Posts in category "Life"

Another update to the saga of trying to get the Virgin East Coast Ticket Wallet app up and running.

Late on yesterday afternoon (a Sunday, it has to be said, so that's some dedication to solving the problem) I got a reply to the email I'd sent them previously. It didn't contain anything in response to what I'd written (so it looks like I'm never going to find out what a TOC is! sadface) but it did say this:

To Dave Pearson,

Thank you for your response.

Please attempt to change your password via the ‘forgotten password’ process.

Once you have amended your password, please attempt to sign into your Virgin Trains East Coast Ticket Wallet App.

I apologise for the inconvenience, and thank you for your patience.

I'll admit that I wasn't convinced by this plan. There was no explanation as to why I'd want to change my password, or why I'd want to pretend that I'd forgotten my password (I hadn't forgotten it, obviously), there wasn't a suggestion that something had been changed or fixed such that this would tickle a solution into working. It appeared to imply that I'd actually forgotten my password and that I should go about setting it again.

Fair enough... I did. It didn't make a jot of difference. Same problem. I've written back to say so.

The actual act of saying I'd forgotten my password was a little odd. I did the obvious thing of going to the main website and saying I wanted to sign in.

Once clicked, that took me to the actual login page, which has the link to say you've forgotten your password.

When you click on that link you get taken to.... a login page!

There you then have to say, again, that you've forgotten your password. Only once you've done that do you get somewhere where you can say you've actually forgotten your password.

Not horrific, of course, but a rather odd route, needing to click pretty much the same link twice to say the same thing.

Anyway, I tried it, it didn't work, they've had an email to say as much. Now I wait for the next step.

This morning I called back on the number I'd been given yesterday evening. I explained briefly why I was calling and how I was returning someone's call but, sadly, ended up back in support script-following hell: they started asking for booking reference and all that stuff again. I stopped them, explained the issue again, and they then started to ask for ticket details and so on.

Deeply frustrating. The problem I had was that I was trying to set everything up so I could even stand a chance of booking a ticket. How could I have a ticket I could tell them about if I'd not even got to that part?

When I made this clear, in as polite but firm way as possible, I was passed onto that person's supervisor.

As luck would have it he was the person who'd called and left a message last night. He quickly filled me in on what was happening, saying they weren't sure what the problem was but that the details had been passed to the tech people. He also asked if he could send me an email with some questions in it that would help get to the bottom of things; he said it would ask things like OS type and version, device type, etc. It all seemed to make sense

I said I'd be happy to and we left it at that.

I've had the email. This is what it asked:

1 - Origin and Destination

Gah! Here we go again. The whole support thing appears to be predicated on the idea that you're having a problem getting somewhere. They seem to not understand that if you can't even use the system in the first place you can't even have booked a ticket.

2 - Date and Time

Without a ticket, there can be no date and time.

3 - Number of passengers and railcards if any

Seeing a pattern here?

4 - Ticket name and price

I... erm... hello?

5 - Browser name & version

Finally! We're getting somewhere! Only... my problem isn't in a web browser. My problem is with logging in with their Android app. I'm sure I mentioned this to them at least once.

6 - Screenshot if possible showing the error

Yay! Finally! We're getting somewhere! I pasted in the screenshot that was included in yesterday's blog post. You know the one. The one where it's just some text that says the username and password are invalid. Because... images are better than the text in them, right?

7 - Name of the TOC

I have no clue what this means. TOC? What the heck is a TOC?

8 - Email address of the user

This I can do! I know this one! (I still suspect that this is the cause of the problem).

9 - Booking ref

Gaaarrrrrggghhhhhh!

10 - Screen shot showing exact error and exact steps to recreate the error

Wait... didn't I get asked that in question 6? How is this screenshot going to be different from the other screenshot? Still, at least it asks for the steps to recreate now. So I answered that:

1. Create a new account on the Virgin East Coast website. Ideally use an email address that contains both a full stop and a plus sign, as mine does. Also ensure that you use a password that is the same length as mine.
2. Log in and look at registered devices.
3. See there are none and follow the links it provides to the applicable app that will result in a device being registered. In this case the Ticket Wallet.
4. Download and install on a suitable Android device.
5. Attempt to log in and, likely, find that you're told that the username and password is incorrect.

