thetrainline.com reviews

scammers , complicit in internet fraud

Take the "money saving offer" on their site and guess what ? They give your credit card details plus security number to scammers who fraudulently charge your credit card... So if you want to be robbed ,,,,,, use these ar5eh0l3s....

30 April 2013

Reply from thetrainline.com

Hi Jonny,

We don't pass any details onto 3rd parties - it sounds like you've signed up for a rewards programme

There's more info here and other useful FAQs in the help section of our site

http://help.thetrainline.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4139/kw/complete%20savings

Hope that helps

Thanks

Dougie

NOT TAKING RESPONSIBILITY!

I payed for the insurance to cover myself incase of a refund required for some tickets i bought.
I sent atleast 30 emails and have been passed around so many times. No one called me. I sent all the information and the company kept saying they didnt have it or it was been reviewed etc and they would contact me on a certain date time. NOTHING.

I made an offical complaint and STILL HEARD nothing back!

I told them i would complain to watch dog. STILL NOTHING.

I will never use them again whether they are the people or the insurance company part of trainline.

WOULD NOT RECCOMEND

30 April 2013

Reply from thetrainline.com

Hi Sinystar Sparkle (nice name BTW),

Insurance is an extra add on while booking and usually offers reassurance in case circumstances change or something unexpected happens

The process of making a claim with our provider is usually quick and easy so I'm not sure what's causing a delay for you

There is some helpful information in the help section of our site (including contact details for the insurance provider)

http://help.thetrainline.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/457/kw/columbus%20insurence

Thanks

Dougie

No better than muggers

I went on line to buy 2 open returns for Saturday to return Sunday after the Marathon.
The website sold me 2 day travelcards, when I asked if they covered the return on sunday all I got was a run around, I then asked for a refund and was given half the cost minus £20 for administration. What administration was there..... the tickets were never printed and everything else was done by computer. After several attempts to get my money back I was basically told to go away and no more money would be refunded.
So much for the customer being right. I will never use these theifs again, and yes that is all they are.
My advice to anyone thinking of using them is unless you have money to throw away then go to the station or book direct with the operator, never ever go near these muggers.

Misleading information!

I've had two run ins now with this company and I will certainly not use them again!

The first incident involved a train ticket to Gatwick airport. We were sold an off peak ticket and given times for the trains we needed to catch. The final train got into Gatwick in peak times! So we were charged a £20 fee!

The second incident involved a change of ticket due to adverse weather. This can only be done online. It stated a refund of £35.80 would be made (a £10 admin fee had already been deduced) I enquired how to get my refund to be told I'd only be receiving £25.80, deducting £10 per ticket-why when it was a return? Even though their system informed me wrongly, they STILL have only refunded me £25.80.

This company offered misinforms their 'valued customers' and pocket the benefits!

Waste of my time and energy - pathetic company

I did complain to thetrainline about my experience - 3 weeks later no response to my email. I wanted to use my travel vouchers, however I could not use them online and thier website states they can only be used when riniging up - so i did. 20 minutes later ringing off a mobile, after confirming everything to the guy who could not grasp the english langauge and who even put on an american accent to me.... i was told i had to send the vouchers into them 14 days before i wanted to book my tickets..... if it had said that online i would not have spent nearly £20 on my phone bill calling them. Lets see if i get a response from them....probably not. This is not the first time they have messed me about - on 3 seperate occasions they have debited the money twice out of my account..... it has gone back in a week later. Scandelous. Redspottedhanky here i come

High fees

Other sites (Southern Rail) are easier to use and don't charge a booking fee.

Hidden charges - booking fee and charge for using a credit card

You go through selecting your tickets (same price as other sites). If you want to print your own tickets you need to state what card you'll use as on train id. Easiest to state the card you pay on. Then you realise there is a booking fee, AND a charge for credit cards. £2.76 altogether. At that point you can't change your payment card because it is your stated id. Will put down to experience and not use again.

Frederik Bramming found this review useful

Android app appalling, no refund and laughed at by Indian with bad English

Booked ticket via android app which is very unclear concerning ticket types and conditions involving railcards, rang immediately to rectify situation, was connected to the ever popular call centre in India and was actually laughed at by the man at the other end, was told I would have to cancel and rebook at a cost of ten pounds and a greatly increased fare. I will never book via the trainline again, merely check fares and go to the station to buy and collect, also avoiding the one pound booking fee. My advice - don't use this awful company

Utterly deceptive, appalling service

We bought advance tickets online and subsequently found out that we would not be able to travel due to illness in the family. At this point, we were told that the tickets were non-refundable and that we would be charged a 'passenger fee' of £10 a ticket to change the dates. This turned out to be a journey fee, so we were actually charged £40 (for the return journeys!). It then transpired that the original ticket fee is not offset against the new tickets (which, needless to say, were much more expensive) but is only refunded to you when you post (by registered post) your tickets and a print out of your new booking confirmation.
We will only book directly with the train operators going forward as they will often refund where a genuine reason for cancellation of advance tickets is given. We will not be using the trainline again.

