Online ticket vendors cutting back on postage?

[whole diary]

[Brucey]

I was trying to book some tickets today on the SN website (as I like the Mixing Deck and wanted their 50% off discount).  However, it wouldn't give me the option of having the tickets posted - I had to collect them from a station.  Only option I had that would allow me to get the tickets at that price.

I then tried the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) website and they are now the same - collection only, even though my journey starts at an unmanned station.

Southeastern now charge for delivery, as do The Train Line, Raileasy and mytrainticket.co.uk (they operate Wrexham & Shropshire's booking service).

I know quite a few people who have been "conned" by delivery charges.  One of my friends bought a CDR^▸ (Off Peak Day Return [ticket type] (formerly 'Cheap Day')) (Off Peak Day Return) online and paid about ^1.50 in various fees.  She wouldn't believe me when I said the ticket would have been cheaper if she'd bought it at the station on the day of travel.

East Coast are still doing free delivery, which is fortunate.  However I don't expect it to last much longer.

Do the TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)'s still do free delivery if you phone them?  Is it still the case that SWT^▸ (South West Trains) operate their own call centre in Southampton, rather than outsourcing to The Train Line as some companies do?

If I have to go to the station to collect the tickets (as my local station is unmanned), I might as well just buy them there and save the hassle of using those fiddly reference numbers.

[Tim]

The FGW^▸ (First Great Western) site still offers free first class postage, although they will not offer you this option as close to the date of travel as they used to.  I assumed thatthis was because of the increasing rubishness of Royal mail not an attempt to save money.

[matt473]

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) do deliver 1st class post if the date of travel is more than 7 days in advance it seems. I know they deliver as I recieved tickets through this method last week.The reason was initially as a result of the Royal Mail strikes as I remember when there was uncertainty FGW stated that this form of getting tickets was unavailable due to the problems with Ryal Mail.

[Brucey]

Very silly mistake - I selected the wrong month on the FGW^▸ (First Great Western) website - put March when I wanted them for April, which is why they wouldn't post the tickets!