New Virgin East Coast Website

[BigCj34]

The new VTEC site transferred my £2.50 saved vouchers as £2.00. Not had a response yet and it's been a few days. It should have live chat like the VTWC site.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Looks like Worldline rounded down the voucher values on their report.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[ainsworth74]

And cut out the Virgin speak please, they got away with it on the West Coast for years, but it rings very very hollow for what you're delivering on your route right now.

I don't like it (not my cup of tea, you're a train operator not my best mate!) but good lord it's even more annoying when it's just empty words. I'd be quite happy just ignoring/bearing it if they actually were delivering what they witter on about.

 

[Sleepy]

They must be getting worried : offered me 50% off tickets to sign up !!!

 

[SaveECRewards]

They must be getting worried : offered me 50% off tickets to sign up !!!

Interesting, is it a personal promo code (likely to be a random list of letters and numbers) or something we can all use?

 

[Sleepy]

Interesting, is it a personal promo code (likely to be a random list of letters and numbers) or something we can all use?

This is off all Advance tickets : https://www.virgintrainseastcoast.c...T.mc_id=VTEC_FamilyCampaign_17&WT.mc_ev=click

 

[SaveECRewards]

This is off all Advance tickets : https://www.virgintrainseastcoast.c...T.mc_id=VTEC_FamilyCampaign_17&WT.mc_ev=click

Ah the family promo, I'm hoping they've correctly targeted you as you've booked a mix of adult and child bookings. Unless they've loosened the criteria, you need to have a child on the booking to get the discount

Here's one for 30% they're handing out in Edinburgh. Although it's called Great Scot that just refers to the fact they're promoting it in Scotland.

No railcard discounts and it appears that it's only valid for travel in September or January. More details here.

 

[Sleepy]

Ah the family promo, I'm hoping they've correctly targeted you as you've booked a mix of adult and child bookings. Unless they've loosened the criteria, you need to have a child on the booking to get the discount

Here's one for 30% they're handing out in Edinburgh. Although it's called Great Scot that just refers to the fact they're promoting it in Scotland.

No railcard discounts and it appears that it's only valid for travel in September or January. More details here.

No never booked child tickets via East Coast :roll::roll:

 

[SaveECRewards]

No never booked child tickets via East Coast :roll::roll:

Wow their targeting is poor! Do they not realise that sending people a great sounding offer they don't qualify for leaves a bad impression?

I know when they do the 30% offers they sometimes target people who qualify for a railcard and therefore book all their tickets with a railcard. I've seen annoyed tweets from some people who are happy to see the discount then find out it doesn't benefit them.

 

[cf111]

The new site isn't as good as the old one but I don't usually use it to book tickets anyway, what is annoying is the godawful marketing speak they use in their emails, two particularly grating things from their welcome email:

"friends with benefits"
"the Virgin Trains East Coast Family"

Honestly I never normally get remotely annoyed by stuff like this and I'm ambivalent towards Virgin in general, but for some reason this email really got under my skin, I must be getting grumpier as I get older!

 

[Merseysider]

The new site isn't as good as the old one but I don't usually use it to book tickets anyway, what is annoying is the godawful marketing speak they use in their emails, two particularly grating things from their welcome email:

"friends with benefits"
"the Virgin Trains East Coast Family"

Honestly I never normally get remotely annoyed by stuff like this and I'm ambivalent towards Virgin in general, but for some reason this email really got under my skin, I must be getting grumpier as I get older!

It's not just you!

I'm 23 and find it incredibly cringey - they're a train company, not a pal. It gets very annoying hearing the whole "please don't flush nappies... your ex's sweater, unpaid bills..." play every time I use the loo on VTWC.

 

[47271]

It's not just you!

I'm 23 and find it incredibly cringey - they're a train company, not a pal. It gets very annoying hearing the whole "please don't flush nappies... your ex's sweater, unpaid bills..." play every time I use the loo on VTWC.

The funny thing about this is that I've never been irritated by in on the West Coast, it's sort of gone with a long embedded culture with Virgin and the Pendolinos. And their website isn't anything like as annoying as the one under discussion here.

There's something awkward and forced about it on VTEC. Whatever it is, it isn't working.

 

[Cantab26]

The new site isn't as good as the old one but I don't usually use it to book tickets anyway, what is annoying is the godawful marketing speak they use in their emails, two particularly grating things from their welcome email:

"friends with benefits"
"the Virgin Trains East Coast Family"

Honestly I never normally get remotely annoyed by stuff like this and I'm ambivalent towards Virgin in general, but for some reason this email really got under my skin, I must be getting grumpier as I get older!

The highlighted phrase seems apposite to describe this nonsense: a friend with whom one has sex without a romantic relationship. There's no commitment on either side and the whole thing is really rather sordid.

 

[43094]

Annoyingly the site appears to be down at the moment.

On trying to book tickets on behalf of a friend 10 minutes ago, it refused to give (any) 'advance' ticket options for the journey requested (York - London return on either 6th or 13th October).

Now, after re-loading the site, it doesn't give any options at all - just says;

'Sorry, we encountered an error when searching for your ticket options
Please try another search'

Due to time constraints, I can see tickets being purchased for travel on a competing operator, if it doesn't come back online this afternoon....

 

[Joe Paxton]

Annoyingly the site appears to be down at the moment.

On trying to book tickets on behalf of a friend 10 minutes ago, it refused to give (any) 'advance' ticket options for the journey requested (York - London return on either 6th or 13th October).

