A FURIOUS Brit has slammed Trainline for “daylight robbery” after being quoted over £100 in fees for changing his ticket times.
Jon Burke had been trying to make changes to an upcoming journey on Monday when he ran into a problem.
Simply seeking to change one leg of the journey from one off-peak time to another off-peak time, Jon was left staggered at how much the Trainline app was looking to charge him.
The charge for the amended ticket was £39.20, whilst Trainline threw on an added admin fee of an eyewatering £70 – making for a grand total of £109.20 just to change a ticket.
Jon, who is a former councillor for the London borough of Hackney, posted a screenshot of the astronomical fees.
Whilst the charge for new tickets was considerable in itself, the real sting was the £70 admin fee added on top – for an action done with no human effort other than his own.
This was despite a discount from a family and friends railcard, which would entitle him to one third off the fare.
Jon shared his post to social media on Monday with the caption: “Dear Trainline, I’ve just tried to amend one leg of an upcoming journey from one off-peak time to another off-peak time.
“The extra charge for the amended ticket was £39 – bad enough – but you also wanted a seventy quid admin fee.
“Explain this daylight robbery.”
Jon’s rant has since received over 700 likes and more than 110 comments from fellow Brits sharing their opinions.
One wrote: “Might as well get a flight to Spain and back for the same price.”
A second commented: “Admin fee… aka the bribe to get the driver out of bed to ensure your train actually turns up. It’s a joke.
“‘They’ve got the cheek to complain about the amount of cars polluting the planet but then you have public transport companies pulling stunts like this.”
A third said: “Not the point but I’m always shocked to find people still use that garbage app.
“Booking direct through train operating companies saves money and you get better flexibility with changing tickets.”
Another agreed: “Trainline is a scam and always has been.
“Never use them, always go direct to a train operator’s website and you won’t get ripped off or stung for hidden fees.”
Another said: “The admin fee for changing a train ticket is enough to do 4,000 miles in an electric vehicle.”
A sixth claimed: “Pretty sure the Sunaks own part of Trainline.”
Trainline has been contacted for comment.
Speaking today, a Trainline spokesperson said: “Our mission is to help travellers find the most convenient and best value rail fare.
“We are grateful that our customer reached out to us so that we were able to help revise their journey and ensure only the correct fees were charged.
“We encourage any customer to get in contact if they have concerns regarding a booking.”
