Does CrossCountry have the worst customer service in the West

[whole diary]

[simonw]

Shortly before Christmas I booked a Friday morning 08:08 train from Bristol Parkway to Chester.

As I arrived at the station, I found out the train was cancelled, and that I had to get the 08:44 and three connections, or wait several hours for my single connection journey.  Not a great hardship, but I complained by to Cross Country and asked why could they not have messaged me and advised of the cancelled train, after all, the train was booked through their Customer website, and they cancelled the train at least two hours earlier.

Not getting a response, after a month I contacted my local MP^▸ (Member of Parliament), and he has written twice and also failed to get a response. Why?

[ChrisB]

Did you book an Advance fare?

[simonw]

No, I booked two trains one at 08:08 and the other at 18:22 from. and selected Off Peak return ticket as it was the best option. Seats were also reserved on all trains I was supposed to get. 

[ChrisB]

You may not like this, but no operator do as you expect them to. Some do for Advances, but not for flexible tickets.

[Mark A]

My experience is that train companies routinely reply to customer emails, Crosscountry should have responded to what was a reasonable and for both parties useful observation. It's a route on which in a sane world TfW would be snapping at their heels too.

Mark

[Richard Fairhurst]

Some apps do indeed alert you to a cancellation of (or other change to) the service you're booked onto, whatever the ticket type.

[ChrisB]

XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise)) are also very good at listing all changes on their Journeycheck page - but expect the customer to do the checking of it.

[infoman]

Could you not have travelled B.P. to Newport and then catch the 09:35 service direct to Chester?

[simonw]

I could have gone via Newport, to was still quicker to go via Birmingham/Crewe/Chester