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I HATE the TrainLine.com

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Sprog

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FFS!

I hate the Trainline.com and the Virgin trains website with passion.

I was trying to book tickets last night, to go and see Sarah on Friday evening after i finish work (Bristol Parkway to Loughborough - 1708 off Parkway @ £16.50 Virgin Value A) and the site refused to work.

At the final stage of booking, it would process the card details, then show an error message "Please check - Could not insert into payment table"

WTF!?? What in the name of god does that mean?

So, in the end, i tryed to use NRE instead. It was co-operating and i found my train/tickets again, when all the way through to the payment stage and........grrrrrrrrrr... card declined. :mad: :mad:

There wasnt a problem with the card before i used the VT site and it went and cocked up the card. SO, final result, i couldnt buy the tix, got really wound up and frustrated and gave up and went to bed. :mad:

Come back this morning to have another go and now the train i wanted is no longer availiable (reservations closed/fuly booked/whatever) and i aint forkig out £41 for a standard open single. So what the hell do VT expect me to do now.:violent1:

If the bloody site doesnt work, how am i supposed to book my tickets :mad: :mad:

I cant go via London either, becasue the '3-days before travel' deadline for MML has been exceeded. SO id hafta pay over £40 again for a ticket.

Can anyone offer me some help/advice???
(SERIOUS, im not in the mood for people taking the p!$$ :mad: :mad:)

ARGHH, im gonna go kill something..............:violent1:
 
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Mojo

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I'm not sure what cards they do/don't accept, but have you looked on the list if your card is accepted.

I've just looked, and there are still some Advance As avaliable, well, there are from Bristol TM!

Also, there are some Advance Bs avaliable on that train @ £11 to Bham New Street. Plus a £13.10 SVR Single from BHM to Loughborough - cheaper than £41!

As a side point, I'm going up to Bham on the same train or the one before it this Friday :)
 
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Tom

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Sprog, they don't accept SOLO cards at all, and I'm certain that you have a SOLO card.
 

Mojo

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Same goes for (Visa) Electron.
 

eezypeazy

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Personally, I've never had any trouble with thetrainline.com... mrs eezypeazy and eezypeazy jnr are travelling NCL to Sheffield on 10 April, and I got singles for them for a total of just £14.50.... far less than the cost of the petrol for the same journey!

eezypeazy
 

yorkie

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Virgin no longer do the 3/7/14 day advance, they are all now available up to 1800 the night before (subject to availablity!) :) (IIRC isn't that the same on MML? Edit: just checked and it is!) And in any case there is still 3 days to go so you should be OK there.

I looked up Bristol to Loughborough and didn't find any, but what about this for a tenner?
BRISTOL TEMPLE MEADS 16:58 Train VIRGIN TRAINS
DERBY 19:11

Derby-Loughborough is cheap and just one stop on MML.
 

Sprog

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Nope, i was using my mums Mastercard.

i have a theory and that is that the sit was being stupid and in my efforts to 'retry' the transaction, i tripped something on the site and it barred the card for security/fraud reasons/

Its ok, im going the weekend after now.

Gives me more time to prepare/book tickets etc.

Thanks for the tips anyway :D

Any others for the April 1st/2nd Weekend would be great............

Im thinking Virgin Value up and back, seeming i wont be able to go via london after March 31st (offer expires)
 

Guinness

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Did you try another Credit/Debit Card as I've experienced a similar problem with Qjump.com only to find that the card wasn't activated or something stupid.
 

metrocammel

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Ive had the same problem, as I tried to use my Visa Electron card via a VT "Calcutta" Call Centre and the woman said I cant use Visa Electron (So I got my dads Mastercard) I knew Electron couldn't be used on APTIS or SPORTIS machines, but thought it was just to with an "outdated" system, but obviously not... as no TOC accepts Visa Electron / SOLO (and I think Diners Club) be it SPORTIS , APTIS , ELGAR , TRIBUTE or FUJITSU STAR etc.. Does anyone know why this inconvinence is? Surely in the 21stC the railways should accept all credit & debit cards... but obviously not!?

Ta,
James.
 

matt

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A lot of shops dont accept electron or solo either, its not just railways
 

yorkie

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My main tip would be to bear in mind that if you can't get a ticket all the way through, book to Derby on the basis that a Derby-Loughborough walk-on ticket is cheap.

Via London would be expensive due to FGW's expensive fares.
 

Tom B

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thetrainline isn't the only ticket outlet... if there's a fault with it, you should report it to the sysadmin rather than rant about it!
 

Max

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Why didn't you try over the phone instead when the card failed? Hull Trains, Transpennine Express and GNER have all been very good from my experience. And all of these are based in the UK too. I find thetrainline and its subsidiaries to be very unreliable. One night I tried to get my tickets booked, and of all the sites Scotrail was the only one that worked!

Also remember that VV can now be booked through any TOC not just Virgin, but the allocations may be different.
 

Mojo

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Solo and Electron both complete their transactions "on-line," but don't have "assumed credit" or overdraft (unlike Switch (now called Maestro)), therefore they aren't accepted.

Interestingly enough, I've been told APTIS and SPORTIS *will* happily accept Electron & Solo as all they do when a card is swiped is put the card details on the bit you sign. The machines have no way of knowing if a card can be accepted or not. Obviously some chance for some major fraud here if you report your (Visa, MasterCard, etc.) as "lost," but then carry on to use it.
 
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yorkie said:
Virgin no longer do the 3/7/14 day advance, they are all now available up to 1800 the night before (subject to availablity!) :) (IIRC isn't that the same on MML? Edit: just checked and it is!) And in any case there is still 3 days to go so you should be OK there.

I looked up Bristol to Loughborough and didn't find any, but what about this for a tenner?
BRISTOL TEMPLE MEADS 16:58 Train VIRGIN TRAINS
DERBY 19:11

Derby-Loughborough is cheap and just one stop on MML.


Two stops, Semi fasts stop at long eaton. IIRC no HSTs stop at loughbrough?
 

Sprinter

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All London Underground ticket offices and MFMs accept Electron cards, very useful when I have needed to top up my Oyster but didn't have enough coins to cover the amount.

So at stations which are joint NR/LUL (like West Ham, Blackhorse Road etc.) Electron can be accepted.
 

evil_hippo

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I never internet book anything. Except bargain berths of course. In the case of rail tickets I go to Appleby station and all the hard work is done for me.
 

AlexS

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1751 1F40 Loughborough to Leeds is a HST, can't think of any others off the top of my head, but any late in the day trains to Leeds will be a HST because Neville Hill won't take Meridians.
 
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