Dear Sir, Imagine my surprise

First Scotrail Customer Relations
PO Box 7030
Fort William
PH33 6WX

19th June 2006


Dear Sir/Madam,

Caledonian Sleeper Bargain Berths – Friday 25th August – London to Fort William.

It is not without a certain amount of disappointment and annoyance that I find myself writing this letter to you. First Scotrail has, due to misinformation, disorganization and bad customer practice, put the holiday plans of my friends and I into chaos.

Earlier this year, it was decided that we would take a holiday in Skye during August, and we therefore booked a cottage. I persuaded my friends that it would be a fabulous idea to take the Caledonian sleeper based on my very enjoyable previous experience. It was decided that this would be a good transport decision.

Since the booking of the holiday cottage in March, I have phoned regularly to discover when tickets for Friday 25th August will be available for booking – anxious not to miss the availability. During these conversations, I discovered that Bargain Berths would be controlled separately and that it was possible that the availability would not be released at the same time as APEX and standard tickets.

Again, anxious not to miss the opening of availability, I checked the website every day to see when tickets would be released. On the day that normal tickets were released up to 25th August (about 2 weeks ago), I phoned up your telesales team. They said that the cheapest tickets available were APEX singles at £70. It appeared that I could not book return tickets until the following week when the availability was to be extended – I would run the risk of not being able to get an outgoing ticket by waiting. Naturally I asked the agent about the Bargain Berths. He said that as he only dealt with normal tickets, I would need to contact Bargain Berths directly and he gave me a number. Directly, I phoned this number, asked the following questions, and received the following answers:

Q – Can you tell me when the Bargain Berths will be available for Friday 25th August between London and Fort William?
A – No. It depends on when they are released by the company – but probably in the next three to four weeks when the next quarter is released.

Q – Can you tell me whether there will be Bargain Berths on the Caledonian Sleeper on Friday 25th August?
A – Yes there will be – there is a quota of Bargain Berths on all services

Q – Are you able to tell me whether there is a specific quota or whether bargain berths are just using up tickets that haven’t been sold another way? I don’t want to wait for Bargain Berths to be released to discover that they don’t exist and the other tickets have sold out.
A – No there will certainly be bargain berths and there is a quota put aside.

Following this conversation, I decided not to risk waiting for the return journey to be released, and booked a return flight for myself and my friends from Inverness. However, still very keen to use the Caledonian Sleeper, and in good faith to your employees, I have continued to wait for the Bargain Berths to be released. Even the richest person would see an opportunity for an economy extending from the difference in ticket prices; it would not be good enough to say that I should have booked the £70 tickets at the time considering the information that I was given.

Today when checking your website, I noticed that Bargain Berths had not yet been released, and so decided to phone once more to check my previous information. It took me half an hour and 6 different phone numbers to finally get through to someone who seemed to know something about the Bargain Berths (including 15 minutes trying to track down someone called Maria on a ‘direct’ number which went through to the automated service). It seems the information I had acted upon in good faith was wrong. First Scotrail will not confirm in advance whether or not there will be any Bargain Berths on the service concerned as that puts me at an ‘advantage’.

I feel humiliated for having falsely led three other people into thinking that the Caledonian Sleeper is a very good service, and that we would be able to get Bargain Berths (on a first come and first served basis). Naturally, I’m also upset and annoyed as well as finding myself at a loss on what to do next. Apparently there will be an extension to the Bargain Berth availability in the next few days: of course it is possible that there will be some available, but given lack of information due to company rules, and my now mistrust of your agents, I cannot see my holiday working this way. My other option is to book four £129 tickets normally (the APEX fares having sold out). Firstly I cannot afford £129, and secondly I feel, given that I have been misled by First Scotrail, that I have been placed at a severe disadvantage and incurred a penalty of increasing ticket prices. Should I wait to see whether there will be Bargain Berths, it is certain that the £129 tickets will be sold out. My particular reasoning for phoning to check the availability of Bargain Berths on a Bank Holiday weekend was because I thought it would be a time when the company may not offer them.

I feel that the very least First Scotrail can do is to offer me £129 tickets at the APEX fare since it was your misinformation that persuaded me to wait for Bargain Berths in the first place and now they may not even exist.

I look forward to hearing from you, regarding this dismal situation and bad organization. One of your agents is posting me a copy of your customer charter.


Yours faithfully,




Jonathan Lee



cc. First Scotrail Chief Executive
BBC Watchdog
The Office of Rail Regulation.
Scotrail Customer Services by e-mail