Standard Class Passengers In First Class Row

[whole diary]

[Chris from Nailsea]

Ehh??

Hasn't Liam been buying adult tickets for some time now??

Chris 

[Ollie]

I didn't say a refund was issued - I said "refund chits" were issued, to be redeemed at a ticket office.  As I was travelling on an MoD warrant I handed mine back to my travel office, who did say that they had never seen one before !

There is no such thing as a refund chit or pad issued to FGW^▸ (First Great Western) on train staff - certainly not in the last 8 or so years

Oh dear,  I do wish people would at least read what I put in my post. I said this happened "a few years ago", not last week or last year ! And before anyone asks I didn't get the name of the man who was writing the refund chits either.

Apart from which:- could I quote from the (current !) FGW website ?

"If you hold a First Class ticket for a high speed service and have to stand for more than 20 minutes (or more than one stop where this is longer than 20 minutes), we will refund you in National Rail vouchers the difference between the cost of your First Class ticket for the affected leg of your journey and the corresponding Standard Class ticket. To claim your refund, you must contact a member of the on-board staff at the time of travel for verification, then make your claim by contacting our Customer Services Team."

Without wishing to appear pedantic (which some denizens of this site appear to be !) - this appears to be exactly what happened to myself and the other passengers, as I related in my OP^▸ (Original Poster / topic starter).

Verification = refund chit
Customer Services Team = Ticket Office

It would appear, therefore, that the details of my little story were not only correct "a few years ago"; but are in fact correct for the present day as well.

Customer Services Team would be customer services, no involvement from ticket offices. As per the quote the difference is done in vouchers which ticket offices are unable to issue.

[moonrakerz]

I didn't say a refund was issued - I said "refund chits" were issued, to be redeemed at a ticket office.  As I was travelling on an MoD warrant I handed mine back to my travel office, who did say that they had never seen one before !

There is no such thing as a refund chit or pad issued to FGW^▸ (First Great Western) on train staff - certainly not in the last 8 or so years

Oh dear,  I do wish people would at least read what I put in my post. I said this happened "a few years ago", not last week or last year ! And before anyone asks I didn't get the name of the man who was writing the refund chits either.

Apart from which:- could I quote from the (current !) FGW website ?

"If you hold a First Class ticket for a high speed service and have to stand for more than 20 minutes (or more than one stop where this is longer than 20 minutes), we will refund you in National Rail vouchers the difference between the cost of your First Class ticket for the affected leg of your journey and the corresponding Standard Class ticket. To claim your refund, you must contact a member of the on-board staff at the time of travel for verification, then make your claim by contacting our Customer Services Team."

Without wishing to appear pedantic (which some denizens of this site appear to be !) - this appears to be exactly what happened to myself and the other passengers, as I related in my OP^▸ (Original Poster / topic starter).

Verification = refund chit
Customer Services Team = Ticket Office

It would appear, therefore, that the details of my little story were not only correct "a few years ago"; but are in fact correct for the present day as well.

Customer Services Team would be customer services, no involvement from ticket offices. As per the quote the difference is done in vouchers which ticket offices are unable to issue.

The pedants surface again !   

As this incident happened "a few years ago" (I cut and paste that bit now !) "Customer Services" hadn't been invented then; proper customer service was death with by the train staff and the ticket office staff not a bunch of faceless "managers" sitting in an office block in Plymouth, whose sole aim in life is to make it too damn' difficult for people to complain !

[Ollie]

moonrakerz can you look at your post where you said:

"It would appear, therefore, that the details of my little story were not only correct "a few years ago"; but are in fact correct for the present day as well."

My reply was correcting that.

[Chris from Nailsea]

Thanks for your clarification, Ollie - it is indeed Customer Services who now deal with such matters.

On the other hand, moonrakerz, there are sometimes advantages in dealing with faceless 'Customer Services' people in Plymouth: see http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=2507.msg19184#msg19184

Chris