c2c Rail Reviews 

233
TrustScore 1.5 out of 5

1.3

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Review summary

Created with AI, based on recent reviews

Evaluating 50 reviews, most reviewers were let down by their experience overall. Travelers frequently experience severe frustration regarding constant delays, unexpected cancellations, and expensive ticket prices that completely fail to reflect the poor quality of service provided. People consistently mention extremely poor communication during disruptions, leaving daily passengers stranded without proper guidance or alternative transport options. Commuters frequently express deep anger over extortionate ticket fares charged for such an unreliable and poorly managed daily commute. Though some reviewers were happy with helpful station employees, a few people also noted that certain parts of the network can occasionally feel more reliable than typical alternatives.

What people talk about most

Service

People report negative experiences with service, expressing widespread dissatisfaction over frequent delays,... See more

Staff

People report negative experiences with staff, highlighting a lack of assistance on platforms and rude... See more

Price

Clients share profound dissatisfaction on price, highlighting that ticket costs are horrendous for the poor... See more

Cancellation

Customers expressed widespread dissatisfaction regarding cancellation issues, noting that trains are... See more

Location

Reviewers highlight ambiguous aspects of location, noting that trains frequently stop short at stations like... See more

Reviews shaping this summary

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Dawng gawd awful.forget the hype it's as good as a DJ spinning a few country songs with two birds dancing and a charge of £8 per pint on best offer most songs are pop songs sold as having country vibe... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

If I could give it less I would. It is without doubt the worst train line ever aloud to operate in the manner it does. The weather gets used a great deal for excuses, dry, wet, windy weather all used... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

The announcements for C2C trains are often unreliable when there are delays and trains are often cancelled. Today, Sunday, train delayed from Leigh-on-Sea and we were told it was being diverted to Li... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

My email was hacked by some unscrupulous b%&^&%ds, and I have been forced to change my email. Most of the other apps/services I use have been brilliant at changing my email address on their apps/ser... See more


Company details

  1. Railroad Company

Written by the company

Trenitalia c2c Limited, trading as c2c, is an English train operating company owned by Trenitalia that operates the Essex Thameside railway franchise from London to Southend, serving East London, Basildon, Grays and more.


Contact info

1.3

Bad

TrustScore 1.5 out of 5

233 reviews

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No recent history of asking for reviews

This company hasn't invited customers recently, so reviews may not be representative

Hasn’t replied to negative reviews

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1.3

All reviews

(233)

52 reviews in the last 12 months

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Companies on Trustpilot aren't allowed to offer incentives or pay to hide reviews. Reviews are the opinions of individual users and not of Trustpilot. Read more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

DISGRACE OF A COMPANY

DISGRACE OF A COMPANY. PAYING CLOSE TO 3K A YEAR THE TRAINS ARE NEVER ON TIME, THERE ARE CONSTAAT DELAYS OR STRIKES, THE WORST PART IS THE COMPENSTATION OWED,THIS SEEMS TO TAKE A AGE AND THERE ARE CONSTANT PUSH BACK WITH WHAT IS OWED TO THE CUSTOMER EVEN THOUGH IT IS C2C FAULT. SHOCKING

16 February 2024
Unprompted review
Rated 5 out of 5 stars

On the 18th of February

On the 18th of February, there was a bus replacement from Laindon to Pitsea.

In Laindon, I was waiting for a bus.

Stoyan, an employee at Laindon Station, realized that I was waiting on the wrong side of the platform and explained where I could catch a bus replacement to Pitsea.

It was an amazing customer service experience! If I had taken the wrong bus, it would have taken me several hours to return, especially on a Sunday.

Thank you so much, Stoyan! There is no doubt in my mind that you are a Super Duper Mega Star!

18 February 2024
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

The worse service ever

The worse service ever , can't be any worse .This line should be banned.Tickets cost me 4250£ annual.Last year I travel like this .Even for free I wouldn't recommend this train

15 February 2024
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Absolutely disgusting service

Absolutely disgusting service. Staff are very intimidating, degrading and have threatening behaviour towards women. How a genuine mistake was escalated staff looked very smug and would not even listen to our reason. Left very upset and has ruined a special event this evening. Considering we have never ever tried to get out of not paying for a ticket. We tapped our bank card considering we’re not from this area

12 February 2024
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

c2c customer service doesn't exist

If I could rate 'em nuffin' I would. An incident happened on 27th November 2023 or the week beginning Monday 4th December 2023 in Barking Station. It was handled badly by c2c staff. A complaint was emailed to TFL because I thought they operated that train station. TFL replied in late December 2023 or January 2024 that they don't operate Barking Station and that I should contact c2c. So, on Friday 5th January 2024 I emailed c2c regarding the incident. They said I'd get a reply in 20 working days. 20 working days was up on Friday 2nd February 2023. So, I called and spoke to a lovely lady who took my case reference number and said someone would be in contact with me soon.
I heard nothing, nada, zilch from c2c, so I phoned customer service again and spoke to she same nice lady who took my customer reference number and said she'd pass it on and that someone would be contacting me soon, and - yep, you guessed it, I've heard diddly squat from 'em!

They're a privately owned company with an MD. This lots trading name is Trentalia c2c Ltd and apparently they operate the transport system in Italy. What are the chances that the directors will be ignored when they wanna get paid the financial rewards of their investments?

I mean c2c customer service doesn't exist. They got the same woman answering calls with the same stock reply. Every time I call c2c and I've called on 3 different occasions, I speak to the same lady. And she told me she works weekends too. They're deliberately understaffing customer service so they can maximise their profits. That's what this lot are doing. And, I don't begrudge directors of a privately owned company wanting to make a profit. But what I can't stand is when they're making money and not offering people excellent customer service. An' I ain't 'aving it. I am going to get reply from them even if I have to write to the Managing Director himself.

