Hi everyone,
Before I start, I appreciate that newbies on Internet forums often miss the basics so I want to be clear that I know Advance tickets are not refundable (unlike this guy )
I bought an Advance ticket on FGW but fell ill the morning of the trip. "No problem," I thought. "I haven't collected the tickets and it's a regular journey so I'll just pay £10 to change the date."
Only, I couldn't. FGW's website didn't offer that option. In response to my question of 'why?', FGW later wrote back saying that amendments can only be made on-line within 5 days of the journey otherwise they have to be made at the station, which wasn't really an option with D&V... hock:
Trouble is, that restriction isn't stated anywhere. And I know it isn't stated anywhere both because I couldn't find it in the T&Cs and also because FGW said as much! Their response has basically been 'We know we don't tell you about the restrictions but we don't think they're important (so go away).'.
The opinion of a solicitor friend is that this is "a material alteration to the original contract" since those restrictions weren't offered or even available at the time of purchase. FGW have, in effect, said "You can alter the ticket" but later added "although only in a particular way at a particular time." Virgin Trains East Coast, by contrast, are much clearer.
His advice is to take FGW to County Court and given the arrogance of the responses from FGW I really think this might be a good idea - if only as a public service (the tickets weren't that expensive).
My only hesitation is that I would be surprised if I'm the first person either to experience this issue or to do something about it. Am I right to be surprised?
Before I start, I appreciate that newbies on Internet forums often miss the basics so I want to be clear that I know Advance tickets are not refundable (unlike this guy )
I bought an Advance ticket on FGW but fell ill the morning of the trip. "No problem," I thought. "I haven't collected the tickets and it's a regular journey so I'll just pay £10 to change the date."
Only, I couldn't. FGW's website didn't offer that option. In response to my question of 'why?', FGW later wrote back saying that amendments can only be made on-line within 5 days of the journey otherwise they have to be made at the station, which wasn't really an option with D&V... hock:
Trouble is, that restriction isn't stated anywhere. And I know it isn't stated anywhere both because I couldn't find it in the T&Cs and also because FGW said as much! Their response has basically been 'We know we don't tell you about the restrictions but we don't think they're important (so go away).'.
The opinion of a solicitor friend is that this is "a material alteration to the original contract" since those restrictions weren't offered or even available at the time of purchase. FGW have, in effect, said "You can alter the ticket" but later added "although only in a particular way at a particular time." Virgin Trains East Coast, by contrast, are much clearer.
His advice is to take FGW to County Court and given the arrogance of the responses from FGW I really think this might be a good idea - if only as a public service (the tickets weren't that expensive).
My only hesitation is that I would be surprised if I'm the first person either to experience this issue or to do something about it. Am I right to be surprised?