More on train tickets

[lnr]

So, as I said in a comment on my last post I wrote an email to Greater Anglia:

Dear Greater Anglia,

On Saturday I travelled from Shelford to Harpenden, returning the following day. I understand that there is an off-peak return available for this journey which is priced at £52.50. However when I went to tickets from the machine at Shelford station I was appalled to find that it was not possible to buy a ticket to Harpenden. (I typed H A R and was offered several stations including Harlow Town - but once I added the P there were no destinations available). In the end I bought an off-peak return to London Terminals (£22.60), paid two single tube fares across London at £4.30 each, and bought at off-peak return from St Pancras to Harpenden (£22.50) - in total this cost £53.70.

This means that being unable to buy the ticket I wanted from your machine cost me £1.30 - as well as considerable anxiety and time in buying extra tickets. I'm also concerned I may have accidentally used my London Terminals ticket in a way which was not actually valid since I changed at Tottenham Hale rather than Liverpool Street - and possibly I should have actually bought a more expensive return to Tottenham Hale.

Please could you let me know (preferably by email rather than phone):

- why the ticket was not available at the machine in Shelford
- whether I can re-claim my £1.30 of extra fare
- whether my London Terminals ticket was valid to Tottenham Hale

Many thanks,

Eleanor Blair

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Today I got a reply as follows:

Dear Ms Blair,

Thank you for your recent email regarding the issues you were faced when purchasing a ticket to Harpenden on the 22 September 2012.

I was very sorry to read that you were unable to purchase a ticket from our self-service ticket machine for your journey from Shelford to Harpenden. As you can appreciate there are thousands of train stations throughout the country and occasionally we do miss a destination on the machines. I have passed your comments on to the relevant management and I hope this can be added to these machines in the near future.

As I understand you have paid additional fees by the error in our ticketing machine, I am able to refund the additional amount if you can send me your tickets to the address below quoting reference GA-120925-7KZH.

Freepost (RSCZ-UXZJ-EHHE)
Greater Anglia
Customer Relations
Station Approach
Norwich
NR1 1EG

Once again, please accept my apologies and thank you for contacting us.

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So I've written back to them, and asked again whether the tickets were in fact valid, since that didn't seem to be answered. And just in case my letter and tickets go missing I took photos of them first, which are below for those interested.

I presume I should expect a (small) cheque in the post!

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

All a bit bonkers. What are you costing your time out for providing this valuable public service. And why does the station manger have to update the machine. What a job that must be.

[stephdairy.livejournal.com]

From the Conditions of Carriage:

16You may start, or break and resume, a journey (in either direction in the case of a return
ticket) at any intermediate station, as long as the ticket you hold is valid for the trains you
want to use. You may also end your journey (in either direction in the case of a return
ticket) before the destination shown on the ticket. However, these rights may not apply to
some types of tickets for which a break of journey is prohibited, in which case the Ticket
Seller must make this clear when you buy your ticket.

(S) (it's usually only Advance tickets that restrict this these days)

[sparrowsion]

I wonder if they would be willing to do anything if you didn't have any of the tickets because they'd been eaten by exit barriers?

[bjh21.livejournal.com]

Based on my experience, I expect you'll get a £2 Rail Travel Voucher rather than a cheque.