Now, after re-loading the site, it doesn't give any options at all - just says;

'Sorry, we encountered an error when searching for your ticket options
Please try another search'

Due to time constraints, I can see tickets being purchased for travel on a competing operator, if it doesn't come back online this afternoon....

I don't think that's actually VTEC's fault.

I've just had problems on both the Chiltern and GWR sites (both run on WebTIS) - GWR just throws up an error, whilst Chiltern shows a message saying it cannot connect to the National Reservation System.

So it's the NRS which is down, or at least being erratic.

 

[43094]

Ah... that's fair enough, cheers. I'll suggest that it might be worth holding off for a bit to see what happens.

Edit: yes, you're right - issues with NRS since (at least) 1530. Thanks for the gen! Will pass on accordingly.

As an aside - the couple of purchases I *have* made since using the new site have worked... but I've found the site 'clunky' and less straightforward than the old one.

Luckily the ticket requirements on those occasions were sufficiently straightforward, to give me reasonable confidence in getting what was needed.

 

[SaveECRewards]

On the "Virgin Train's [sp] East Coast" site, there's now a 'travel buddy' feature in the left frame. Dedicated to being as useful as the app of the same name

Now also added some extra content on the main page.

 

[47271]

On the "Virgin Train's [sp] East Coast" site, there's now a 'travel buddy' feature in the left frame. Dedicated to being as useful as the app of the same name

Now also added some extra content on the main page.

You should also add 'Your reserved coach missing from train formation without notice'.

 

[SaveECRewards]

You should also add 'Your reserved coach missing from train formation without notice'.

That'll be an option on the booking by fax form when it launches

 

[SaveECRewards]

Today as usual many complaining on Twitter. On the callcentre side of things they appear to offer a callback option, but this was so overloaded the mailbox was full which caused more grief for customers.

Helpfully as was hinted by Sir Bobby last week they have changed the message on the phone system telling you want you need to do if you're changing a booking.

 

[91109]

Today as usual many complaining on Twitter. On the callcentre side of things they appear to offer a callback option, but this was so overloaded the mailbox was full which caused more grief for customers.

Helpfully as was hinted by Sir Bobby last week they have changed the message on the phone system telling you want you need to do if you're changing a booking.

Wondered how long it would take for the voicemail to fill up. I know David is VERY aware of what's going on, as he spent some time with us on Friday, and trust me, he wasn't a happy bunny.

 

[Merseysider]

Could this possibly have gone any worse?

 

[SaveECRewards]

Wondered how long it would take for the voicemail to fill up. I know David is VERY aware of what's going on, as he spent some time with us on Friday, and trust me, he wasn't a happy bunny.

Well Kristal has blocked me today so she must be a little on the annoyed side with me.

Thing was all I said today was the menus on the website were still wrong.

Save EC Rewards‏ @SaveECRewards 7 hours ago
@kristalsmile I've mentioned this a few times to @Virgin_TrainsEC the menu rotations are still the wrong way round. This is a hake week!

When the new site launched the menus were incorrect, when they sorted them they had them in the wrong order so the menus were a week out. Fortunately ^SH on Twitter later on passed the message on for me.

Here's something I wrote on Sunday, as someone who actually cares about the east coast I find the whole decline depressing.

 

[westv]

That'll be an option on the booking by fax form when it launches

Can you add booking by telex as well please?

 

[westv]

Wondered how long it would take for the voicemail to fill up. I know David is VERY aware of what's going on, as he spent some time with us on Friday, and trust me, he wasn't a happy bunny.

If David was on the ball should he have been aware problems could happen or was David smoozed by typical IT bull?

 

[91109]

Well Kristal has blocked me today so she must be a little on the annoyed side with me.

Thing was all I said today was the menus on the website were still wrong.

That's just petty. It really is. She should be stepping up and saying "Look, we've messed up the launch, we're very sorry and we're working hard on implementing the missing features" instead of blocking people for pointing out the obvious.

 

[91109]

If David was on the ball should he have been aware problems could happen or was David smoozed by typical IT bull?

Really couldn't offer comment on that, but David, like any other MD is only as good as the information he's given. If Kristal is telling him "all is well" and that the website is a success, he'd have no reason to doubt her, though I'm mindful he'd be aware of the sh*t storm that's been brewing on Twitter, and made the decision to come see us just to see how bad it really is.

 

[SaveECRewards]

Can you add booking by telex as well please?

If we're not too careful it might become genuinely better than the real thing.

BTW I'm trying to get 100 unique hits for the website between 20:00 and 21:00 so any visitors now would be great

http://www.virgintrainseastcoast.uk/

Really couldn't offer comment on that, but David, like any other MD is only as good as the information he's given. If Kristal is telling him "all is well" and that the website is a success, he'd have no reason to doubt her, though I'm mindful he'd be aware of the sh*t storm that's been brewing on Twitter, and made the decision to come see us just to see how bad it really is.

I did try and warn him by tweeting him a link to the article saying they need to put the release on hold, by then it might have been too late, but I'm hoping he did see it and realise that it was no surprise to some what a failure this release would be.

 

[yorkie]

Is there any news on the half-price Super Off Peak Singles?

I know people who want to book 1st Advances one way and the half-price Super Off Peak Singles the other, and I've told them to hold off for now.

 

[SaveECRewards]

Is there any news on the half-price Super Off Peak Singles?

I know people who want to book 1st Advances one way and the half-price Super Off Peak Singles the other, and I've told them to hold off for now.

Let me have a play around, the website was down for upgrade last night...

So as of 08:00 - the online only super off-peak singles are still not showing!
Still no bike reservations either.

So not sure what this upgrade was for that has taken the site down overnight.