Where can I buy train tickets online? thetrainline.com does not accept solo and nationalrail asks where I want to pick up a ticket from. I just want them mailed to my house.
you generally cant pay with solo or electron cards... i know stations and telesales never accept them so i assume internet bookings will be the same.
Get yourself a proper bank card and use www.virgintrainsfares.co.uk. As Scruf says, use fastticket and pick your ticket up at the station, it'ell be easier.
its irrelevant which internet booking agent you use, virgin, gner, nre, trainline (which is run by virgin), or whether you book over the phone or at the station. they all (should) have the same availablity as they access the same national database. if you're booking advance tickets its 1st come 1st served. each train company sells other companies tickets using the same database. the only possible contradictory factor would be system flaws or human error.
They're all through the same database, I know, but virgintrainsfares.co.uk is the one I've had the least problems with. The database is obviously maintained by some minimum-wage goon though, because the websites are always fucked. And there's generally lots of human error with National Rail staff. To be honest, your best bet would be to get off your arse and go to the train station to buy some tickets, you dappa.
i always prefer over the phone or at the station. however having worked for gner and nre i know when a callcentre/station monkey is being lazy the internet sites do always seem encounter problems, and on top of that they dont show all availabilities around the times you enter... whereas booking through phone/or station it takes seconds to check loads of trains around times given as long as you are talking to a helpful person like i was when i was there, i may have been a minority however
Massively. I wrote a letter of complaint to National Rail and GNER a couple of years ago after their online service left me awestruck at the level of stupidity and incompetence. I can't remember it word-for-word. but the general gist was explaining the problems with their pathetic service, and commenting that all of their staff were ignorant gibbons. I never actually heard back, either, which I was a bit pissed off about. I at least expected a free railcard or something.
hahaha the internet staff at gner are morons, as are the callcentre staff at virgin if you manage to avoid their automated robot service that rarely understands what you want. generally gner callcenter staff are trained to a higher standard and it is the best callcenter for train tickets... there are a lot of hardworking, honest and, dare i say it, relatively intelligent people in that place who do a good job, theres a high new staff turnover as the useless ones tend to get weeded out in their probation periods so the people who are there long term tend to be good at what they do. still im glad im out of that, you either have to enjoy customer service or trains to stay there for long, i found it soul destroying and my intelligence wasted however virgin seem to have the internet booking market up to a higher standard, i know gner wanted to promote their online service more, but they have a long way to go.
I used to work for them and they are without a doubt, the worst company ever! They screw as many customers over as they can. It might as well be their motto.
