Eurostar > Reviews > Don't use Eurostar - fly instead!

Author's product rating:   

Frequency of trains	Good
Reliability of trains	Don't know
Comfort of trains	Slightly uncomfortable
On-board facilities	Poor

Advantages:	Paris Nord train station is well situated and convenient
Disadvantages:	unreliable online booking service, high prices, poor customer service

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

I would not recommend Eurostar to anyone who values good customer service, value for money or reliability. I was looking forward to my journey having heard good things from friends and family.

Having booked my tickets online a few weeks in advance and received instructions to collect my tickets at the train station on the day of travel, I did this and was then told my credit card hadn't been debited and the tickets had been cancelled just days before we travelled. Despite having provided both my mobile number and email address on the form, I was not notified that this problem had occurred and was forced to purchase tickets at a much higher price on the day of departure. Had I been notified I could have come in to the Paris Nord station and paid for them in person, as I was staying nearby.

All my efforts to seek compensation or even a simple apology from Eurostar have been in vain, so I urge you to consider flying. While Eurostar might be good for those who encounter no problems, from my experience and from what I've read of others, if you have a complaint you can kiss away any hope of compensation or sympathy from the so called "customer-service" staff. In my opinion the complaints system is a complete joke.

While I concede the location of the train is more convenient than the airport, the cost, unreliability and horrendous customer service provided by Eurostar, make it a much less attractive package. Having said this, it isn't difficult to travel by train from the airport (even during a train strike) and the time you have to wait in line to get through security at Paris Nord station is much longer than I've ever experienced in an airport. At least at the airport you can walk through security and sit down in a nice, comfortable lounge to wait for your flight to depart, instead of standing in line for over half an hour just to get through to the boarding lounges.

Once on board I was appalled at the state of the toilets. Having traveled by train throughout Europe I can only liken them to those I used on Italian trains. I was surprised they did not appear to be cleaned before each train departed Paris. Even the toilets on budget airlines in Europe are kept in better condition to these!