Stansted Express Reviews

I would like to file an official complaint regarding a staff member of Stansted Express who exhibited serious misdemeanor. My family and I are tourists in the UK and we arrived to Stansted Airport station 11 AM on July 10, 2022 to catch a plane to Spain. It was my family's first experience in Stansted.

Unfortunately, the staff member of Stansted Express was surprisingly rude. We didn't know about the rule to buy separate tickets and upon arrival we asked him if it was possible to buy those tickets at the airport as we could see a tickets sign from a distance. He wouldn't answer our questions and immediately charged the 3 of us double penalty of £ 20 x2 so we paid £ 120 penalty for one way!!! When we asked him to explain what's the issue he refused to discuss with us and pressured us to get our phones out immediately to charge us the penalty. We told him it was a genuine mistake and his reply was "because you didn't know you have to pay. I'll make you pay double penalty" although we discover a sign next to him that mentioned 20 pounds penalty, he charged us double for each member. This was beside the £10 each that was automatically charged when we tapped our phones.

Our complain is not so much about the money (we spend a lot on vacations) but the shockingly unprofessionalism he demonstrated, coupled with rudeness and lack of respect. It's a disgrace to have such employees working at an international airport who act like that. I don't believe these are the values or customer service you hope to represent as a company. On the way back, we made sure not to use the Standstee Express and instead took a bus to London and successfully avoided such experience.

Bad service.

One of the worst experiences of my life. Deserve an apology from whoever runs it.

Their sales policies are extremely predatory, they don't care at all about the customer, they prefer to make quick money from scams

What a pitiful way of stealing tourists and travelers money. Tapped into the station (as everywhere in London) to find out at the exist of stansted they don’t have a way to tap out. Bought a ticket online and got treated like a stealer by a member of the staff (GA144 or G1445) and told to pay for the ticket again, + a fine equal 100% of the ticket price. When I said that I genuinely didn’t see any sign at the previous station (otherwise I wouldn’t have tapped in in the first place) the staff was extremely rude and said there are signs and I was lying - I work in UX, good companies pay for clients’ feedback and maybe try to improve. Looking at the reviews here, I’m not the only idiot that fell into this SCAM and paid for the ticket 4 times because I had a flight to catch. You need to be ashamed of yourselves and I hope you spend all my money in medicines.

Horrible service. No sign tap in not allowed. Staff extremely rude, impolite and right out nasty. Stay away from stansted. Stay away from this train. Insulted by staff. Stolen 50 pounds from them. GA1445 was completely impolite, out of line, rude and threw curses and insults at us.

If I could I would give zero stars! This company is profiting off innocent unexpecting tourists by making no effort to highlight need for an additional ticket and then making people pay an extortionate penalty fee when arriving at their destination. Very rude unhelpful staff. Absolutely appalling principles. AVOID AVOID AVOID. Despicable!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Like so many others, I tapped in with my contactless card in Tottenham Hale, which is only a few meters away from the underground gates. Didn't see any signalling about needing to buy a new ticket online, nor staff to inform me. I imagine I missed something, but I'm far from the only one - on my train alone there were at least 4 other people who'd done the same thing, while the staff tried to tell us our case was "unusual". Reading the reviews here, this is definitely not unusual.
Stansted Express invest little into their entry gates - no contactless technology, no staff, bad signalling - but when people are in a rush to get into the airport that's when they hit you with lots of staff, clear signalling, they get you to pay penalty fees directly through a contactless machine (oh the irony!) etc - they're obviously aware what is going on. They then point you to an appeals process which responds with automated messages - at every point you're speaking to staff who have no choice but to implement a predatory system, and never do you speak with anybody who can take any self-initiative or give you any benefit of the doubt (for contrast, the underground tube system will refund your first appeal no questions asked). Whoever's setting these policies is having their staff do the dirty work of dealing with understandably pissed off customers, who then get hit with both an overcharge fee from using their contactless but not tapping out, and a penalty fare doubling the Stansted Express fee (which is already not cheap), plus they get to be accused of dishonesty in the process.
It's time for Stansted Express to get called out for their predatory practices.

Scamming travellers to make a profit. Despicable business practices. No signage that you cannot tap in to travel like other airports (and no staff warning), but then an army of staff at arrival to charge everyone penalty fares. You should be ashamed of your business ethics.

All reviews are true about intentionally misleading for profits. It’s not the staff’s fault, but they probably get the most angry customers as a result of the illogical way their company operates. Was charged £40 for 2 tickets at the exit because there are signs to buy tickets, but those won’t be valid so I had to pay an additional fine of £80, not to mention tapping in via TFL at the entrance because this isn’t clear at all. 3 employees and lines at the exit of the airport (where people are trying to catch flights) because of this disaster process. Complete scam that should be shut down or better regulated.

Feels like a scam. As others have said, no clear instructions, they allow you to tap-in with contactless/Oyster and then have set up a ticket check booth at the other end to hit you with a £40 fine when you get off having not bought a ticket. Feels like a deliberate trap.

To make matters worse, when you disembark they have signs to say 'ensure you've bought your ticket' and even a 'buy your ticket here' area, but your ticket has to have been bought BEFORE YOU BOARDED THE TRAIN, even if it's perfectly valid for the service. So if you then try to buy a ticket while waiting in the ticket check queue, you'll still be told your ticket isn't valid and thus fined.

Being generous maybe it isn't intentional but it really feels like it's planned as a scam, and the cold attitude of the staff comes across as if they've been trained to carry it out. Left a really nasty taste.

Please do not use Stanstead Airpot train services. If it is running that running how any other services. But if you will have any issues they are as a wall and absolutely do not care about customers/ guests, etc. They work only for themselves. The last train absolutely does not match with the last flight or does not give any extra options if flights are delayed. If there is any issue with the flight, they do not cooperate with Airport arrivals and help get home. The company got your money and they do not care how it is when you stay on the platform and see how the last train (time 0:30) running away.... and no more train, your paid money is in the bin and you can go home by walk. Very rude Customer Services without any care about the client. They did not give any options to help and keep customers. Please do not use them - they are not so comfortable or quicker as any other options - for example the bus Express from London Street Station - especially at night time.

This train is a scam. After two days of riding all around london by just tapping in and out with my phone, I got on at Tottenham Hale, tapped in like I always do, and went to the airport. Then got a £40 “fine” for not buying a ticket. It happens so frequently they have a separate line for it. Horrible experience for anyone visiting London, but I’m sure the train operators don’t care because it’s more money for them. WHY IS THERE A TAP IN IF YOU STILL HAVE TO BUY A TICKET, AND HOW DO EXPECT PEOPLE TO KNOW THIS?

Terrible. Deliberately confusing customers to make a profit. No signage that cannot use contactless then gives you a 40£ fine after delaying you for 20 mins BEFORE a flight ! Taking advantage of people

This has to be the most expensive European airport train line , 20£ single ticket -zero value for money