The Trainline www.thetrainline.com

I tried claiming compensation from Trainline after all sailings were suspended following an incident at the ferry terminal. Having to go a different way home I was out by around £25. Trainline were not having any of it saying I had to contact the operators directly despite me having booked through itself. It then stated that the ticket was not refundable anyway despite services being cancelled. It later said that the claim had not been made within the 28 day period which was untrue. It tried every conceivable way to get out of paying up and since it does not belong to the appropriate ombudsman I thought I would never see my money again. Thankfully a watchdog took up the mantle and eventually the company coughed up, but only for the price of the original ticket and it kept the booking fee. Trainline are in effect an agency without any purpose who are trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. You can in fact use any Train Operating Company to avoid registering with different websites, but you should avoid booking with Trainline completely.

I bought a ticket and the train was canceled.

I had no choice but to pay an expensive ride so i don't lose my plane !

Now, they don't even answer my emails....

Bought an advance ticket and realised it was incorrect. I don't even mind paying the admin fee which seems to be more regular lately as I travel a lot.

I followed their 15 minute cancelation policy several times within the 15 minutes only to receive and error code RR1 with a number to call.

Surprise surprise they do not answer out of office hours (some customer support that is). So after speaking to online chat on a weekday I was refused the refund for surpassing the 15 minutes, which is ridiculous as they wouldn't allow me to use their own cancelation policy at the time of booking.

The code is apparently because I have cancelled a ticket in the past and it is to prevent fraud.

App deleted and I will never use again...........

This is a bad service and should be shut down. If you are lucky enough to buy tickets and travel with no issues you probably think Trainline is ok. Should there be a problem then you will see their ugly money grabbing side.

Customer Service is incredibly unhelpful when trying to get a refund for trains that were cancelled. There is no option to change bought tickets to another day. There is no option to correct if you make a mistake booking eg enter wrong date - your money goes and nobody will ever help.

For starters, it's hard enough to find out how to contact them and then when you do finally find the live chat, they do not answer your questions. Really unhappy and won't be using Trainline to book tickets again. Southern Rail makes it much easier to get refunds for cancelled trains, they only request photos online with a cut from corner to corner but Trainline request you to post the tickets to their office.

Why have been allowed to trade in this manner. Even the reply to this will be an automatic computer generated response

I would avoid using trainline. I recently had an experience where the app didn't work and said my ticket was used so I had to purchase another ticket. When I complained about it to trainline they were very dismissive and after 3 months of chasing they have said they can't work out why that happened and won't be refunding my tickets.

I will never use this service again and would advise everyone else to stay clear unless you have money to throw away.

this company are bad, took £300 off me disgusting company

Time after time Trainline asks you to let them make sure you get your railcard renewed electronically. I just received an email telling me to renew (24 hours notice!!!) but all the links in their "No-Reply" email do not work!

Their site has no way of contacting them.

It is easier to go to your station and get it there...what a waste of time these people are...

Lack of communication on train being cancelled.

I can't make my journey because of the huge train strike, & they refuse to refund my tickets. I am completely disgusted!!!

If you make the mistake of buying a Eurostar ticket via Trainline, you will not get so much as a contact telephone number. Their “customer service” is a pretence. Now I see that the internet is full of bad reviews of Trainline. I will avoid using Trainline and will certainly never use them to buy Eurostar tickets.

I returned rail tickets for a refund. The letter arrived as did a part repayment.

The dispute is now about what was in the envelope. I can't prove the tickets were in the envelope, and they say they weren't.

Get a solicitor to return the tickets or they will abuse your trust.

You have been warned.