FixMyTransport: Give free wifi if a train journey is longer than scheduled.

Description

Alex Lee Thomson

If your train is taking longer than scheduled - anything longer than 45 minutes - it would be a nice gesture to supply people with free wifi for the remainder of the journey, or if they've already paid for a certain amount of Wifi, to extend that service at no additional cost.

This is rather than paying for a Wifi usage, and it running out because of delays, forcing you to pay again.

This would cost train providers nothing / virtually nothing and a nice gesture. Nothing more than good customer service really.

Comment

Problem History

Expand All Collapse all

1 Alex Lee Thomson reported the issue on FixMyTransport. close 17:46 27 Aug 2011 #
2 Alex Lee Thomson wrote to Virgin Trains close 17:46 27 Aug 2011 #

Here is the letter that Alex Lee Thomson wrote.

Delayed Journey / Wifi Issue

My four hour train journey, during which I paid for three hours of Wifi, became a five and a half hour one, so I emailed to ask for an extra hour on them, to which they said no. I then had to pay for another hour (as I had to continue working) at nearly as much as the three hours I initially paid. If my train journey is made an hour and a half longer, it would be a nice gesture to give me an extra hour's internet use - surely this costs them nothing. Nice gestures / customer satisfaction is clearly not on their list of priorities.
3 Relations, Customer responded to Alex Lee Thomson close 17:55 27 Aug 2011 #

Thank you for contacting us.

This is an automated email acknowledgement confirming receipt of
your email.

We will respond again shortly.

Regards,

Customer Relations
Virgin Trains.

show quoted sections

________________________________
****************************************************************************************
The information in this email is confidential and/or privileged
and intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it is
addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not
read, use, copy, print or disseminate the information - please
advise the originator immediately by reply e-mail and delete it.
Although this email and any attachments are believed to be free
of any virus, or any other defect which might affect any
computer or IT system into which they are received and opened,
it is the responsibility of the recipient to ensure that they
are virus free and no responsibility is accepted by Virgin
Trains for any loss or damage arising in any way from receipt or
use thereof.

Any opinions expressed in this email message are those of the
sender and do not represent those of Virgin Trains or affiliated
Companies in any way and reliance should not be placed upon its
contents. Unless otherwise stated this email message is not
intended to be contractually binding. Where an Agreement exists
between our respective companies and there is conflict between
the contents of this email message and the Agreement then the
terms of that Agreement shall prevail

Thank you

[email address]

Virgin Trains is the trading name for West Coast Trains Limited
(a subsidiary of Virgin Rail Group Ltd), a company registered in
England and
Wales (number 3007940) whose registered office is at The School
House, 50 Brook Green. London. W6 7RR
****************************************************************************************

This message has been scanned for malware by Websense.
[1]www.websense.com

References

Visible links
1. http://www.websense.com/

Thank you for contacting us.

This is an automated email acknowledgement confirming receipt of
your email.

We will respond again shortly.

Regards,

Customer Relations
Virgin Trains.

*************************************************************************
The information in this email is confidential and/or privileged
and intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it is
addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not
read, use, copy, print or disseminate the information - please
advise the originator immediately by reply e-mail and delete it.
Although this email and any attachments are believed to be free
of any virus, or any other defect which might affect any
computer or IT system into which they are received and opened,
it is the responsibility of the recipient to ensure that they
are virus free and no responsibility is accepted by Virgin
Trains for any loss or damage arising in any way from receipt or
use thereof.

Any opinions expressed in the e-mail are those of the individual
and not necessarily those of Virgin Trains or affiliated
Companies.

Thank you
[email address]

Virgin Trains is the trading name for West Coast Trains Limited
(a subsidiary of Virgin Rail Group Ltd), a company registered in
England and Wales (number 3007940) whose registered office is at
The School House, 50 Brook Green. London. W6 7RR

*************************************************************************

________________________________
****************************************************************************************
The information in this email is confidential and/or privileged
and intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it is
addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not
read, use, copy, print or disseminate the information - please
advise the originator immediately by reply e-mail and delete it.
Although this email and any attachments are believed to be free
of any virus, or any other defect which might affect any
computer or IT system into which they are received and opened,
it is the responsibility of the recipient to ensure that they
are virus free and no responsibility is accepted by Virgin
Trains for any loss or damage arising in any way from receipt or
use thereof.