So that's all sent off now. Now I wait for another call back at some point in the near future.

Curious how the thing it didn't ask was what app I was using, what version it was, what mobile device it was being used on, what OS, what OS version, etc...

This year has seen me travelling up and down the east coast of England (and into Scotland) quite a bit. Unsurprisingly this means I've been using Virgin East Coast a lot. While I'm no stranger to the rail network (I grew up in York, my father worked for what was once called British Rail, etc) I've not been a regular user since the mid 1990s (when I used to travel from Winchester to London every day).

Much has changed since the last time I used the trains a lot; the big (good) change being that you can do a ton of stuff online and, even more usefully, you can do most things on your mobile phone. Being able to buy tickets from my desk or sofa, and being able to carry all the useful info (times, seat numbers, etc) inside an app makes for an almost stress-free journey.

Up until now I've being using TheTrainLine to do all the booking. The website is uncluttered and easy to use. The same is true of their Android app. I have no complaints at all about how their system works.

But there is one small downside...

The journey I do takes about 4 hours so it makes sense that I settle down and get some work done. Working, of course, requires that I have some sort of Net connection. Ideally I'd just connect via my phone but I find that the signal can't be relied on for large parts of the journey. But that's okay, the trains have WiFi.

It's not cheap though. On Virgin, if you're not travelling first class (something I do do if I can get the right sort of deal) you need to pay £10 to get enough WiFi time to last the trip. Not horrific, but over a few journeys it adds up.

Recently though Virgin East Coast have been doing this thing where, if you book direct via them, you get the WiFi for free. So, while I have no complaints about TheTrainLine, it makes sense for me to book direct with Virgin and hopefully save myself a tenner on the WiFi.

A couple or so weeks back I finally created an account with VEC. I did my usual thing that I do and used a variation on my Gmail email address. You know the sort of thing, make use of the fact that anything after the + in the address doesn't "count" but can be useful to filter things and keep track of who's selling on your contact details.

So I registered as davep.org+virgin@gmail.com. The website accepted it just fine.

The next job was to install their wallet app. According to the website this lets you travel without even needing to faff around with printed tickets: you can do it 100% with your phone (something TTL now do too, I believe). So I downloaded the app, went to log in, and...

I tried a few times, just to be sure that I wasn't being an idiot and messing up but... nope, it just wasn't going to let me log in.

Dammit!

After a few more attempts I gave up and went back to using TTL. Yesterday, however, I decided to look into this again. The problem persisted so I logged into the VEC website, followed the links for getting help with the site (I couldn't see help for the app) and sent a message using the form on the website.

In the initial query I pointed out that I'd like to use the system to book tickets -- especially so I could enjoy free WiFi -- but that the app wouldn't let me log in. I asked how I might fix the problem.

The first reply was:

Could you please confirm which Mobile App you have downloaded and we will advise you accordingly.

Okay, fair enough. I'd spoken about "the app" (although I'd only been offered one via the site) and it seems there's more than one. So I wrote back and confirmed I was talking about the Ticket Wallet.

They replied:

Could you please provide us with your booking reference number and we will advise you accordingly.

I... erm.... Hello? Booking reference? I smell a faint whiff of Catch-22 here.... Never mind. I write back and point out that there is no booking, I'm asking about a problem with their app.

Could you please confirm if you have registered on the Virgin Trains East Coast website and we will advise you accordingly.

Well this is getting fun. I'd been logged in and used their contact form when I sought help. You'd think that it would record this information in some way. Fair enough, perhaps not. So I confirm that, yes, I had created an account with their website and was trying to use that to log in (I also quoted a line from my original message where I'd said this, right from the start).

If you have registered with us please provide us with the email address used as the email address in the original email davep.org+virgin@gmail.com is not recognised on our system.

