Greater Anglia Reviews

Why is this service needed? It's not worthy

There is always a problem and you cannot trust on them.

I am even surprised that a heatwave is a problem... please, travel around the world and check hotter countries. In those, it is one of the best options to travel: Air-con and no problem with wires due to hot weather conditions...

Train due to leave 11pm still at Southend Victoria at 11.35 no informs provided for passengers for first 20 minutes

If I could give no stars I would, after giving multiple chances for staff to fix the issue & who have all confirmed they agree they gave a poor experience that they were unwilling to do anything about it. This is by far the worst train experience I have ever had. I have 2 children under 3, we got on the train, there was broken glass on the floor, empty alcohol bottles everywhere, spilt alcohol on the floor (of which I have pictures to back all of this up & they have CCTV on the trains so they can back up themselves. I didn't dare take my kids out of the pushchair because it was so disgusting, we had no other choice but to get on to get home bcause it was the last train and with two under 3 i'm not walking about somewhere i don't know late at night! I never expected the train would be in such a state!

I quote an email from Greig the senior customer relations manager 'I am extremely sorry for the poor experience which you had whilst travelling with us. I can confirm that feedback was passed to the train presentation team in relation to this matter as I do agree this would make for an unpleasant journey.

I can advise that we do not compensate for this type of issue, as you were still able to complete your journey successfully and no refund would be due for the tickets you purchased as your journey was neither delayed or cancelled, which would have meant that you were entitled to a refund as a result.

I do hope that this incident does not deter you from travelling with us again in future. Should you require any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me again.'

I even spoke to another staff member before that who emailed me much the same thing, then when I emailed back saying that is not good enough ignored my email completely until i chased them again a couple of weeks later asking to speak to his manager. & as you can see he didn't care much either. That is the kind of experience you can expect I guess looking at the rest of these reviews. Worst service I have ever experienced in my life, I will be telling everyone I know & every place I can possibly review to not waste their money on the company.

Was missold A ticket (ie overcharged). I wrote a complaint to the customer service team who were most unhelpful.
Train times are illogical and even with the modern trains, unreliable.

Some of their conductors ( not all of course ) are lacking basic manners, like saying "please"! Instead they are giving orders like " put the ticket here" ! What is it that some of them can't scan the smartcard holding in their hands and orders you to put it on table! Looks like they been dragged up, not brought up! IT'S GETTING VERY UNPLEASANT TO USE YOUR TRAINS, GREATER ANGLIA! There is one extremely rude female staff member, normally on Norwich-Cambridge route ! I suggest you hold some talks with your staff and how they need to conduct themselves to look professional!

The trains were cancelled from Stansted Airport 04.07.2022 because of strikes, so I was not able to travel.
For some reason they've rejected refund I made with greateranglia.delayrepaycompensation.com and asked me to write an email to (sales.support.greateranglia at trainsfares.co.uk) or call them to get a compensation.
Why should I spend time to submit all the details using first website and then again spend time to write another email or call to get my money back for the service you cannot provide?

I have been travelling on this train line for 35 years and have paid a full annual season ticket renewing on time every year, other than during COVID lockdown.

Following the recent strike upheaval and surrounding days, I travelled to London the following week, and it slipped my mind that my annual season ticket had expired the day before I travelled. I would have thought as I am logged into the GA app, I would have received some kind of reminder, anyway that aside, I travelled to London on the 5am train and when I got to Liverpool Street the rude and obnoxious ticket inspector insisted on giving me a penalty fare, even though I said I would renew my ticket there and then in front of him!

I have since appealed twice and both have been upstanding of the inspectors decision. It is not the cost of the £38 fine, it is the principle. I pay almost £5,000 per year for a train line with poor service, regular disruption for maintenance work and most recently strikes and upheaval surrounding these days.

Other than less than 50% refund for strike days I am not aware of any other type of compensation? I often see fare dodgers on the train and when approached the inspectors are clearly scared to issue them with a penalty fare as they just take the price of the ticket, however a 35 year commuter who has never previously travelled without a ticket [ and I note neither have my family] makes a one off genuine human error following a week of crap service is treated like a common criminal!!!