thetrainline.com sold me tickets for train which doesn't exist

They sold me 2 tickets for train for 26th of December 2012 from Edinburgh to London.
I was in Edinburgh on holiday with my husband and when we came to the railway station to get back to London the station was closed. I called to the station information centre and they informed me there were no trains on 26th of December. Because of carelessness of thetrainline.com I had to go to the airport and buy last-minute very expensive tickets.
When I contacted thetrainline.com. after two weeks of "investigation" they transferred me to Virgin trains: "We've been through you case and have to advise that Virgin Trains are best placed to compensate you as it was they who advertised then cancelled the trains". Then I contacted Virgin trains and I they said that they never had any trains on Christmas and Boxing day and thetrainline.com sold me tickets for train which doesn't exist...
Thank thetrainline.com for the failed Christmas Holidays.

Depends what you want

Trainline is good if you just want to go to one place to get your booking done quickly - but doesn't seem to be the cheapest - if you have time to book the different stages of your trip through different operators then this probably would work out best for you but if - like me - you only allow yourself 2 minutes to do any task then trainline is good to get it all done in one go!

Frederik Bramming found this review useful

DAYLIGHT ROBBERY

We bought 3 tickets to our destination, and another 3 return for 2 weeks later. Total cost of £79. 2 adults and 1 child. Then we had to change the return journey as I put the date in wrong online. Human error. So, I phoned Trainline.com and had to pay another £55 to get new tickets and await a measly £36 refund! Disgusting.
Now we find we are unable to make the trip and are told by an ignorant, hard to understand operative that we have to pay £10 per person per trip and we can change the date on the tickets, but only if we do it by December!!! Huh??? The tickets are for 17th and 30th November!!!!!!!!! What a plank. You've had £98 from us already and you want ANOTHER £60?????????????? Daylight robbery.
We cannot alter the tickets they were for a specific trip that was cancelled. The tickets are from Birmingham to Reading, we live in Cornwall but were going to stay with relatives to make that journey. Not even a partial refund.
We now all know how Trainline.com make their money... by ripping off Joe Publiic and not giving a toss about it.
I have decided to be charitable, and will leave the tickets in my local train station shelter where homeless people gather. I hope THEY enjoy their journey with Trainline.com who can also be found at www.WeRipYouOffBigTime.co.uk

Why pay Booking and Credit Card Fees

I have used the trainline.com a couple of times, with no issues, except for my error in inputting the wrong return date, so my fault.

However, I resent the £1 booking fee and £3.50 credit card fee, that they charge you, are better on going onto one of the train operator websites and getting the information there.

I travel lot by train and have found it often cheaper to go to the operators website (especially where it only involves travel on that one operator).

For example: Berwick_Upon-Tweed to Portsmouth was advertised at £70 on the trainline.com, £1 booking fee and £3.50 credit card fee to making a price of £74.50. East coast mainline website £67.50 (their website price only), no booking and no credit card fees. Savings of £7.

Portsmouth to Victoria £15.90 Super off peak single on trainline.com, plus the £4.50 charges. Southern Railways managed to book in advance (only available on their website) for £10 no charges (can be £5 if booked far enougth in advance), so saving £9.40.

I would imagine that its similar on the other operators websites.

Quick and easy

Great prices on this website for UK trains when booking up to one day in advance, we saved nearly 40GBP on a Leeds / Liverpool trip. Getting the tickets at the station machine was extremely easy as well.
I booked from abroad and did not know what to expect exactly, well I was not disappointed and will certainly use Thetrainline services again whenever I need to travel by train in the UK in the future.

Great site for booking Trains

Great little site for train info and bookings, although no special prices etc from trainline exclusively. Helpful and easy to use site.

I paid DOUBLE what I should have

I booked a return trip for a family of 4 from London to Salisbury before I left Canada for my vacation. I followed all prompts on thetrainline website and ended up paying over 240GBP. When the train conductor on the return trip checked our tickets, he informed me that I could have paid less than half what I did. He said that thetrainline should have guided me to the better price option and that I should complain when I got home. He also said that thetrainline is KNOWN for this kind of thing.
When I complained upon my return, I got absolutely no where. Thetrainline consistently replied with 'standard' form letters saying that they could not help me. They offered no refund, no assistance and no other option (I asked if there was an ombudsman or complaint desk, but they never replied). I will never use them again and encourage everyone to avoid them, especially if you are dealing with them from overseas.