Erm... Well this is getting silly now. That's absolutely the email address I'd registered with and was logging in with. That's why I was trying to log into the app with it! So I replied confirming that that was the address I'd registered with and hence my confusion.

The reply? This:

I can confirm Virgin Trains East Coast has two Mobile Application, the Virgin Trains East Coast App and the Virgin Trains East Coast Live App.

When you purchase an eligible Virgin Trains East Coast ticket on the website you will be offered the option of having your ticket delivered to your mobile device as an m-ticket.

To use the app, simply sign in with your Virgin Trains East Coast login details, and the app will synch with your online account. If you haven’t registered that device before, it will ask you to name your device. That name will then be shown in your account and when buying tickets, so you can choose which device to send your tickets to.

Thank you for contacting the Virgin Trains East Coast web support team, should you require any further assistance please don’t hesitate to contact us on 03457 225 111.

I... erm.... what? I'm still unsure what this was really telling me. The words made sense, it seemed to be filled with facts, but none of this seemed to pertain to what I was asking them. Worse still, it seemed to give the impression that you needed to have purchased a ticket before you could use the mobile app (at least that's one interpretation I'm getting from the above) and yet, when you follow the links on the website, it says something very different.

I replied pointing out that I was failing to see how that addressed what I'd asked, and I reiterated my problem.

At this point I got a little frustrated and tweeted my frustration:

In support hell trying to log in with @Virgin_TrainsEC Android app. Can’t imagine why it’s got this sort of rating. pic.twitter.com/pSnuJiiUoB

— Dave Pearson (@davepdotorg) June 17, 2016

Which got this reply:

@davepdotorg I understand it's having a couple of issues today. Booking references will be accepted on your train. ^NB

— Virgin Trains EC (@Virgin_TrainsEC) June 17, 2016

While I get that social media staff, more than any, can be overworked and are often trying to put out all sorts of fires, this wasn't in any way helpful to me. I pointed out what the actual issue was:

@Virgin_TrainsEC The problem goes deeper than that. I’ve never been able to log in. Ever. Support says ac doesn’t exist. But it does. O_o

— Dave Pearson (@davepdotorg) June 17, 2016

I'd also tweeted after my first, talking about the frustration of how TTL seem to do things well, but I only get free WiFi if I book via Virgin:

What really bugs me: @Virgin_TrainsEC offer free WiFi if book thru them, but app won’t work. @thetrainline works brill, but no free Wifi.

— Dave Pearson (@davepdotorg) June 17, 2016

That tweet got a reply from them asking if I was talking about the wallet app (I was, of course) and if I'd registered with the website first. O_o

So, after a lot of back and forth, I'd got nowhere with this. I did, a little while later, get an email asking for my phone number so they could call me; I replied with it.

The phone call came a little later on. It didn't go well.

At first I was told that the problem was that I needed to purchase a ticket and then that would mean I'd be able to log into the mobile app. Let's just take a moment to really appreciate what's being said: I SHOULD SPEND A HUNDRED POUNDS OR MORE SO I CAN EVEN LOG INTO THE APP.

Only... that's nonsense. According to the website it works very different from that. What the website implies is:

1. You create an account on the website.
2. You download the wallet app.
3. You log into the wallet app with the username and password you use on the website.
4. This then registers the mobile device with the system.
5. Then, and only then, can you buy a ticket.

When I pointed this out to the nice lady on the other end of the line she seemed confused by the idea and had to go and check it. She then came back and confirmed that, yes, that's how it works. At which point I asked her how I was supposed to actually log in if it kept telling me my username and password were wrong.

She then suggested that, yes, perhaps there was a problem and could I send a screenshot of the wallet app so they could look into it. A screenshot. O_o

Sure, I guess I could send in a screenshot. You can see it above. It's quite simply the text "Your username or password is incorrect". That's it. That's the problem. It's nice and easy to type. It's text. It's English. I can't see any special pixels that would help debug the issue.

But, nope, it needed a screenshot.

