff refused to check whether the Oyster card contained a
valid season ticket, despite repeated suggestions to do so and the fact
that there are many readers available on the station.
- Virgin staff took away both extension ticket and Oyster card and
took complainant to the other side of the station, while missing a
number of subsequent trains and losing a day's work.
- Virgin supervisor confirmed their claim that the complainant
needed to buy another ticket or travel with a different company (now too
late).
- Too late to travel, complainant completed a refund claim for the
£31 ticket (no refund received).
- Complainant filled in a complaint form and sent it off
immediately.
30 March 2009
- Complainant received confirmation from Transport for London (TfL)
Enquiries that Virgin staff were in the wrong.
7 April 2009
- Complainant received confirmation from Graham Orr, TfL Public
Affairs Manager, via Green Greater London Assembly (GLA) members, that
Virgin Staff were in the wrong.
8 April 2009
- Complainant received confirmation from Caroline Pidgeon, Deputy
Chair of GLA Transport Committee that Virgin's behaviour was
"inappropriate and outrageous"; she wrote to Virgin.
7 May 2009
- Complainant finally received a reply from Virgin to his initial
complaint, in the name of Michael Saunders, Customer Relations, in which
they astonishingly claimed that his ticket was invalid. They did not apologise for the
appalling treatment or refund the ticket that they prevented complainant
from using.
8 May 2009
- First telephone call to Virgin Trains Customer Services, speaking
to both an assistant and a manager.
Complainant asked them to look at the NRCoC and explain the
letter he had received. They
claimed that there is a rule on their website stating that they do not
accept season ticket combinations if the season ticket is stored on
Oyster. Complainant asked for
this in writing, since it is a breach of the NRCoC and a breach of
contract.
- Second telephone call to Virgin Trains Customer Services, having
failed to find any rules on the website.
This time they admitted that there is no such rule on their
website, but that the NRCoC do not state that they have to accept the
ticket if stored on Oyster (false: see NRCoC section 9). They likened an Oyster card to having
a ticket printed on tissue paper, which they wouldn't have to accept.
9 May 2009
- Complainant received a reply from his MP, who had written to
Virgin, enclosing a letter from Alan Robey, Chief Executive's office,
fobbing her off with an irrelevant map of the routes on which Pay as You
Go is accepted. Pay as You Go had
never been mentioned in the complaint and is irrelevant.
12 May 2009
- Complainant received an email from Tony Ewers at the Association
of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) stating that he had written to
Virgin asking them to "revisit their previous reply".
19 May 2009
- Complainant received a letter from Sarah Brassington at Virgin
Customer Relations, confirming the statement from first telephone
conversation that Virgin does not accept travelcards held on Oyster and
implying that the rule is on their website, despite that still being a
breach of NRCoC and the fact that a subsequent telephone call had
confirmed that there was no such rule on the site.
25 May 2009
- Complaint submitted to London Travelwatch (via Passenger Focus,
whose remit does not include London).
29 May 2009
- Phone call from London Travelwatch, expressing an understanding
that ATOC had written to Virgin and that there was hope of a favourable
outcome.
11 June 2009
- Email from London Travelwatch, confirming that they continue to
press Virgin Trains on this issue, which they see as very important.
1 October 2009
- More than six months after the original incident, there was no
sign of progress. Virgin Trains
could have spent half an hour reading the Conditions of Carriage (which
they were evidently unfamiliar with), realised that they were in the
wrong and apologised. Instead of
which, they lied, obfuscated and stonewalled. There was clearly something bigger
going on here; perhaps a dispute between National Rail operators and
Transport for London over smartcard formats. The complainant is not prepared to be
"collateral damage" in this war. Patience ran out and an email was sent
to all concerned making it clear that there was no longer an acceptable
solution and that the complainant would go public.
28 October 2009
- A letter (dated 23 October 2009) was received from Alan Robey in
the Chief Executive's office at Virgin Trains, finally admitting that
Virgin was in the wrong and offering some complimentary first class
tickets. The political background
to this turnaround is a mystery.
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