Wow, I really do get them don't I! Here's my latest incident...
A day out in London for my birthday, during a tube strike, and had absolutely no problems on the trains or tube (Victoria Line).
But after my dad started to feel a bit ill after our food, it became a rush to get to King's Cross to get the fast (1722) train to Hatfield, which we did by arriving at 1715, but it all fell apart because of an East Coast staff member at the gates on the upper walkway (what I thought was the quickest way to get to platform 6 after coming up the escalator near platform 9 3/4).
The gates gave an error (136 or 139?) which they always do. FCC staff let you through though because they know Hatfield isn't part of the evening peak. Sadly, the error code obviously means the untrained will instantly conclude it's not valid.
And I met one.
We're standing there and it's approaching 1720, and he's telling me we all need to go to the ticket office to sort new tickets and refused to make any sort of check, after all he's clearly right.
Meanwhile, loads of other people are getting the same error - but, despite Hatfield not being valid, he let someone through manually with a London Terminals to WGC off-peak ticket! I tried to point out that WGC is one station beyond Hatfield, but he just smiled at me.
At this point, it seemed as if he'd made up his mind and wouldn't budge so was now going to make damn sure we missed the train. Either that or he didn't know where Hatfield was.
Then he let almost everyone else through getting the same error, but asked us all to move back! The only thing I can imagine was different on our tickets was that they were Groupsave 4.
Once it became obvious we were going to miss the 1722, I asked for his details and he complied - letting me write his badge details down, but pushing my camera away when I initially tried to just photograph it to make it easier. He told me I wasn't allowed to take a photo of his face (despite his badge on a lanyard being somewhat further down than his face - and why did I need his face?).
By the time we got back downstairs, where we were let through without fuss, the 4-car 1727 was too packed and there was no way to walk down to get on (four adults, baby and buggy) so we had to let that go too. Next train: 1752.
Having now gained 30 minutes, I asked an FCC staff member if he'd come with me to speak to the EC guy, but by the time we got back he'd gone. The new guy said he'd gone to take a break. Possibly true, it was now near 1730, but also possibly someone knowing we were going to go and speak to someone.
The FCC guy apologised (I told him not to, it wasn't his job to apologise!) and he explained that EC use so many agency staff that have little training, due to a high turnover, and that the problems happen all the time.
While I sympathise with FCC, at the same time, it's not acceptable to be refused access to your train - and have to accept that between 1600 and 1900, you can't afford to use any gateline that hasn't got multiple staff where there's a chance of at least one knowing the rules, or being willing to check.
Obviously using the ordinary gates downstairs, or even those on platforms 9-11 and walking around via platform 9/8 would have worked better, and had I been on my own I'd have had the time to run - but not when in a group.
Sadly I don't expect I can use Delay Repay to make a claim for being delayed 30 minutes because of staff action - although I'm going to report him to EC, even though from what FCC staff say, he probably won't even be working there in a fortnight!
A day out in London for my birthday, during a tube strike, and had absolutely no problems on the trains or tube (Victoria Line).
But after my dad started to feel a bit ill after our food, it became a rush to get to King's Cross to get the fast (1722) train to Hatfield, which we did by arriving at 1715, but it all fell apart because of an East Coast staff member at the gates on the upper walkway (what I thought was the quickest way to get to platform 6 after coming up the escalator near platform 9 3/4).
The gates gave an error (136 or 139?) which they always do. FCC staff let you through though because they know Hatfield isn't part of the evening peak. Sadly, the error code obviously means the untrained will instantly conclude it's not valid.
And I met one.
We're standing there and it's approaching 1720, and he's telling me we all need to go to the ticket office to sort new tickets and refused to make any sort of check, after all he's clearly right.
Meanwhile, loads of other people are getting the same error - but, despite Hatfield not being valid, he let someone through manually with a London Terminals to WGC off-peak ticket! I tried to point out that WGC is one station beyond Hatfield, but he just smiled at me.
At this point, it seemed as if he'd made up his mind and wouldn't budge so was now going to make damn sure we missed the train. Either that or he didn't know where Hatfield was.
Then he let almost everyone else through getting the same error, but asked us all to move back! The only thing I can imagine was different on our tickets was that they were Groupsave 4.
Once it became obvious we were going to miss the 1722, I asked for his details and he complied - letting me write his badge details down, but pushing my camera away when I initially tried to just photograph it to make it easier. He told me I wasn't allowed to take a photo of his face (despite his badge on a lanyard being somewhat further down than his face - and why did I need his face?).
By the time we got back downstairs, where we were let through without fuss, the 4-car 1727 was too packed and there was no way to walk down to get on (four adults, baby and buggy) so we had to let that go too. Next train: 1752.
Having now gained 30 minutes, I asked an FCC staff member if he'd come with me to speak to the EC guy, but by the time we got back he'd gone. The new guy said he'd gone to take a break. Possibly true, it was now near 1730, but also possibly someone knowing we were going to go and speak to someone.
The FCC guy apologised (I told him not to, it wasn't his job to apologise!) and he explained that EC use so many agency staff that have little training, due to a high turnover, and that the problems happen all the time.
While I sympathise with FCC, at the same time, it's not acceptable to be refused access to your train - and have to accept that between 1600 and 1900, you can't afford to use any gateline that hasn't got multiple staff where there's a chance of at least one knowing the rules, or being willing to check.
Obviously using the ordinary gates downstairs, or even those on platforms 9-11 and walking around via platform 9/8 would have worked better, and had I been on my own I'd have had the time to run - but not when in a group.
Sadly I don't expect I can use Delay Repay to make a claim for being delayed 30 minutes because of staff action - although I'm going to report him to EC, even though from what FCC staff say, he probably won't even be working there in a fortnight!
