Sir/Madam,

I am writing to complain about a number of issues with the SouthWest trains customer service and online experience. I purchased an off-peak ticket for a return journey to Winchester from London Waterloo (ticket reference 778132340). This is not an advance ticket, and I could have purchased exactly the same ticket on the day of travel, but I purchased online in order to avoid potential queues on the day.

Unfortunately, I need to travel the weekend after I had booked the tickets for, and contacted your customer service team. The first time I spoke to a representative, I was hung up on, and, when I called back, I was told unequivocally that in order to do this I would need to cancel the ticket at a cost of £10, despite your FAQ in my purchase email clearly stating that there is a minimum charge of £5 for this. Clearly, this is untrue, and your representative told me that it was impossible to change a ticket, and I would have to cancel and repurchase and be penalised £10.

Not only, this, but I was extremely frustrated to be unable to speak to a manager at your call centre, and being kept on hold in excess of 30 minutes. This is unacceptable.

This makes no sense; I could possibly understand if I had purchased an advance or special ticket, but as this is a ticket I could have purchased at the station, I feel I am being penalised for no reason whatsoever. Furthermore, your restrictions on refunds for train tickets appear to be in clear violation of the Distance Selling regulations, which stipulate consumers can receive a full refund within 7 days of purchasing goods or services online (http://www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/consumers/fact-sheets/page38102.html).

Please be aware that I will be publishing all correspondence online, and continuing to blog and tweet about the unacceptable way that SouthWest trains treat their customers.

http://twitter.com/felix_cohen/status/8294614307
http://twitter.com/felix_cohen/status/8294933129
http://twitter.com/felix_cohen/status/8231484660