Grrr

[watervole]

Have now been struggling for around three quarters of an hour with various web sites trying to find the cheapest way of getting from A-B and book a ticket.

This is not helped by the fact that 'The Trainline.com' will not work if you have more than one window open on their site, so you cannot compare the benefits of different routes.

I finally got to the end, put in the route I wanted, selected my preferred seating type, etc, only to be told by the site that it was unable to take my order for  a list of possible reasons.  So I swore at the computer, phoned the (not free) phone booking system, only to discover that it's a bloody voice-activated talk your way through system.  I HATE those, not least, becasue when my voice is bad, they can't recognise what I'm saying.

I'm not quite sure what I'm going to try next...

Comments

[emmzzi.livejournal.com]

raileasy.co.uk?

ps of course still haven't called you yet. will do after interview bobbins, brain totally elsewhere.

[despotliz.livejournal.com]

Recently I have booked tickets through www.nationalexpresseastcoast.com, as I find the interface better for quickly making journey changes, and they don't charge postage to send you tickets.

[gair.livejournal.com]

I've had national express recommended by someone else lately, too - they do trains as well as coaches, which I didn't realize.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

THey'd be great if I lived on the east coast... Poole isn't one of their destinations.

[despotliz.livejournal.com]

They do all UK trains, I think, I've used it for booking non-East Coast routes.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I followed the link you gave and looked at the station list and Poole wasn't there...

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

*Hugs*...no comment about These Thing here too....

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I usually use this independent site (http://www.dracos.co.uk/railway/timetable/) for researching times and fares, only at the end moving to one of the official ones to make the booking. Which does sometimes still cause that powerful irritation at the end when for some reason you can't book, but at least the process leading up to that point isn't so frustrating.

[rgemini.livejournal.com]

If you can get to a mainline station booking office the staff are generally helpful and in my experience go out of their way to find the best options. That's been true for Waterloo and Euston staff at least ... I don't know whether Poole would have the same level of service.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

I agree about station staff. The only snag is that it takes half an hour minimum to get into Poole by bus.

(Can I tempt you into a games weekend this coming weekend?)

[rgemini.livejournal.com]

Alas, no games weekend for me, except with my grandchildren ... but thanks for asking :-)