In my opinion, while I love Virgin Trains with everything in me, the Virgin staff on the entrance to platforms at London Euston are quite possibly the rudest staff I have ever met. Only last week they made a young woman cry, was horrible to watch, really distressing.
I’m not talking one person or one time. It’s multiple times and it happens every single time I go to London Euston (regularly) that they are being rude, sarcastic, incorrectly preventing a passenger from boarding a train, or actually loudly SHOUTING at passengers including once myself.
Another time they shouted at two older women and stood in their way with their arms wide to stop them getting on a train after declaring their ticket was invalid, seeing it was valid when the train had LEFT and then simply saying “Fine, go back to the concourse and get the next one”, no apology not even any help.
I would never name a person or people individually but I just really want Avanti West Coast to hopefully invest in some more training for these staff because their seemingly always hostile attitudes really puts me off travel with Virgin Trains/Avanti West Coast out of London Euston.
Has anyone else noticed this or had similar issues with the staff at London Euston?
Unfortunately I have to agree with you. I had the same issue when there was a strike was on on Northern. The information on the Northern website stated that if you have an Advance ticket with an origin or destination to a Northern station on the strike day (as I did) you will be permitted to travel the previous or following day instead. The list of operators on which this was permitted included Virgin Trains (it wasn't just tickets for journeys entirely on Northern) and South West Trains (my ticket was from a station on SWT). The information was very clear that this wasn't just for tickets wholly on Northern but all Advance tickets issued to or from a station operated by Northern. The exact same information was also on the National Rail website. I had a ticket to Whitehaven for a Saturday, when the strike was on. So I contacted Virgin Trains on their online chat. They confirmed I could travel on the Friday evening instead, per the website. They told me I would not need to get my ticket changed to show the date for the Friday instead and that I'd have no problems using it. They also asked what train I intended to catch and when I told them they told me it was no problem, reserved me a seat (and gave me the seat number) and told me my surname would show on the display above the seat. Having sorted this out I booked the same hotel I was staying in on Saturday night for Friday too (at my own expense, I would not have needed it if the strike was not on), because as a result of the strike I would not be able to get there early enough on the Saturday and in any case the advice was not to travel on Saturday because the service was so limited (and a replacement bus).
All went well until I reached the ticket line at Euston. As soon as I showed my ticket I got the sarcastic comment "that's a ticket for tomorrow, you can't use that today". I had come prepared for an argument. As you say, this is not, unfortunately, uncommon. I had printed out the National Rail Enquiries site, so I showed it to the staff that made it clear my ticket was valid. They also checked on their phone. Then they told me they "hadn't been told about it" so they weren't going to let me on the train. I asked them to double check. The member of staff then asked another member of staff to check. She pretended to radio a manger (I know pretend, because not a sound came from the radio!). Then she told me the person on the other end of the radio had said the same, that I couldn't travel as the ticket wasn't valid until the next day. I then told them I'd used the online chat facility on the website. Fortunately I had opted to have it send me an online transcipt by email which I also had. I also told them that my name would be printed on the reservation display above the seat so they could check that, or ask the guard to check it. However they refused to even look at this and insisted that I had to go to the ticket office and get my ticket endorsed (despite being told previously this wouldn't be needed and having also asked to have the ticket changed to avoid this exact scenario). Other staff then butted in to say you've already been told you can't travel so go to the ticket office. I explained that if I did that, I'd miss the last train of the day onwards from Carlisle. I also explained I was part way through my journey (and my ticket had been accepted by the guard on SWT no problem) so to get home again I'd also have to buy a new ticket to get home again. They refused to let me on anyway and when they were speaking to someone else and not looking I tried to walk down the ramp to get on the train.
Then I was shouted at to come back or they would call the police! Yes I acknowledge it was a bad idea to try that but I was trying to get onto the platform so I could speak to the guard of the train and this seemed my only option to avoid getting stranded. As it happened to BTP were standing on the next platform so I voluntarily went over to them to explain the situation to them. They sympathised but told me if a member of rail staff tells you you can't travel that's final, and there is nothing they can do, even if they are wrong.
By now the train had left so I headed to the ticket office. There, I, finally, got someone from Virgin Trains who was aware of the strike and the ticket acceptance that was in place (the ticket was VT+Connections). Then end result was they endorsed my ticket for travel to Carlisle on the next train that evening and provided a taxi from there to Whitehaven at their own expense (and much apology), because I had now missed the last train. However it still got me there (after all the stress) over an hour later than I should have done and I think the taxi driver told me it had come to about £200. (About 4 times what my ticket cost!).
I did write to Virgin Trains and complained and I think I got a refund plus some additional RTVs and an assurance that they take it very seriously and the members of staff had been spoken to.
However this was not the first time I had had valid tickets questioned at Euston and it had got to the point that if the train I wanted to catch stopped at Milton Keynes I'd opt to drive there and get the train from there instead to avoid Euston. This particular incident however was the final straw. I have never travelled with Virgin Trains since then.
However now Virgin Trains are about to be no more I'm prepared to give it a try again. But I do hope something is done about the staff and their attitude at Euston.
Most of these that don't like the long arm of the railway law have unvalid tickets but seem to think there should be tolerance.
