If you use the UK train network you have probably come across the trainline website.
In itself it is a very good site – it is easy to navigate and is very useful for finding your train times and finding out the prices of tickets. (Don’t start me off on ticket prices and why you can have 3 very different prices for the same journey)
Planning a journey for the coming week I decided to purchase my ticket from trainline. The transaction ran smoothly and my tickets were booked at the price I chose from the list (I decided on the cheaper ones as they are all for the same journey)
When I came to the end of the transaction a message thanked me for my first purchase from trainline.com and if I clicked on the link I could as a thankyou claim £10 off my next journey.
So far so good – I clicked the link and the offer was a £15 discount voucher – well that seems even better.
The trouble is the offer was not for money off my next journey it was a random discount voucher – and all I had to do was fill in my details again to claim it. Plus if I did this I would join a club and continue to get discounts in the future. The best part was that THIS WAS FREE! (for the 1st month and then it is £10 per month)
Reminds me of a fonejacker sketch where the telesales rep says the service is free and there is nothing to pay. Then it is £30 per month for the first 14 months and then £60 per month for 6 months and then £50.
Fair enough I could see what was going on but it had been designed so you think it is an offer from Trainline which you are trusting and you simply get a discount voucher. What you are actually doing is being redirected to www.onlinevaluepack.com and signing up to being ripped off £10 per month for the forseeable future.
EasyJet did the same thing a few years ago offering you £10 off the flight, when you agree you actually pay £10 per month for sweet FA – not sure if they still do this but it was certainly happening 2 years ago. The scam company kept changing its name and when you tried to cancel of course they were ready and had an automated service that made it extremely difficult. Of course many people went months without noticing – always check your bank statements!
Don’t get me wrong I have no problem with an affiliate offer or two but there is a big difference between offering a product that somebody wants and offering them £10 and instead taking £10 per month off them – you have to laugh in these days of ethical awareness and client focus the good old rip off scam is still a key part of the marketing mix of some of the biggest companies out there.
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