trainophile
Established Member
Been debating whether to post this or not, but here goes...
Husband almost always enters the fortnightly crossword competition in Rail, and in January he was delighted to receive a letter saying he had won. We elected to travel with East Coast, and pushing our luck a bit decided to do the longest possible journey - Kings Cross to Inverness and back.
We decided to do it in mid-June (i.e. this coming week), and sent off the details in April/early May (can't remember exactly). The original advice said we would receive our chosen tickets two weeks before our travel dates.
About three weeks ago I got a bit anxious and emailed them to ask whether they had received our letter, and was assured by prompt reply that they had, and everything was in hand. The reply now said we'd have our tickets by a week before our travel dates.
Roll on last week, six days to go and still no tickets. I phoned them, only to be advised that one of the admin staff seems to have left (or at least "hasn't worked with us for some time"), and the other is currently in the USA. I left it with the person I spoke to to find out what was happening and get back to me.
By this time we were getting very concerned, having booked non-refundable hotels and our journeys to London and back. Running out of options and with no call back from Rail, I went online and bought Advance 1st tickets, thinking if the others turned up I'd try to change one set or the other, and do the trip again sometime. I phoned Rail and told the person I had dealt with what I'd done, and asked if he could pass on a request that, if the tickets had not in fact been ordered, could we be allowed to choose a different trip another time. He said he couldn't authorise that but would pass it on.
We're off to London tomorrow, and from there to Inverness on Tuesday, so there's no chance of the tickets arriving in time now. I'm so glad I bought some, but rather annoyed that they would have been cheaper if we'd anticipated this problem a few weeks ago.
I'm writing this partly for the benefit of any other winners who might read it, to suggest they don't leave chasing their tickets up until the last minute, and also to ask what readers think I should do now. Is there any point in sending a letter to Rail's chief executive I wonder? Or should we just put it down to experience. I will try to keep hold of our tickets in case there's a chance of reimbursement, but I won't hold my breath.
Maybe they thought we were taking the mick going for such an expensive journey, but when I emailed them they had the opportunity to say "sorry, there's a limit of £££", yet they simply confirmed that everything was in hand.
It's lucky we are in a position to fork out £372 at short notice, other winners might not be able to do so and could lose their holiday.
If moderators think this post is inappropriate please remove it. I have no wish to slag off such an excellent publication as Rail, and I appreciate they seem to have staffing difficulties at present, but we have had a lot of unnecessary stress over this, which has taken the edge off our long-anticipated trip.
Husband almost always enters the fortnightly crossword competition in Rail, and in January he was delighted to receive a letter saying he had won. We elected to travel with East Coast, and pushing our luck a bit decided to do the longest possible journey - Kings Cross to Inverness and back.
We decided to do it in mid-June (i.e. this coming week), and sent off the details in April/early May (can't remember exactly). The original advice said we would receive our chosen tickets two weeks before our travel dates.
About three weeks ago I got a bit anxious and emailed them to ask whether they had received our letter, and was assured by prompt reply that they had, and everything was in hand. The reply now said we'd have our tickets by a week before our travel dates.
Roll on last week, six days to go and still no tickets. I phoned them, only to be advised that one of the admin staff seems to have left (or at least "hasn't worked with us for some time"), and the other is currently in the USA. I left it with the person I spoke to to find out what was happening and get back to me.
By this time we were getting very concerned, having booked non-refundable hotels and our journeys to London and back. Running out of options and with no call back from Rail, I went online and bought Advance 1st tickets, thinking if the others turned up I'd try to change one set or the other, and do the trip again sometime. I phoned Rail and told the person I had dealt with what I'd done, and asked if he could pass on a request that, if the tickets had not in fact been ordered, could we be allowed to choose a different trip another time. He said he couldn't authorise that but would pass it on.
We're off to London tomorrow, and from there to Inverness on Tuesday, so there's no chance of the tickets arriving in time now. I'm so glad I bought some, but rather annoyed that they would have been cheaper if we'd anticipated this problem a few weeks ago.
I'm writing this partly for the benefit of any other winners who might read it, to suggest they don't leave chasing their tickets up until the last minute, and also to ask what readers think I should do now. Is there any point in sending a letter to Rail's chief executive I wonder? Or should we just put it down to experience. I will try to keep hold of our tickets in case there's a chance of reimbursement, but I won't hold my breath.
Maybe they thought we were taking the mick going for such an expensive journey, but when I emailed them they had the opportunity to say "sorry, there's a limit of £££", yet they simply confirmed that everything was in hand.
It's lucky we are in a position to fork out £372 at short notice, other winners might not be able to do so and could lose their holiday.
If moderators think this post is inappropriate please remove it. I have no wish to slag off such an excellent publication as Rail, and I appreciate they seem to have staffing difficulties at present, but we have had a lot of unnecessary stress over this, which has taken the edge off our long-anticipated trip.
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