Unexpected negative of CrossCountry no fee ticket changes

[dmncf]

I was prompted to post this by reading this thread comparing booking sites (https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...-advance-fares-loading-smartcards-etc.290766/) but I'll post this as a new thread rather than hijack that one.

I'm a bit disappointed by an unexpected negative of the CrossCountry website & app that I have encountered today. I want to change an Advance ticket that my Mum has bought in the same transaction as another Advance ticket. It was a return journey and she no longer needs the Advance ticket that would have formed the 'outward leg'. The CrossCountry website & app will allow me to change this Advance ticket... but only to a date that's before the Advance ticket that would have formed the 'return leg'; CrossCountry is treating it like a return ticket even though it's two Advance singles. If my Mum had bought them in two separate transactions, this £38.60 ticket could have been salvaged by changing it to a useful future date, but that's now impossible.

I had considered changing both of the Advance tickets to future dates, i.e. changing both the 'outward leg' and the 'return leg'. But I would then need to buy a new ticket for the 'return leg' and prices have increased since my Mum bought the original 'return leg' ticket, so this compares badly to losing the £38.60 'outward leg' ticket.

 

[yorkie]

Your best bet is to contact XC about this: sales.support.crosscountry@trainsfares.co.uk

Let us know what they say.

TOCs are very keen to entice people to book with them, rather than through the forum's ticketing site, but this can have downsides, with poorer levels of customer service.

 

[dmncf]

Thanks for the suggestion. I always support the forum when I buy tickets for immediate use.

So far, my Mum's engagement with CrossCountry sales support is not going well!

My Mum forwarded to them her booking confirmation email, adding an explanation above it of why she needed help, the existing ticket she wanted changed, the new journey she wanted, and adding that the new ticket would be cheaper than the existing ticket - so hopefully nice and simple.

A CrossCountry sales support operative replied to ask for the twelve digit transaction ID, which seemed odd because my Mum put that on the first line of her email, and it was shown three times in the booking confirmation email below. But when she scrolled down, she saw that all the instances of the twelve digit transaction ID had changed, so the first eight digits were replaced by the letter X.

We guessed that CrossCountry's computer systems must deliberately redact long numbers, perhaps to reduce the risk of bank card numbers being transferred or stored (particularly the risk of them being transferred outside of the EU?).

Anyway, we assumed that the CrossCountry sales support operative was confident that the same wouldn't happen to my Mum's follow-up email, but of course it did!

My Mum has now sent a follow-up email in which she spelt out the twelve digit transaction ID in words. That was her initiative, not the CrossCountry sales support operative! Oh dear.

 

[PG]

My Mum has now sent a follow-up email in which she spelt out the twelve digit transaction ID in words. That was her initiative, not the CrossCountry sales support operative! Oh dear.

Ahh, the lost art of cheque writing where you had to detail the amount using words as well as numerals!

 

[dmncf]

It has taken four emails from my Mum and four emails from CrossCountry sales support operatives to reach this point:

I understand you would like to change the booking.

Upon checking the booking details under your transaction ID, I see that you have purchased Advance Single tickets and these tickets are non refundable but amendable.

As email support team we so not have the ability to make the changes on the booking. I request you to contact out telesales team with the below mentioned contact details as they will be able to assist you further with the change.

Contact number: 0844 811 0124
IVR Option: 1
Opening hours: Monday - Sunday (08:00 - 22:00)

I hope the above information is helpful.

That's rather frustrating, since they could have figured this out from my Mum's first email, which was very clear that it involved Advance tickets. Instead there have been two emails about them trying to receive the Transaction ID from us. And there was an email in which they talked about refunds... I think perhaps they've only just realised that my Mum's request cannot be resolved by refunding the existing ticket and buying a new one.

 

[yorkie]

Thanks for letting us know how this is going; hopefully at the next stage it can be resolved. Let us know how it goes!

This demonstrates the problem with retailers that entice people with either fee-free changes, or cashback etc; there is insufficient commission paid to enable retailers to employ a suitably sized team of competent customer support staff.

