Thread by @philkinglondon

Hey @GWRHelp, this is no way to run a railway…
🧵
#gwr #greatwesternrailway @geofftech @pedrojuk

On 7 Sept I used the GWR web site to book two return tickets for travel next week on the 10:04 Paddington to St Austell.
#gwr #greatwesternrailway

Yesterday, I needed to change the outward train to the 08:04, which I realised is peak time, understanding that the difference in price would need to be paid. Should be straightforward, I thought.
#gwr #greatwesternrailway

So I returned to the GWR web site to amend the booking, but couldn’t find how. So I phoned GWR and was told that they couldn’t change the booking over the phone but it could be done via the web site.
#gwr #greatwesternrailway

I was on the GWR web site and still couldn’t find any way to amend my tickets, but then saw a note saying “To change your tickets, you’ll need to visit a staffed GWR ticket office.” The assistant confirmed that I could change the tickets at Paddington.
#gwr #greatwesternrailway

So yesterday I trekked to Paddington and queued at the ticket desk (where only three staff were on duty) and asked to amend my tickets and to pay the difference. But the desk staff said this wasn’t possible, that I would have to buy new tickets.
#gwr #greatwesternrailway

I watched the assistant grapple with the ticket system interface where my original tickets were showing as having been cancelled (no indication why), so couldn’t be printed. But the assistant found a way of un-cancel and print them.
#gwr #greatwesternrailway

I was recommended to buy new advance single tickets for travel on the 08:04 and to post the original outward tickets to GWR for refund. The originals do say they can be refunded or exchanged for a fee; the new tickets say they are *not* refundable.
#gwr #greatwesternrailway

The GWR assistant at Paddington was clear that I could just post the tickets to GWR for free, but he couldn’t provide an address, just that I could find it on their web site.
#gwr #greatwesternrailway

So at this point I have two sets of tickets for outward travel, and one set for return. And I need to claim a refund. But this doesn’t seem right; if I claim a refund for the original tickets, then surely the return tickets can’t be used legitimately.
#gwr #greatwesternrailway

OK, so I still need to claim some sort of refund because I’m out of pocket for the tickets. Going back to the GWR web site, I find that I have to register separately for the “refund portal” as this doesn’t use the same login as the main GWR site.
#gwr #greatwesternrailway

So I registered for the refund portal (which creates an addition problem of managing two logins on the same domain) and entered my details, took photos of my new tickets and uploaded them, then cut the originals in half and uploaded photos of them too.
#gwr #greatwesternrailway

And now I have an email saying GWR “typically respond to your claim within 28 days”. What an utter shambles! All I wanted to do was to change my travel time by two hours. I knew I would need to pay the difference. Couldn’t this have been done online?
#gwr #greatwesternrailway

Also, I’m not sure the return tickets can be used with any legitimacy, but that was exactly the advice I was given at Paddington: to return the outward tickets for a refund and use the return portion.
#gwr #greatwesternrailway

I’ve left out the idiocy that when booking the original tickets on the GWR web site, any railcards must be added at the beginning of the process because there’s no way to add them later or backtrack, the entire booking must be restarted.
#gwr #greatwesternrailway

This was my only experience buying tickets from GWR. It’s been abysmal. My time has been wasted on phone calls and going in person to Paddington. I’m out of pocket for a month, and risk travelling on an illegitimate ticket on the advice of GWR staff.
#gwr #greatwesternrailway

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