Complete Rip-Offs!

Last week I travelled on the Eurostar from St Pancras to Paris for my daughters hen party. 5 days before departure one of the bridesmaids was unable to come so to avoid disappointment we found a replacement thinking I would just have to pay an admin charge of maximum £30 to change the name. When I rang I was told it was not possible to change a name but as a goodwill gesture they would charge the price it was that day less the £99 we had already paid The extra cost a massive £210. I became very upset as neither I nor the new traveller (who was not coming previously due to the expense) have that sort of money available with a wedding to pay for. I said I would get back to them and after panic attacks and tears, my husband said we could get a loan. We never told her of the extra cost as we wanted her to come and she had just spent £80 on train from Swansea to London. I rang back and said I had to do it then was told they could not guarantee the same seat, as they would have to cancel one and re-book and in that time someone else may have booked the seat as it was nearly full. As you can imagine the stress was horrendous. I tried to explain this was OUR SEAT but apparently that does not matter, after all if our extra passenger wasn't coming the seat would have been empty, I just wanted my daughter to have a great time. I could hardly speak and the customer service lady was wonderful getting a colleague to cancel the original at pretty much the same time as booking the new one, which thankfully worked. I could not then believe it when NOT ONCE were our tickets checked against our names or Passports, so we could have just used the original ticket, absolutely gobsmacked. On our return to London, ok not due to Eurostar, trespassers were walking on the track causing 40 minute delay, not enough time to reimburse us for 1 hour delay, they probably would have run them over rather than give anyone their money back. My daughters friend missed her train to Swansea by 3 mins and had to pay an admin charge to change her ticket, luckily we all had flexible tickets but had to wait nearly 2 hours for another train. The whole experience has made me determined to never ever travel on the Eurostar again. I will only be flying from now on, I cannot believe how much it has cost us financially not to mention how much worry and stress involved. We are all totally disgusted not to mention £210+ poorer. Avoid Eurostar or if you face the same dilemma just travel on original ticket HONESTY is definitely not the best policy when it comes to Eurostar