Print Page - What to do when the ticket machines butcher your online purchased tickets

"Butcher" is about the only family-friendly word I can think of that captures what happened.

A few weeks ago, I bought 2 Advance Single tickets for the 29th April (for BRI to CDF and back, including reservations for both journeys) and a Plusbus (for Bristol, mostly because getting a railcard discount on bus tickets is very much worth it; I can walk to my destination in Cardiff) at thetrainline. I elected to pick up my tickets at the station, to see if it was something that works for me (I would usually prefer to have them sent to me by post, as I have done before, but this will not always be convenient for me), and planned to pick them up while I was in town on any of the days before then.

When I went to pick up my tickets on Sunday at BRI, the ticket machine printed the Plusbus fine, but for my other tickets, it printed out seat reservations without actual tickets. I stood in front of the machine for about two minutes, looking at the tickets, noticing that they had the line "only valid with ticket number #####", refering to ticket numbers that I didn't have, thinking "this ain't right". The mackine hadn't printed out anything else in that time (not that I expected it to; it had said on screen that it was only printing 3 tickets), so I went to the ticket desk.

I explained my situation, and after looking at what the system had done (including printing out a few pages titled "Transaction Details", which among other things, had my debit card number on them in plain text; I hope that those were shredded after I was done. I really do...), he told me that according to the system, the ticket had printed out correctly (...), that I would have to buy a new ticket to travel (which I did, although an off-peak return was cheaper at that point), and that the only thing I could do was file a complaint against the ticket machine.

So... now I'm ^7.05 out of pocket, and preparing a complaint. But I'm wondering if there's something else I can do. I used the online chat in thetrainline's support section, and the person I spoke to mentioned that this is something I would need to take up with the station staff (and rightly so, IMO), and that, according to the NRCoC, "it is their duty to print the new ticket for me". After reading the document over, about the only relevant thing I can find is clause 7.

Quote from: NRCoC Clause 7

The Train Company whose trains you have the right to use, or who has agreed to provide you with any other goods or services, is responsible for providing the goods or services it has agreed to provide.

Does this apply here? And is there anything else that I can do, apart from this complaint letter?

The type of machine used at BRI has two hoppers and two printers. One prints all the reservations, the other prints the actual ticket. There must have been a problem with the ticket printer. Did the ticket office person actually check the machine to see if there was a problem? Did people using the machine later also complain?

I would be pursuing FGW as their machine was faulty and they also told you to buy a new ticket.

BTW, buy your tickets from the FGW next time. It is The Trainline but just branded differently and without any booking fees.

Great Western Coffee Shop

All across the Great Western territory => Your rights and redress => Topic started by: Pineapple on April 26, 2011, 10:36:01