Richard Branson, pioneering founder of cutting-edge businesses, was this weekend contemplating a humiliating rebuff: the official website for Virgin trains has lost its quality hallmark.

Thetrainline.com, a subsidiary of Virgin Rail but in the process of being demerged, is only the second trading site to be ejected from the Which? Web Trader programme. The first was Jungle.com, since reinstated. 'The main source of complaint was regarding purchase of tickets which were not received, even though customers' accounts were debited,' said Katie Hammond of the Consumers' Association, which set up the kitemark scheme to encourage more people to shop online. It sets stringent standards and monitors the 850 registered retailers.

Customers who complained to thetrainline.com told Which? the staff were unhelpful. The complaints were passed on to the retailer but another 22 similar gripes were recorded in the space of three weeks. 'We have withdrawn their membership due to the fact that unsatisfactory progress had been made to rectify the problems,' said Hammond.

Trainline.com's chief executive, Alan Meekings apologised to customers. 'Every complaint which finds its way to Which? is like a stab in the chest.' But he said they had to be set against the 50,000 transactions made each week. The crux of the problem, he said, was a failure to transfer new timetable data correctly, leading to ticket-issuing problems. This caused a log-jam in the system.

He added: 'We are demerging because we are an impartial provider of tickets for all routes sold by all operators. Our aim is to provide the best route at the cheapest price.'

He said 40 per cent of all current inquiries result in sales of Virgin tickets.