Seatfrog price increase

[Leisurefirst]

Just seen (via a misleading IMHO advert trying to make it look attractive, doesn't mention it's just the upgrade price) that Seatfrog upgrades Euston to Glasgow are now £55 (£58 Inc the - ahem - "platform fee").
Bye bye

 

[sh24]

Is that from Standard to First? If so, £14.50 per hour doesn't seem that bad value for a comfy seat and some snacks.

 

[Leisurefirst]

Is that from Standard to First? If so, £14.50 per hour doesn't seem that bad value for a comfy seat and some snacks.

Yes, but a 57% increase and then advertising like it's all inclusive (I thought it was a great deal at first glance...)

 

[yorkie]

Just seen (via a misleading IMHO advert trying to make it look attractive, doesn't mention it's just the upgrade price) that Seatfrog upgrades Euston to Glasgow are now £55 (£58 Inc the - ahem - "platform fee").
Bye bye

Drip feeding as done by Seatfrog isn't lawful. Take a PDF copy of all your receipts and, once the value of the sum of the fees reaches a considerable sum, put in a claim for the amount back. Go back through your records, create a folder, and save all your receipts into it.

The ORR are aware of Seatfrog's antics, but so far haven't acted.

Good evidence the "platform fee" isn't really that, include:

• no fee applies to "swap" trains on advance fares
• the fee applies per ticket, not per transaction

At some point, once loads of us have claims worth a reasonable amount each, we could look into the possibility of working together, to improve our chances of reaching a settlement or, if none is forthcoming, there are lawyers on this forum who may be able to assist.

 

[Failed Unit]

Very interesting @yorkie. I have stopped using them out principle, but the platform fee is exceptionally irritating as they claim it is to help man phone lines etc.

I have had 2 situations where I struggled to get support from Seat Frog.
1. Put in bid auction bids on a day return (Stevenage - Lincoln) - My return auction closed early so they had the money. Due to issues on the ECML I didn't travel, I couldn't cancel the auction that closed early and seat frog didn't respond to any emails. LNER refunded the upgrade.
2. Travelling from Edinburgh - Stevenage. May southbound train was heavily delayed so I couldn't make my connection at York. My upgrade was only York - Stevenage. Again, Seatfrog didn't respond to any emails and LNER refunded in the end.

Maybe my misunderstanding but my contract is wtih Seatfrog so surely they should deal with refund and claim from LNER?

Both of these incidents happened close together, so the app was deleted at that point. Shortly after the platform fee was introduced. I expected with a specific £3 charge they would at least respond to emails...

 

[sh24]

Yes, but a 57% increase and then advertising like it's all inclusive (I thought it was a great deal at first glance...)

Ah, I can see that percentage increase is a bit of a downer.

 

[yorkie]

Very interesting @yorkie. I have stopped using them out principle, but the platform fee is exceptionally irritating as they claim it is to help man phone lines etc.

I have had 2 situations where I struggled to get support from Seat Frog.
1. Put in bid auction bids on a day return (Stevenage - Lincoln) - My return auction closed early so they had the money. Due to issues on the ECML I didn't travel, I couldn't cancel the auction that closed early and seat frog didn't respond to any emails. LNER refunded the upgrade.
2. Travelling from Edinburgh - Stevenage. May southbound train was heavily delayed so I couldn't make my connection at York. My upgrade was only York - Stevenage. Again, Seatfrog didn't respond to any emails and LNER refunded in the end.

Did you get the "platform fee" back from LNER?

I wonder if LNER took the hit, or if they got it back from Seatfrog.

Keep all this evidence as it could be useful one day.

Maybe my misunderstanding but my contract is wtih Seatfrog so surely they should deal with refund and claim from LNER?

Both of these incidents happened close together, so the app was deleted at that point. Shortly after the platform fee was introduced. I expected with a specific £3 charge they would at least respond to emails...

Indeed.

Though I also expect the level of support should be the same for a seat swap as an upgrade, and there is no fee for the former.

They are on dodgy ground and I would highly recommend everyone who uses them to log all their evidence and keep records of any fees charged and poor customer service.

Perhaps this could be the next class action claim...

 

[Failed Unit]

Yes - LNER refunded the platform fee. I gave LNER quiet a hard time as I felt seatfrog were damaging their brand. LNER didn't resist too hard to be honest so I suspect they claimed it back from somewhere, even if it was network rail as the reason for the issues. Absolutely I will keep all evidence. The £3 fee irritated me as it is not avoidable so in my option should just be added to the headline price. But The lack of customer care lost me as a customer. However I suspect one lost customer isn't going to bother them while they still have lots that are more than happy to pay their fees. I have seen on other threads the upgrades as not that cheap anymore.

 

[Tazi Hupefi]

Drip feeding as done by Seatfrog isn't lawful. Take a PDF copy of all your receipts and, once the value of the sum of the fees reaches a considerable sum, put in a claim for the amount back. Go back through your records, create a folder, and save all your receipts into it.

The ORR are aware of Seatfrog's antics, but so far haven't acted.

Good evidence the "platform fee" isn't really that, include:

• no fee applies to "swap" trains on advance fares
• the fee applies per ticket, not per transaction

At some point, once loads of us have claims worth a reasonable amount each, we could look into the possibility of working together, to improve our chances of reaching a settlement or, if none is forthcoming, there are lawyers on this forum who may be able to assist.

ORR are content with the platform fees and endorses Seatfrog's work to make them more transparent. They are no longer investigating, so you appear to be a bit out of the loop there, I'm afraid.