I asked if, perhaps, I could speak with these "technical" people who'd be dealing with this. I was told that that wouldn't be possible and that, instead, she'd have her manager call me. She then hung up pretty sharpish after that.

Right now, as of the time of writing, I'm waiting on that call.

While I do wait, I'm going to make a prediction as to the cause of this. I'm willing to bet the problem is with the choice of email address. So many large companies have systems that assume that + isn't a valid character for an email address. I'm going to further guess that Virgin East Coast isn't one of them when it comes to their website. When it comes to their Wallet App though...

Later in the evening: I never did get a call from the woman's manager, but an hour or so later I did get a call from someone at their "web support team". Sadly I wasn't in a position to take it so I'm no wiser as to what the call was actually going to be about. I'll return the call tomorrow and, all being well, write a second post about what happened.

The main thing I take away from this today though is that, if you (as appears to have happened a few times today) follow a script and don't actually read what the customer is writing, it's going to turn into a very frustrating experience; especially for the customer.

I woke up this morning to see this being retweeted by a few people I follow:

Even if I was to let my usual net-cynic side take over and decide there's a good chance it's a made-up story there's no getting away from the fact that this is a story that isn't in isolation. I hear this sort of thing time and again; especially from people who have to deal with the fallout from this first hand.

This is something that is happening, in 2015, in the country I live in.

I wish it wasn't.

This is why I find Labour's accusation of lying so damn annoying and frustrating. For a short while I simply decided that that was that. They're as corrupt as the rest of them and only in it for the money. This was made even more clear by how often they kept trumpeting the new member numbers. It's all about the numbers -- all about the money.

But then I saw this video:

and got to thinking that perhaps, just perhaps, some change for the better is actually happening inside Labour. Perhaps I should give the organisation the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps, if I contacted the membership team and asked why they'd decided I was lying, they'd give me the information and I could sort things out.

So I did. I wrote to them. I sent this to them, via the form on their website, on 2015-09-28:

On September 5th 2015 I received an email from you accusing me of having lied when I sought to become a supporter, with a view to applying to be a member after seeing the results of the leadership election. This was a rather hurtful event and one I wrote about here: http://blog.davep.org/2015/09/07/labour-said-no-thanks-to-my-support.html

Having watched https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYNPzJgV8TI I find myself in the odd position of liking the message of a party that, at the same time, accused me of something without evidence.

Given this I'd like to get to the bottom of what happened, hopefully find out what evidence was used to make the accusation and, perhaps, get an apology so that I can seriously consider joining and supporting what is happening.

I look forward to your reply.

I, of course, gave all my full details -- the email address I'd used, my home address, my full name, etc. All the information that I'd given when I signed up as a supporter. From what I could tell they had everything they needed to be able to check and give an adequate reply.

It took a while but I finally got a reply. This email came through on 2015-10-06:

So that seems pretty clear: a non-answer to my question and they're asking for another £10 on top of the £3 they already have off me to find out what evidence they have that meant it was okay for them to take my £3 and then accuse me of lying.

What's the betting that I'll spend that £10 and get a non-answer?

What's even more infuriating is that I'm not actually asking for information they have on file about me, I'm asking for clarification for something they've already told me.

It's really hard not to view this as a simple bait and switch.

So now I'm left wondering what to do next; trying to decide if I just give it up as a bad job and accept that, really, nothing has changed and they're as bad as ever. Corbyn might well be talking a good game but, under that cover, it's still just another money-grabbing organisation that wants power and very little change.

I've never been a member of a political party. Ever. The main reason is I'm not that much of a "joiner" and I tend to dislike making compromises on subjects that actually matter. I have been a member of political causes in the past but even those I've had to leave because of the struggle I felt when it came to being associated with actions I disagreed with (yes, I am looking at you National Secular Society). While there are plenty of causes that I support, either in spirit or in actual donations, I almost never actually join up.