Use it all the time

I'm always using the trains and thetrainline is what makes that tick. Whether it's a to book tickets, or just to check time before I have a lengthy wait in a station I use thetrainline almost daily and I couldn't function without it.

No Customer Service

I have used The Trainline.com a lot - never again!

I booked a return ticket to London, but for various reasons I then cancelled it right away so never picked up the tickets.

I requested a refund on line and heard nothing for about 3 weeks. Then got an email saying I needed to return the tickets.

So I called them up. They said I needed the tickets because I could only reclaim the outward journey not the return. There was no indication of this when I requested the refund on line.

So I now have to go the station and park (at great expense) to pick up tickets I don't need and post them back to the Trainline.com before I can get a partial refund. There is a very good chance that the machine won't issue the tickets as it is way past the day I was supposed to travel. If that turns out to be right I will go ballistic.

Total lack of any sort of customer service from them and will never use them agian.

frustrating

booked a return train ticket and a plus bus ticket, the train ticket arrived the next day but no plus bus ticket rang to see why it had not arrived and was told he didn't know where it was but that you could only use it on the outbound journey, I told him this wasn't so but he disagreed so i told him to cancel it as it wouldn't be cost effective. I went on the plus bus website and confirmed it is valid for all bus journeys on the day I rang back and asked them to send the plus bus. they told me they couldn't as it would take to long to get there we are 18 days away from our journey date. they are rude and patronizing and refuse to make any effort to rectify there mistakes. they also leave you on hold for far too long

Excellent

Have booked train tickets from Trainline and reserved seats. Brilliant. Except was travelling in bad weather and two trains were taken out of service because of deep snow. However, the train companies reimbursed the tickets cost in full, plus taxi fares necessary to complete journey. No complaints whatsoever .. the weather cannot be guaranteed but, ultimately, I got to my destination (Glasgow) and back home (Newcastle) absolutely free of charge.

Easy to use, but!

This site is easy to use, but appears almost identical to several other train sites in layout and prices; is this indicative of shared data, as these sites have the same prices as each other every time I look.
Other sites, such as Red Spotted Handkerchief seem to be different, offer different prices, and are sometimes available before either TheTrainLine, or the other similar sites.
Shop around, you may find cheaper rates on the same travel dates, at approximately 10 weeks ahead.

Ryan air style train bookings

Hidden charges mean that this company cannot be trusted. Highly irritating.

Great!

You get some great deals! I have just booked them to go to Gatwick

The most irritating ad in TV history....

... *And* they charge a booking fee, which Virgin don't. That's all you need, really.

On top of that, their website seems to positively relish thwarting your wishes- I mainly didn't get the seat I wanted (aisle seat), unless I "gamed" the system by adding tickets to my basket until it gave me an aisle seat and then deleting the unwanted ones.

I *have* actually written to them, telling them that I won't ever use them again because their TV ads are so bad.

Good Site

Mobile app and site are both good however it does not show live departures

Can prove more expensive

If you know the journey you have to take involves more than one train company, split the ticket buying and go on each of the train companies websites & buy direct. You'll normally get a cheaper deal than buying once though Thetrainline, not only that you more often than not get the tickets either delivered free or home printing. I've saved small fortunes when travelling from West Yorkshire to Hampshire by buying direct from the train companies involved.

Great service

I dont travel by train very often but when i do ive used these and have found a wealth of information and great savings to be made!

Superb

Fantastic service and really good prices.

Great, easy to use website

I almost always buy my train tickets through thetrainline.com. Their website is straightforward and easy to use. Great if you complete the same journey over and over, the site allows you to save trips you're likely to make over and personalise them. If buying way in advance, take advantage of the cheaper tickets on the site.

OK site to book tickets

I use Virgin now and don't pay the card fee.

Recommended!

Excellent website easy to navigate around it and accurate information

Good service

Everytime I bought train tickets with them, they arrive at a proper time, no mistake, I haven't had any problems with them

Good website

Booking train tickets is made easy by their website. If you book early enough before your journey they get you some very cheap tickets. Regularly use them when not wanting to drive.

Fantastic savings.

I don't by a ticket before getting on the train, only through websites like Trainline. Bring back British Rail.

good for timetable enquiries

gives good info as to train times/fares

The only way to buy train tickets

Needs a bit of forethought, but the only way to buy tickets, reduces train fares from extortionate to acceptable, particularly on long journeys.

Quick easy and cheap

Was really easy to book the tickets, we collected from the station and got a decent price. Rail card helped with that though 1/3 off between 16-25 yrs old :)

Brilliant

Great site for cheap train tickets, I went from Essex up to Alton Towers in Stoke and back no problems !

Wish it was around years ago

Very good site.

Ok service

Ok service, nothing to write home about. Deals here are often the same as on the National Rail website so the big noise those T.V ads make...is often just a big noise and nothing else :)