Misleading advertising by Trainline

[maniacmartin]

As seen in this attachment, The Train line appear to have bought some Google ads for the term 'National Rail Enquiries'. The advert title has NRE's name even. I think this is very misleading to the public, and clearly underhanded

Things like this might explain why ATOC/TISL applied for those trademarks recently.

 

[LexyBoy]

TheTrainLine misleading? Shurely shome mishtake! I buy all my tickets through them and it's definitely always cheaper - I never look anywhere else. Mind you, I get a great deal as I always pay using money from Wonga.

I think you have hit the nail on the head of the recent trademarkings by ATOC.

 

[fowler9]

As seen in this attachment, The Train line appear to have bought some Google ads for the term 'National Rail Enquiries'. The advert title has NRE's name even. I think this is very misleading to the public, and clearly underhanded

Things like this might explain why ATOC/TISL applied for those trademarks recently.

I would be intrigued to an advert that wasn't missleading by them.

 

[Qwerty133]

This seems to be against Google policy's, but sadly only NRE can complain, and I can't see the standard of English at their Indian call/ social media centre being good enough to explain it to them.

 

[LexyBoy]

I wonder if you could advertise a page "TheTrainLine is ripping you off"* on Google such as it comes up to anyone searching for it, and if so how much it would cost? I'd put a fiver in...

* legal advice required, obviously... but I'd hope you'd be able to put something fairly punchy without treading on dodgy ground.

 

[Qwerty133]

I wonder if you could advertise a page "TheTrainLine is ripping you off"* on Google such as it comes up to anyone searching for it, and if so how much it would cost? I'd put a fiver in...

* legal advice required, obviously... but I'd hope you'd be able to put something fairly punchy without treading on dodgy ground.

No idea if you could do that, but another possible option (again unsure of the exact legalities), would be a survey (linked just from this site) asking 'is the train line good value' and then publicising the results on a sponsored link

 

[andrewkeith5]

I wonder if you could advertise a page "TheTrainLine is ripping you off"* on Google such as it comes up to anyone searching for it, and if so how much it would cost? I'd put a fiver in...

* legal advice required, obviously... but I'd hope you'd be able to put something fairly punchy without treading on dodgy ground.

I wonder what TheTrainLine would try and argue against a large variety of advertisements that said "You'll probably pay more with TheTrainLine"....They could complain to the ASA, but you would most likely be able to back up your statement as true.

Thinking about it, has anyone tried a complaint to the ASA argueing that TTL's advertised savings are misleading because they aren't clearly stating that the products they're comparing are not comparable? One being the flexible ticket and one having relatively severe restrictions on travel?

 

[bb21]

No idea if you could do that, but another possible option (again unsure of the exact legalities), would be a survey (linked just from this site) asking 'is the train line good value' and then publicising the results on a sponsored link

Would people know whether they are getting good value? A lot of them I would suspect probably believe they are.

I think a simple banner telling people to "Avoid thetrainline's fees, use Southern/Chiltern/Virgin instead for the same tickets" would be most to the point.

 

[andrewkeith5]

Would people know whether they are getting good value? A lot of them I would suspect probably believe they are.

I think a simple banner telling people to "Avoid thetrainline's fees, use Southern/Chiltern/Virgin instead for the same tickets" would be most to the point.

You could have an advert that just listed allllll the places where you can get exactly the same ticket, at the same time, for less overall cost? It would be a very long advert mind...but would look good as a visual :P

 

[LexyBoy]

Would people know whether they are getting good value? A lot of them I would suspect probably believe they are.

I think a simple banner telling people to "Avoid thetrainline's fees, use Southern/Chiltern/Virgin instead for the same tickets" would be most to the point.

Or "TOC X - always cheaper than Thetrainline, all the same tickets" - TOC X being whoever agrees to give RailUK the best sales commission But I think TOCs are beginning to do this - they just need to come up as one of the top links for a search for that site.

 

[Merseysider]

As seen in this attachment, The Train line appear to have bought some Google ads for the term 'National Rail Enquiries'. The advert title has NRE's name even. I think this is very misleading to the public, and clearly underhanded

Things like this might explain why ATOC/TISL applied for those trademarks recently.

You're not the only one to take issue with the Trainline and its downright offensive advertising.

I was showing a friend about split ticketing when all of a sudden a rogue Trainline appeared! (see attachment - "Save with the Trainline")

I wonder if you could advertise a page "TheTrainLine is ripping you off"* on Google such as it comes up to anyone searching for it, and if so how much it would cost? I'd put a fiver in...

As would I

 

[Greeby]

I wonder what TheTrainLine would try and argue against a large variety of advertisements that said "You'll probably pay more with TheTrainLine"....They could complain to the ASA, but you would most likely be able to back up your statement as true.

Thinking about it, has anyone tried a complaint to the ASA argueing that TTL's advertised savings are misleading because they aren't clearly stating that the products they're comparing are not comparable? One being the flexible ticket and one having relatively severe restrictions on travel?

Trainline complaining to the ASA about......well, anything really. That would be the pot calling the kettle black

https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Trainline+Advertising+Standards

 

[andrewkeith5]

Trainline complaining to the ASA about......well, anything really. That would be the pot calling the kettle black

https://www.google.co.uk/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Trainline+Advertising+Standards

Would be interesting to see what they now say the basis of their savings claims are.

I don't see why another round of complaints shouldn't focus on the average customer comparing TTL to any other reseller, which is what everyone logically thinks about. Would be interesting to see how they justify those savings...