If people want to choose retailers with those attributes, over our site, that's their choice, but I am going to recommend people read threads such as this one, so they can make an informed choice!

 

[ess]

0844 phone numbers cost ££. You could try 0121 200 6450 instead

 

[Watershed]

This demonstrates the problem with retailers that entice people with either fee-free changes, or cashback etc; there is insufficient commission paid to enable retailers to employ a suitably sized team of competent customer support staff.

I'm not sure I necessarily agree with that. Different retailers have different models and the level of customer service provided isn't always proportional to the fees charged. Trainline charges booking fees but you are getting very little customer service in exchange for them!

 

[redreni]

I'm not sure I necessarily agree with that. Different retailers have different models and the level of customer service provided isn't always proportional to the fees charged. Trainline charges booking fees but you are getting very little customer service in exchange for them!

The fees charged enable them to employ an adequate customer support team. That they choose not to doesn't change that!

 

[mb]

Crosscountry's website couldn't exchange an Advance ticket from EUS via NMP to BHM and kept forcing me to buy an Avanti (with a big price difference). I wanted the same train, but just a week later.

They refunded my ticket in the end as they couldn't do it either.

 

[dmncf]

My Mum phoned CrossCountry and they changed her outward Advance ticket, no problem, and no charge because the new ticket was cheaper than the original.
There's a definitely a lesson here, to not buy two Advance singles as a return journey; just buy them in separate transactions. This is what I have always done even though I was unaware of this pitfall until now.
Just some background about why I'm wedded to using CrossCountry to buy tickets: it's my boss's fault! I buy long distance train tickets to travel, stay for a few nights, and work in my office when my boss is there and we have a team meeting. But my boss is always changing his plans, his calendar is full of tentative meetings, and he moves team meetings around at short notice. Consequently, I make a lot of changes to train tickets, and buying from CrossCountry suits my circumstances.

 

[styles]

My Mum phoned CrossCountry and they changed her outward Advance ticket, no problem, and no charge because the new ticket was cheaper than the original.

Glad to hear it got resolved, even if it was a faff

There's a definitely a lesson here, to not buy two Advance singles as a return journey; just buy them in separate transactions.

I'd have thought the lesson here would be that XC need to change their software to allow the customer to do this without emailing and ringing round.

This is what I have always done even though I was unaware of this pitfall until now.
Just some background about why I'm wedded to using CrossCountry to buy tickets: it's my boss's fault! I buy long distance train tickets to travel, stay for a few nights, and work in my office when my boss is there and we have a team meeting. But my boss is always changing his plans, his calendar is full of tentative meetings, and he moves team meetings around at short notice. Consequently, I make a lot of changes to train tickets, and buying from CrossCountry suits my circumstances.

TfW also offer fee-free Advance changes. Not sure if their software for it is any better mind.

 

[redreni]

As did Railsmartr last time I checked.

Booking a journey back from Altrincham to zones U1234 London recently, CrossCountry tried to charge me a fee for choosing ToD collection even though the rail industry doesn't offer anything else (other than delivery by post) for that particular ticket. That's the sort of thing that puts me off a retailer.

If there's no way to buy the ticket without paying the fee and the fee only appears on the final screen before you commit to payment, I don't see how or why that isn't drip pricing? It surely cannot matter that this isn't true of all tickets (i.e. the fee can be avoided for many tickets); what matters is that there are a lot of tickets where the fee cannot be avoided and the fee is not disclosed until late on in the buying process.

 

[Haywain]

CrossCountry tried to charge me a fee for choosing ToD collection even though the rail industry doesn't offer anything else (other than delivery by post) for that particular ticket. That's the sort of thing that puts me off a retailer.

Retailers are supposed to offer a free delivery method, and my understanding is that CrossCountry only charge for ToD when other methods are available.

 

[redreni]

Retailers are supposed to offer a free delivery method, and my understanding is that CrossCountry only charge for ToD when other methods are available.

Well it wasn't the case last December. The options were ToD or post, both of which had a fee attached. Perhaps it's been fixed by now.

If I wanted to check, I'd have to go through to the last screen before payment, which I'm unlikely to do when there are other retailers who also offer fee-free changes.