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Seatfrog upgrade on late-night train
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bcarmicle
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I don't know about how likely you'd be, but you are only charged if you successfully win the auction.
You won't know unless you try!
Bear in mind they add a £3 platform fee to your bid so if you win it'll actually cost you £11. Just set your bid at £8 and see what happens, you're only charged in the event that you win. You can see if someone bids more than you and decide whether to increase your bid.
Bear in mind they add a £3 platform fee to your bid so if you win it'll actually cost you £11. Just set your bid at £8 and see what happens, you're only charged in the event that you win. You can see if someone bids more than you and decide whether to increase your bid.
_toommm_
Established Member
They pre-authorise the card for £0.00 to check it's valid, but won't charge you unless you win. As above you'll have a £3.00 'platform fee'. But I don't think it's worth paying more than £15.00 (with the platform fee).
Be aware there will be no refreshments offered at that time.
Unlikely to be worth much at that time, but if you don't win, you pay nothing.
Anyone who pays the £3 fee should take screenshots and also save a copy of the receipt.
Seatfrog are not allowed to perform 'drip pricing', so the fees can be claimed back.
The company will deny it, and assume that people will give up over £3, so regular users may want to save all their receipts in a safe place, and submit a claim once the fees reach a more substantial level.
I've not put my claim in yet, but will be doing so in due course, as I'm sure will others.
Anyone who pays the £3 fee should take screenshots and also save a copy of the receipt.
Seatfrog are not allowed to perform 'drip pricing', so the fees can be claimed back.
The company will deny it, and assume that people will give up over £3, so regular users may want to save all their receipts in a safe place, and submit a claim once the fees reach a more substantial level.
I've not put my claim in yet, but will be doing so in due course, as I'm sure will others.
Indeed — I’m up to roughly £250 now.
Incidentally, I reported the matter to ORR over a year ago and I see they have finally published the outcome in March.
Seatfrog replied with nonsense and a clear attempt to mislead ORR.
The ORR accepted the misinformation and plans to take no action, and therefore Seatfrog feel emboldened to continue to engage in drip pricing.
I have plenty of evidence of wrongdoing by Seatfrog and would welcome anyone at ORR contacting me if they would like this evidence.
It's worth noting that Seatfrog erroneously calls this a 'platform fee', yet charges per upgrade, so two passengers means two fees!
There is no fee to use their platform for swaps.
Seatfrog try to blame train companies for the fees, however Seatfrog choose not to issue fees for swaps but to charge fees for upgrades, because they know that it's a value added product and that enough people will pay it to make the fee viable.
If anyone was to take this to court, the providing they had sufficient legal knowledge and also knowledge of the rail ticketing system and sufficient evidence of what Seatfrog are up to, I can certainly envisage Seatfrog losing a case.
If any solicitors are resting this and are interested in pursuing this, please do contact me.
Seatfrog replied with nonsense and a clear attempt to mislead ORR.
The ORR accepted the misinformation and plans to take no action, and therefore Seatfrog feel emboldened to continue to engage in drip pricing.
I have plenty of evidence of wrongdoing by Seatfrog and would welcome anyone at ORR contacting me if they would like this evidence.
It's worth noting that Seatfrog erroneously calls this a 'platform fee', yet charges per upgrade, so two passengers means two fees!
There is no fee to use their platform for swaps.
Seatfrog try to blame train companies for the fees, however Seatfrog choose not to issue fees for swaps but to charge fees for upgrades, because they know that it's a value added product and that enough people will pay it to make the fee viable.
If anyone was to take this to court, the providing they had sufficient legal knowledge and also knowledge of the rail ticketing system and sufficient evidence of what Seatfrog are up to, I can certainly envisage Seatfrog losing a case.
If any solicitors are resting this and are interested in pursuing this, please do contact me.
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I suspect it's a grey area determining at what point the platform fee needs to be mentioned.
E.g. here it is before I get to the checkout screen:
However, that is one step after this overview where it is not mentioned:
Contrast with Ticketmaster where this is the first screen showing me any price and it shows the handling fee up front (and at the top of the screen so it can't be missed):
I reckon it would stand a good chance at court going against SeatFrog. They may have made some changes as recommended by ORR but ORR fundamentally isn't an expert in this area, particularly with SeatFrog being a bit of a novelty in the rail space.
In their response to the ORR they actually break it down into the 3 stages (journey select, bid, purchase). It is shown at bid and purchase stages, but not journey select. Their justification is frankly weak for not including it at journey select stage as it is basically one line of text at the top of the list of journeys which says, "Prices do not include £3 booking fee.", or whatever. That's literally all it needs to be.
E.g. here it is before I get to the checkout screen:
However, that is one step after this overview where it is not mentioned:
Contrast with Ticketmaster where this is the first screen showing me any price and it shows the handling fee up front (and at the top of the screen so it can't be missed):
I reckon it would stand a good chance at court going against SeatFrog. They may have made some changes as recommended by ORR but ORR fundamentally isn't an expert in this area, particularly with SeatFrog being a bit of a novelty in the rail space.
In their response to the ORR they actually break it down into the 3 stages (journey select, bid, purchase). It is shown at bid and purchase stages, but not journey select. Their justification is frankly weak for not including it at journey select stage as it is basically one line of text at the top of the list of journeys which says, "Prices do not include £3 booking fee.", or whatever. That's literally all it needs to be.
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Mainly doing it for the better seat tbh, I'm not willing to spend nearly 4 hours on one of the 80x seats
Absolutely; when the total sum of my claims reach at least £50 or so, I am going to enlist the support of a solicitor to gain my money back. If anyone else is in a similar position, do get in touch, and maybe we can co-ordinate the action against them.
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