Any opinions expressed in this email message are those of the
sender and do not represent those of Virgin Trains or affiliated
Companies in any way and reliance should not be placed upon its
contents. Unless otherwise stated this email message is not
intended to be contractually binding. Where an Agreement exists
between our respective companies and there is conflict between
the contents of this email message and the Agreement then the
terms of that Agreement shall prevail

Thank you

[email address]

Virgin Trains is the trading name for West Coast Trains Limited
(a subsidiary of Virgin Rail Group Ltd), a company registered in
England and
Wales (number 3007940) whose registered office is at The School
House, 50 Brook Green. London. W6 7RR
****************************************************************************************

This message has been scanned for malware by Websense.
[1]www.websense.com

References

Visible links
1. http://www.websense.com/

hide quoted sections
4 Peter Dixon commented close 21:26 28 Aug 2011 #

This is a great idea Alex.

anorak

admin
5 Paul Minett commented close 11:11 30 Aug 2011 #

You've got wifi on your trains?
6 Tom Steinberg commented close 22:18 30 Aug 2011 #

Hi Alex,

I'm a regular virgin traveller, like you, and I think this is a fine idea.

If I was in your shoes, I'd print out a few hand-bodged slips of paper on them, with the URL of your page, and the next time you're on a train running late, just hand one to the nearest person you can see with a laptop.

I did a really simple version for someone else here:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/236762/javier.pdf

Not exactly graphic design genius, but in the right situation, cool. And the URL will work on a mobile phone too. You could even add a QR code if you were super fancy.

tara,

Tom

anorak

admin
7 Virgin Trains responded to Alex Lee Thomson close 14:32 05 Sep 2011 #

Attachments:
image001.jpg.gif

Dear Mr A Lee,

Thank you for your email which we received on 27 August 2011.
Your comments have been entered into our case management system
under reference 4-2062722 and we will respond to you as soon as
possible,

If it is an urgent matter, however, you may wish to give us a
call on 0845 000 8000 quoting the above reference. In the
meantime, we will do our utmost to arrange a swift response.

Regards

Virgin Trains Customer Relations Team

show quoted sections

This message has been scanned for malware by Websense.
[1]www.websense.com

References

Visible links
1. http://www.websense.com/

Attachments:
image001.jpg.gif

Dear Mr A Lee,

Thank you for your email which we received on 27 August 2011.
Your comments have been entered into our case management system
under reference 4-2062722 and we will respond to you as soon as
possible,

If it is an urgent matter, however, you may wish to give us a
call on 0845 000 8000 quoting the above reference. In the
meantime, we will do our utmost to arrange a swift response.

Regards

Virgin Trains Customer Relations Team

***************************************************************************************************

The information in this email is confidential and/or privileged
and intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it is
addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not
read, use, copy, print or disseminate the information - please
advise the originator immediately by reply e-mail and delete it.
Although this email and any attachments are believed to be free
of any virus, or any other defect which might affect any
computer or IT system into which they are received and opened,
it is the responsibility of the recipient to ensure that they
are virus free and no responsibility is accepted by Virgin
Trains for any loss or damage arising in any way from receipt or
use thereof.

Any opinions expressed in the e-mail are those of the individual
and not necessarily those of Virgin Trains or affiliated
Companies.

Thank you

[email address]

***************************************************************************************************

This message has been scanned for malware by Websense.
[1]www.websense.com

References

Visible links
1. http://www.websense.com/

hide quoted sections
8 Ian Morley commented close 13:42 14 Sep 2011 #

Great idea - I regularly travel between Manchester and London and approx 50% of trains I travel on have some sort of delay.

It would be helpful also if Virgin could ensure robustness of the wi-fi service - it only seems to work on every other train and enable sufficient bandwidth to ensure fast download speeds.....
9 Myf Nixon commented close 14:42 14 Sep 2011 #

Gosh, this one's taking a while to get a response, isn't it?

anorak

admin
10 Spencer Hudson commented close 20:31 15 Sep 2011 #

don't think they like the idea of losing money and customer service
11 Virgin Trains responded to Alex Lee Thomson close 13:08 19 Sep 2011 #

Attachments:
image001.jpg.gif

Dear Mr Lee,

Thank you very much for your E-mail of 27 August 2011 received
via FixMyTransport.com.