I can only assume the inspectors are on some kind on commission for these penalty fares. The not so funny thing about this is when you get to Liverpool St there is often 5-10 inspectors/assistants standing around talking, no wonder the ticket prices are astronomical, we are paying their wages!

The quicker I do not need the use this poorly run line the better and would recommend anyone with another option [C2C] not to do so.

Appalling customer service and no customer care.

Mr Burles does not care at all about his customers and disregards any concerns brought to him.

Due to the strikes, I missed shows in London and am out of pocket as a result. Rather than accept any responsibility, Mr Burles blamed me.

Avoid Trainline.

Just a quick flag that in the past two days, on different journeys and at different times, having clicked through to pay for a ticket and then inputted card details I have been told that those tickets are no longer available. When I then re look for the tickets the price has increased by about 30% and I have had to buy at the more expensive price. It feels too much of a coincidence that this happened just as I was going to pay both times and makes me wonder if they just increase the price they have advertised once they know you are needing to buy.

I not sure why Greater Anglia are striking when they haven’t had any weekend services through Harlow the entire month of June… now with Gay Pride events this weekend they decide to strike causing thousands of people to miss the events. It’s shameful that they have chosen a weekend that hurts so many LGBT people.

The treatment of customers by greater anglia is terrible and the worst part is that they don't care at all.

We arrived at Stanstead after paying contactless from a London station. Upon arrival we saw that a physical ticket was required and that contactless wasn't valid, which weren't informed of. Nevertheless we purchased a physical ticket at the station to make up for having used the wrong payment method.

We were refused the right to exit the station into the airport, despite being in a rush for a plane, and told we needed to buy a ticket (at a highly inflated price) AND pay a fine. We argued and mentioned that there had been no real guidance or information available at any of the stations to explain what type of ticket was needed but the employees essentially laughed at us and told us that it was our own fault. They said contactless wasn't a valid payment option because we weren't in London (despite the airport being called London stanstead). Why would they even let us on the train with contactless if it wasn't a valid payment option?

Upon arguing, the employee there actually admitted that it was a bad system for customers but that the company use it to make extra revenue, essentially admitting that they were scamming customers age intentionally relying on a lack of information to gain extra money from people. There were about 6 people in front of us with the exact same issue and it seems from reviews that this is a regular occurance at the station. The company clearly does not care about ripping people off or they would have addressed it by now.

We appealed the fines and were denied, with the copy and paste response stating that it was our responsibility to somehow know every rule of every train station in London before travelling.

I'd strongly recommend not travelling with greater anglia and just taking a coach or bus instead, it will save you money, you'll have a better experience based on the lack of interaction with greater anglia staff, and youll be more likely to make your plane on time because you can skip the queues of people as they get scammed at the station.

I paid 20.70 pounds for an “express” train just to queue 20 mins to get my ticket checked by hand by a couple of very slow employees when arrived at Stansted at the only open gate. I complained to one of them just to get dismissed with an offensive hand gesture and to be told “you are in a train station how are you supposed to leave without queuing?”. Maybe build automatic gates?! So pissed off by them.

Be prepared to automatically be treated as a criminal by this operator, with threats of prosecution, if you dare to make a simple mistake with your ticket booking. The precedent is that human error is indistinguishable from malicious intent. Paying an exorbitant settlement fee is not a remedy to human error, but it is a deterrent to further travel with this particular operator if more importance is placed on revenue streams than public relations.

I don’t think it’s acceptable to sporadically decide you don’t want to have catering facilities on long services from London to Norwich. On the 08:30 this morning having been short on time to make the train, to be greeted with a stock “no catering services on this train” intercom message. Rubbish.

My friend who uses a wheelchair was put in an unsafe situation and was injured. They are patronised by staff. They have complained multiple times about numerous instances of this and nothing changes. This is an unaccessible train service that does not care about disabled people.