distressing Experience on Virgin train 18 weeks pregnant
hi everyone,
i feel the need to write this somewhere as I am so angry and in shock with the way I have been treated today.
i was in Glasgow on company business catching a virgin train home I got on the 14.00 train to come home. A lady came round to check the tickets and it turns out I had an advanced ticket which was not allowed on this train (first I had heard of it). I asked the lady what my options were. To which she responded "you can either pay the difference (£64) or get off at the next stop and wait for your train" (2 hr wait) I explained that I didn't have the money on me, and I am pregnant with a bad back on my own. The seat I was sitting in was available for the whole journey so I wasn't taking up anyone else's space. I had heavy luggage. Could she not make an exception on this occasion. Her response was "pregnant or not you are getting off the train at the next stop"! I was shocked I raised my voice and asked if she was happy to kick a pregnant women off a train and re-eye rated what I had just said. She said she will be along before the next stop to escort me off the train. She took yhe tickets that I had paid for and refused to give me them back And walked away.
in the mean time I called customer services to see if there was anything they could do they were more sympathetic and said they would speak to this lady to see what they could do. I had a call back to say there was nothing. By this time I had called my other half panicking and in distress so he called customer services. They said I would have to get off the train wait for 2 hours and they would upgrade me to first class for the inconvenience caused. I asked what the logical sense in that was and I couldn't get a reasonable answer.
the station was approaching and sure enough the lady came back ready to escort me off the train. She went and got 2 men and a policewomen to escort me off. Over the top! I has horrified and shaking. a kind lady offered to help me with my suitcase as she could see I was struggling. I got off the train and the ticket lady in was in my face saying I was being rude and shouting at me. At this point i was shaking and crying (tears of anger, I'm the a crying kind) she then turned round and said I am playing the pregnancy card and now I'm playing on the tears. The police women looked shocked! I asked the police women if I could walk away and she said no problem. the ticket lady then got on the train after some persuading by the police officer!
i was then escorted to the waiting room by the police with members of the public looking at me like I was a criminaL! The police women was lovely she calmed me down and got me a glass of water.
i think thought my train was coming so I went to see the police women to thank her and she said i still have another hour to wait but said she would see what she could do. So she went up to the train manager of the new train started explaining what had happened. He said go straight to the end of the train and put yourself in first class. Why on earth the other ticket lady had to do what she did is beyond me! Even the police lady thought it was out of order!
i had no luck with customer services or the Virgin trains Facebook page which I have wrote the full details on. Does anyone have any advise on how I can escalate this further?
please feel free to read the post of the Virgin trains Facebook page. Any advise is welcome.
thanks for listening. I'm now home safe and sound 6 hours later