I was sorry to learn of the delay to your journey and can
understand your frustration at being unable to continue working
online without making further payment to access our wifi
service. Unfortunately this is not something we are able to
offer at present but I have passed your suggestion to the team
responsible for future consideration.

We do offer our customers compensation in line with our
Passengers Charter for delays and if you can send your tickets
for this journey to me at the following address, I will be happy
to arrange this for you. Please also confirm the date and time
of the train you caught, quoting the above reference number on
any further correspondence and also provide your postal address.

Virgin Trains

Customer Relations

Freepost BM 6613

PO Box 713

Birmingham

B5 4HH

Thank you for taking the time to contact us and I look forward
to receiving the requested information.

Yours sincerely

Sarah Brassington

Customer Relations

show quoted sections

This message has been scanned for malware by Websense.
[1]www.websense.com

References

Visible links
1. http://www.websense.com/

Attachments:
image001.jpg.gif

Dear Mr Lee,

Thank you very much for your E-mail of 27 August 2011 received
via FixMyTransport.com.

I was sorry to learn of the delay to your journey and can
understand your frustration at being unable to continue working
online without making further payment to access our wifi
service. Unfortunately this is not something we are able to
offer at present but I have passed your suggestion to the team
responsible for future consideration.

We do offer our customers compensation in line with our
Passengers Charter for delays and if you can send your tickets
for this journey to me at the following address, I will be happy
to arrange this for you. Please also confirm the date and time
of the train you caught, quoting the above reference number on
any further correspondence and also provide your postal address.

Virgin Trains

Customer Relations

Freepost BM 6613

PO Box 713

Birmingham

B5 4HH

Thank you for taking the time to contact us and I look forward
to receiving the requested information.

Yours sincerely

Sarah Brassington

Customer Relations

***************************************************************************************************

The information in this email is confidential and/or privileged
and intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it is
addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, you must not
read, use, copy, print or disseminate the information - please
advise the originator immediately by reply e-mail and delete it.
Although this email and any attachments are believed to be free
of any virus, or any other defect which might affect any
computer or IT system into which they are received and opened,
it is the responsibility of the recipient to ensure that they
are virus free and no responsibility is accepted by Virgin
Trains for any loss or damage arising in any way from receipt or
use thereof.

Any opinions expressed in the e-mail are those of the individual
and not necessarily those of Virgin Trains or affiliated
Companies.

Thank you

[email address]

***************************************************************************************************

This message has been scanned for malware by Websense.
[1]www.websense.com

References

Visible links
1. http://www.websense.com/

hide quoted sections
12 Andrew Wilson commented close 20:33 25 Oct 2011 #

The VT reply is so weirdly vague!
13 Peter Dixon commented close 21:22 25 Oct 2011 #

Actually it is very clear. They have stated that they are sorry that Alex Lee Thomson did not get WiFi for his full journey, as he stated in his email to them, has stated that they will pass his idea to the appropriate team and to ask him to send his details for a refund (delay/repay).

Good on Virgin Trains for using this site and taking advantage of it unlike some other operators.

anorak

admin
14 Anna Smith commented close 22:06 25 Oct 2011 #

@Peter - Virgin haven't actually apologised for the lack of WiFi, just for the original delay.

Nor do they appear to have offered to refund the extra cost of the WiFi caused by the delay, just the original cost of the tickets (at least, I'm assuming that, as they don't ask for WiFi receipts).

And "I have passed your suggestion to the team responsible" doesn't sound especially promising - couldn't we at least know which team it was?
15 Charles Cope commented close 09:46 10 Mar 2012 #

It's the least Virgin can do. I think also it should be compulsory to give rail vouchers when the train is delayed. When BR used to run this service, and I had to go to London a lot, I got rail vouchers on every other journey because of delays. When the line was privatized, they stopped doing that.
16 Nathan Phillips commented close 19:39 25 Sep 2012 #

Virgin *do* give rail vouchers when the train is delayed by a certain amount - and it *is* compulsary (though you do have to ask).

The limits will become more generous with the new franchise in line with other rail companies who operate the "Delay Repay" scheme.