I've also been a fairly flexible supporter of candidates in general elections. While my politics are very much what you'd call "left" my voting patterns tend to be related to how suitable I find a candidate from the parties that I find I have a lot of overlap with in terms of stated aims. Unsurprisingly, for all of my voting life, this has been a case of selecting from Labour or LibDem candidates (with the odd look at the Green candidate). When doing so one of the major factors in making the choice has been tactical voting given that, for most of my life, I've lived in (what normally appeared to be) Tory safe seats.

But, for many reasons, I've always felt an important connection to Labour.

Possibly one of the best moments, in political terms, was that night in 1997, as I drove back home, down the M3 from London, listening to the radio, hearing Tory after Tory fall and realising that, for the first time in my (politically conscious) life, I was going to enjoy the benefits, we were all going to enjoy the benefits, of a Labour government. This was such a sweet victory after having really felt the defeat of 1992.

The Blair horror show that followed was.... horrific. I don't think I've ever felt as let down by an organisation as I did by that Labour government.

Fast forward to this year and I was really hopeful that, perhaps, Labour would be back in government, and this time, lessons would have been learnt. I wasn't as enthusiastic as before but I was cautiously optimistic.

Sadly, it wasn't to be.

After this happened, and looking around me and seeing where we were now and where we were heading, I found myself thinking that, perhaps, this time, it was time to break my "no joining" rule. I started to seriously consider joining Labour, lending some sort of support, somehow being involved and taking part.

That's when I first noticed the whole business of being able to take part in the Labour leadership election by being a supporter. This seemed like the perfect way to dip my toe in, see how I felt about being associated in some way, get a feel for how things worked and, perhaps, depending on how it all went, actually join.

So I paid my £3.00 and looked forward to the process that was to follow.

I then waited, and waited, and waited, and then on Saturday this happened:

In other words.... I got purged.

And a couple of events before this have me wondering and a little suspicious of how this went down.

I'll make clear here though: my application to be a supporter was 100% genuine. As I say above, this was a first step on a road that I felt might actually end up with me joining a party -- something I've never done before. It wasn't something I did lightly. It was something I did after conversations with a couple of other people where the conversations were about genuine concern with how our country is shaping up right now.

Even as late as a week before I got the above email I was having a conversation with my nephew who, I'm deeply proud to say, is a very politically-aware teenager (far more than I was at his age) and is actually a member of the Labour Party. The conversation was about how I was starting to trust the party again and how I was even considering joining depending on how events went.

My application wasn't some joke thing, wasn't done on a whim, wasn't done to try and skew any result. It was done because it was something I cared about and wanted to explore further.

Anyway, come late on last week I'd had no sort of ballot email and, prompted by a couple of emails from a couple of the leadership campaign groups, I filled in the form to ask them to hurry it up. I think it was late on Thursday evening (2015-09-03) or early Friday morning (2015-09-04).

A little later on Friday this happened (Android twitter):

Same follow as seen from Tweetdeck:

I've no idea who @polycarponkundi is but it seemed clear from their timeline that they are a Labour supporter or even member and that they are a strong supporter of the Liz Kendall leadership campaign.

I didn't think too much of the follow; it seemed like an unusual coincidence that I'd chase up my ballot email and then someone apparently involved in the party would follow me, but coincidences happen.

Then, the following day, I get the letter telling me to sod off. Suddenly the coincidence seems less of a coincidence. I go and check the profile and notice that they've even unfollowed me, just a couple of days after the follow.

Note the lack of "follows @davepdotorg" in the profile?

Very odd.

Right now I'm not drawing any firm conclusions about what happened, and I have asked them what the follow and unfollow was all about. It would be unfair of me to decide the events were connected without asking first.

All of this though has made something clear to me. Labour have decided that they never want my support, ever again. I have it in writing. Well, sort of.

What I actually have in writing is an email that says "we're taking and keeping your £3.00 and we're calling you a liar while we do this. If you want to prove that you're not a liar you need to actually join us, actually send us even more money. Oh, and by the way, we're not going to tell you what evidence we have that you're a liar, so ner."

Thank you Labour. At least I know where I stand now. You can safely assume that you'll never have my support ever again.