Great Western Coffee Shop

 I received an email from First Great Western, with whom I am a frequent traveller.  It offered me a 10% discount on fares.  The fare I normally pay is ^20.00, from London to Swindon, on an advance internet booking.
I clicked on the link, and was taken to the 10% discount page.  When I put in the journey details, it came up with my normal ^20 fare, then added ^2.20 on, then deducted ^2.20, leaving me with my original fare of ^20.00!!

When  I contacted FGW about this, they first  sent me back an email denying all knowledge of a discount being offered.  When I persisted, they sent me another email saying not to worry, that although the discount does not appear on the payment page, I would see that it would be discounted when I got my bank statement.
I have just received my bank statement, and I have been charged ^60 (for 3 journeys) which is what I would normally pay.  Has anyone else experienced this stunning piece of dishonesty? I am going to try and take it further, suggestions would be welcome about how to get some redress.

Is what you 'normally pay' the fare you were buying before September 6th?

FGW increased their advance ticket prices by 11% from this date. They also began offering the 10% online discount (only available on their website, not stations or other ticket selling websites) to keep the FGW advance fares at the pre-increase prices.

So, not really a discount, just maintaining the status-quo. But only if you buy from FGW website. If you buy your advance ticket from anywhere else it will cost 11% more than it would've done prior to Sept 6th.

I see this is posted in "Fare's Fair" perhaps it should be in "Smoke and Mirrors"

It's a pity the RUS consultation doesn't give us a chance to add "Sort out the fare system".

This is a recurrent theme on this board, the vast descrepancies you can pay for the same journey on the same train depending on how, when and where you buy your ticket.

I posted elsewhere that I even thought my two recent journeys on FGW were too cheap. Being ^12.55 (now 13.95 but still cheap) Taplow Bristol and ^10.50 Gloucester Taplow both First Class with Senior Railcard. I would have happily paid ^20 for each First Class.

But even at these cheap fares I had a 48 seat coach virtually to myself on each journey.

What I would not have paid is  ^61.40 for anytime First Class fare.

Can anyone explain why the Off Peak First class single is shown as ^76.55 when the anytime is ^61.40?