5 January 2024
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

I emailed c2c asking for a refund of…

I emailed c2c asking for a refund of £130.20 since the first week in November 2023 when I accidently added my journeys onto the wrong named Smartcard.I have probably emailed at least five times called the helpline at least six times. The helpline is an outside agency who work on behalf of c2c but do not have the power to issue refunds.I have asked every one of the people I have called to escalate my issue which was not resolved and eventually after wasting hours of my time I had had enough and asked for compensation for the lack of customer service expected from c2c and asked for a finacial goodwill gesture for the distress and upset caused. I was eventually offered my refund but c2c did not acknowledge my complaint and I explained this in my response to them. I have still not had my refund and called c2c again last week to discuss this but to no avail.I understand this is over the Christmas break but this really does not excuse poor customer service. One of the customer service agents was named Nazia and the delays in her responses to my emails is poor and very distressing and frustrating. Hopefully a c2c representative might see this review and action my complaint.
£130.20 might not be a lot of money to some people but it is needed in the week before Christmas!!

2 November 2023
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Lost Item

The trains are reliable but if you drop your things at the C2C, 100% will not be return to you anymore. Staff are quick to say that there's nothing was handover to them, they dont even check in their lost and found place before saying nothing. We better drop our items at the heathrow airport, guarantee 100% will be return.

27 November 2023
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Feels like winning the lottery when the App works

The Smartcard is a great idea, and being able to buy and load the ticket on your card is great. The App looks sleek, so far so good.
But this is pretty much it, here is the list of issues I have with this:
- I generally buy my tickets via the App and load them on the Smartcard, but SOMETIMES during payment, you will get a 'Something went wrong' popup telling you to retry later. The problem here is that it still takes the money from your account (marked as Pending by your bank, but it 'locks' this amount from your account) and you have NO WAY of contacting any sort of online support, every single links redirect to the 'Contact us' form for train complaints. I'm still trying to get back my money after trying to buy my tickets 3 times (and yup, it failed 3 times at different time intervals).
- The 'cashback' based on points NEVER works, meaning you win points when you buy tickets, and then... well you cannot use them to reduce the price of future purchase. There is a way to retrieve this value in cash (cheque actually) but you must have at least £5 worth of cashback, so at the end the year, it RESETS meaning you can lose £4.99. What's the point of this if you just cannot use it?

9 November 2023
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Could be a lot better

Frequent delays with this service. The C2C app crashes all the time and the Smartcard has been unreliable countless times. I loaded a monthly ticket on it recently, which never worked. It took them 3 months to refund me after many chaser emails and phone calls.

I think it's good they've got new trains because the old ones are a bit grim, but who designed them? As a person who rarely gets a seat, the new trains are really uncomfortable for people who stand. Less hand rails and things to lean on, meaning you're sometimes hovering and trying not to fall over. I'm not sure carpeted flooring throughout is a good idea either. The old design was better.

6 November 2023
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Filthy

Filthy. I drive to most places, but thought I’d avoid London traffic and get on the train. Reminder: don’t.
You can’t help annoying loud people with no social awareness, but the trains are just gross. To add to that, 1 out of 6/7 machines at Grays station in use, the rest not working. Spoke to someone at the platform who said they never work.

25 October 2023
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Dubious Service & Terrible Website

C2C's service is somewhat dubious for lot's of reasons. But I thought it was me being stupid trying to use their website, especially to pay for parking. So three other adults in my family circle have tried, and it has to be near on the most user unfriendly and complicated website I have had the misfortune to come across. Stay clear, it will send you mad !

7 October 2023
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Awful ticketing service

Awful ticketing service. Their ticketing system refused to display journeys for the evening of 1st October from Basildon to London even though these were running. The first tickets for sale were from 4am on 2nd October. So had to purchase this (at the suggestion of the station staff at Basildon) which cost considerably more than it should as it was shown as a weekday ticket. Just to be able to get on the train. Your company is a joke!

1 October 2023
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Avoid c2c and take another route.

Absolute joke of a train line. Trains lately are constantly delayed or cancelled. Station staff don't seem to care or relay information regarding delays. The trains are disgustingly dirty, lowly/seldom maintained. Customer service over the phone are just so rude and obnoxious when you contact with an issue and there's never a response at all to email!
Given the cost these rip-off merchants charge their customers to travel is beyond disgraceful! What does it matter though. This is just another long list of complaints which they won't give a damn about! Take the money, forget the customers.

28 September 2023
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

This company needs to try so much…

This company needs to try so much harder to keep customers happy. You have to pay a ridiculous amount to use uncomfortable, overcrowded trains in peak periods. Added to this is appalling customer service help should you need to call them

I had a delay and claimed, even though I have their smart card, they can not issue an e-voucher for the refund. The year is 2023 and all they can do is post a paper voucher out costing them considerably more and now have a backlog to send out so over 2 weeks later I have no refund and am still waiting.

I wish there was a rival company for the South Essex line as they may actually pull their finger out and either give customers value for money or reduce the fares to reflect their poor trains. It is too easy for complacency and lack of vision for a company with no rivals.

12 September 2023
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Poor service every day

Poor service - no will to make anyone’s experience better or improve. Doesn’t listen, doesn’t deliver.
No staff, one machine that never works, busy station, happy to take £££.

19 September 2023
Unprompted review
Rated 3 out of 5 stars

The 8:02am train from Barking to…

The 8:02am train from Barking to Fenchurch Street station seems to be delayed quire frequently. For instance, this morning and twice last week. What's wrong with C2C? They used to be really company but now they are going downhill.

18 September 2023
Unprompted review

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