Greater Anglia Avis 

Absolutely terrible experience with Greater Anglia.

Before buying my ticket, I asked for help first because I wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing. I was not trying to avoid paying, and I was trying to sort things properly from the beginning. Despite that, the whole situation turned into a complete mess.

I ended up paying twice, which is already ridiculous in itself, but even after that I was still issued a Penalty Fare Notice. So to be clear: I asked questions first, tried to follow the correct process, paid for my journey, then paid again, and still got penalised.

What makes this even worse is the appeal process. I appealed because the penalty should never have been issued in the first place. Instead of properly addressing the actual facts, the response felt like a generic template, repeating general rules about tickets without dealing with what actually happened in my case.

This is what is so frustrating: I made an effort to do the right thing, I paid, and I still ended up being treated like I had done something wrong. Then when I challenged it, the appeal was declined without any meaningful engagement with the situation.

This whole experience has been stressful, unfair, and incredibly disappointing. Based on how this was handled, I have very little confidence in either Greater Anglia’s customer service or the fairness of the Penalty Fare appeal process.

Witnessed the most horrific abuse of a poor woman at Colchester Station by Greater Anglia and Revenue Protection staff on Friday 10th April around 5pm. The woman had a ticket for a train that was delayed, I saw her speaking politely to the man checking tickets, and somehow this escalated to the man shouting at her, telling her that her ticket was no longer valid despite the train not arriving on the platform yet, calling her a very racist word, making very unprofessional comments, behaving like a schoolboy and pulling in his colleagues to insult her. This whole time the woman tried to remain calm but none of the staff allowed her to talk and kept speaking over her. The collective abuse and highly unprofessional behaviour I witnessed by all staff present was shocking. The woman was later on the phone to customer service for a while and during that time both Greater Anglia and Revenue Protection staff kept harassing her even when she was simply sat in the Pumpkin Cafe and in tears from the bullying while still trying to talk on the phone. The woman eventually left the platform and a revenue protection staff followed her for presumably a long while, which seemed highly unnecessary and looked more motivated by an intent to harass a vulnerable woman. No matter the situation, there was absolutely no reason or excuse for staff to behave so unprofessionally and abusively like this towards anyone. I sincerely hope that woman is okay, puts in a complaint, and these racist lunatics working for Greater Anglia and Revenue Protection are dealt with.

Got charged an extra £14.95 because I was told I had the wrong railcard which apparently I didn't. The customer services were terrible, didn't want to help. So beware and don't give them any money. Disgusting

Yet another appalling train journey by Greater Anglia. I make a trip to Londin 1 time a month and 9 times out if 10 the train is late. How can this be described as a train service!!
When will this be sorted out? This is no way to run a business.

Maybe 40% of inspectors are great & helpful but the majority of my experiences have been with officious jobsworths.
Trains are overpriced and crowded and the recebt refund update is cruel - you cannot refund tickets on the day of travel - so when trains are cancelled / plans change you've been shafted.
Delay repay is meant to make up for late trains but has never worked in my experience as you're unable to find the intended train to process the request.

Never, never, never use Greater Anglia website to book tickets. You cancel they charge you a £5 admin fee for nothing. Cancelled as a tube strike on tomorrow. There is no admin fee on the tickets you buy, they just take money for nothing when you cancel and it's not even your fault. You complain and they just hang up on you saying "well it's not us on strike it's the underground" Well charge TFL then, not the poor passenger for the hassle and lost revenue. He hung up on me. I will never use it again. App site deleted. And to think this inept Government have just brought this lot with my taxes!

Here we are again. A train to nowhere. £114 for no updates on why the train is late from the driver. I’d give zero stars if it were available. This rail
Service is singularly THE worst train line in Christendom!!! How can you charge for this shite. I mean really? 7 years I have been using this line Norwich to Liverpool Street and only in the last 8 months has it turned into an utter cluster. Martin Moran I’m
Talking directly to you. SORT IT!!

Again cancelled trains.
🤦🏻🤕😡

Tuesday 7 April 10.30 train to Norwich. Nothing but absolute praise for Lee the ticket inspector. Not only did he sort out my mistake with a smile, he then sorted out a problem with an elderly lady opposite me. Absolutely first class service. Restored my faith in human nature.

For yt adds.

Had to call customer service today. Slow, incredibly unhelpful & ultimately they failed to help so it was a waste of time. So frustrating having to deal with people like this.

Today I got in an a total muddle when I booked some train tickets online. Everything was totally my fault but I rang greater Anglia for some help and advice. I cannot fault the kindness ,care and time that Sailem took with me today to help me resolve everything and ensure that I got the tickets that I needed. Superb customer care, a credit to GA

I would just like to say i got on at Roydon used the ticket machine to a delightful lady who helped us she couldnt have been more helpful with our senior railcard so well done .

Delay repay portal absolutely rubbish. Poorly designed and constantly falling over back to the very first page. Infuriating.

Well... more often than not, I come here to moan. But... I gotta say a big thank you to Greater Anglia who refunded our 'non refundable' fare . We couldn't use the tickets because we were supposed to be going to Dubai - and that got Trumped. Happy to get our train ticket money back and happy to say something positive about Greater Anglia.

I made my first train journey yesterday for a number of years and was very pleased with the whole process, from the ease of booking online (ticket conveniently on my mobile) to the comfort of the train, good information provision and the helpfulness of staff. It was an easier journey than driving and negotiating prolonged roadworks/diversions.

Why, when I'm advised I can only book through the app, can I only retrieve my ticket by printing it out from the machine at the train station? Is it the 1980s again? The idiosyncrasies of who provides which part of the rail route I'm on is of no interest to me as a service user. Can only hope renationalising does away with such irritating complications.

Loos not working again and hand wash broken. Disgusting and a frequent occurrence - does nobody bother to do an inspection?

If only Greater Anglia spent as much on making their trains operate well as they do on staff to investigate all money that can be extorted from people who forgot their Railcard.

The staff are friendly and polite. No complaints. The trains are a different story. They are airless stuffy and hot with radiators next to every seat. It's like being in an old persons home riding with Great Anglia Trains. In fact it's probably a good place to get ill. Hideous travel experience. What's wrong with having a small window you can open like in the classic days of British Rail. I feel like a processed ham in this carriage. Fresh air please.