Unless you are going to get lawyers involved, and years of back and forth, it's unlikely that your argument will have any prospects of success in the near term. It is not unlawful or improper to charge fees, it is about making them transparent. Seatfrog appears to have satisfied the regulator that, as a matter of law, they are transparent, at least now the changes have been implemented.

Correspondence with Seatfrog regarding the transparency of online rail ticket fees | Office of Rail and Road

www.orr.gov.uk

Seatfrog has implemented the actions necessary to address our concerns. As your
systems and processes evolve over time, we expect you to continue to provide
appropriate transparency about fees to your customers.

 

[Vexed]

I have seen on other threads the upgrades as not that cheap anymore.

Not just a reply to you, but yes Seatfrog generally isn't the great deal is used to be.

I managed to get a £13 including platform fee upgrade for a Cross Country from Southampton to Birmingham recently which was good (2 hr 30 min). If only this pricing was the same on Avanti and LNER!

 

[yorkie]

ORR are wrong, in that case. This isn't surprising; the ORR are utterly useless.

The price is not shown in the headline price, and that is wrong.

Again, I urge people to retain receipts and correspondence.

 

[mad_rich]

One rather annoying experience with Seatfrog was when I was bidding on an upgrade for a London-Newcastle journey for which I had a flexible ticket.

Obviously, while my Seatfrog bid was 'active', the flexibilty of my ticket was nulled - I was effectively committed to the journey I'd bid on, while I was in limbo, waiting to see if I won.

That's perfectly fair, it was my choice to bid. But what annoyed me was that the auction didn't end by my winning or losing. It ended with 'no upgrades available'. It felt rather unfair keeping my in limbo like that when I didn't have any chance of winning.

In the financial world, nobody gives a 'free option'. But that's what Seatfrog conned me into.

 

[Failed Unit]

One rather annoying experience with Seatfrog was when I was bidding on an upgrade for a London-Newcastle journey for which I had a flexible ticket.

Obviously, while my Seatfrog bid was 'active', the flexibilty of my ticket was nulled - I was effectively committed to the journey I'd bid on, while I was in limbo, waiting to see if I won.

That's perfectly fair, it was my choice to bid. But what annoyed me was that the auction didn't end by my winning or losing. It ended with 'no upgrades available'. It felt rather unfair keeping my in limbo like that when I didn't have any chance of winning.

In the financial world, nobody gives a 'free option'. But that's what Seatfrog conned me into.

From how I understand it works, is that if someone paid for the immediate upgrade, then you would get the message.

The one I have never understood is why the auction could end early. Granted I have won it, but with 12 hours to go if I bid £10 surely they could find someone prepared to bid £11. Unless the £10 for the upgrade plus what I had already paid for the ticket took it above the market price of the 1st class ticket.

 

[Aaron1]

I have not used Seatfrog since the Platform fee was introduced, mainly out of principle, but the most I paid for a seatfrog upgrade in the past was £12, and several upgrades for just £10, and considering the distances i travelled on these upgrades I considered them as excellent value, the highlight being when I wined and dined on a LNER 225 from Leeds to Kings Cross for a tenner, I had a meal and 4 cans of their hop on board Ale, absolute bargain.

And even if I paid a £3 platform fee on all of these, the most i still would have paid would have been £15 in total, again still good value, but the principle of it was that the platform fee of £3, if i had paid £12, the platform fee is 25% there! And for the £10 upgrades that would equate it of £30.

Anyway I had a quick look at Seatfrog over the last year and I noticed it is not the excellent deal it was, and not that I ever go for this option as I generally am happy with standard class, I found it cheaper to actually upgrade with the train operator directly on several occasions.

 

[Jimini]

I have not used Seatfrog since the Platform fee was introduced, mainly out of principle, but the most I paid for a seatfrog upgrade in the past was £12, and several upgrades for just £10, and considering the distances i travelled on these upgrades I considered them as excellent value, the highlight being when I wined and dined on a LNER 225 from Leeds to Kings Cross for a tenner, I had a meal and 4 cans of their hop on board Ale, absolute bargain.

And even if I paid a £3 platform fee on all of these, the most i still would have paid would have been £15 in total, again still good value, but the principle of it was that the platform fee of £3, if i had paid £12, the platform fee is 25% there! And for the £10 upgrades that would equate it of £30.

Anyway I had a quick look at Seatfrog over the last year and I noticed it is not the excellent deal it was, and not that I ever go for this option as I generally am happy with standard class, I found it cheaper to actually upgrade with the train operator directly on several occasions.

My bold.

In my personal experience with very limited TOCs, I'd say:

• Avanti nipped it in the bud pretty quickly a couple of years ago when they went down the Standard Premium route. Prior to that and when Seatfrog first launched, I regularly upgraded for £11 straight to first class from Euston to the West Midlands. I haven't checked for a fair old while now, but last time I did I think the upgrades started at ~£35 each way. Ta ta, Seatfrog.

• GWR -- only used it once on a long distance journey from Paddington to Newquay (FC ending at Par for the onward connection). V expensive for shorter journeys. Ta ta, Seatfrog.

• Now this one is the interesting one (why am I shouting about this on a public forum, I hear you cry?). I use XC from Reading to Coventry a couple of times a month, and generally speaking I pay ~£13 for a FC upgrade. When you take into account the savings from splitting at Banbury, it's essentially cost-neutral. Also add to the scenario that the Reading <> Birmingham corridor is hideously overcrowded most of the time, it's a no-brainer for me.

Closing comments: agree with @yorkie , I've been parking my Seatfrog receipts ever since the "platform fee" came in. Egregious behaviour.