Thanks to Management at Norwich AGA.

[Richard1960]

I had a lot of travelling to do around Harlow -Norfolk for leisure last week.

So i bought a weekly season ticket Harlow to Cambridge,

When i got to cambridge i asked for a weekly season for cambridge*/Norfolk area (Anglia Plus) the ticket they sold me was £80 odd pounds,and said cambridge via ely on it,i queried with station staff why it had no mention of Norfolk on it.

I was told it would be ok as it had Anglia Plus on it.

The long and short was i had an altercation with the guard on the Norwich -Sheringham route, got off at Salhouse and went back to Norwich their customer service told me there was no one i could speak to,they really were hopeless not all just the 2 i dealt with.

At the front of the station was a board saying you could speak to a area supervisor so i phoned up and one come down( funny customer service did not mention this).

Next day i got offered £60 worth of vouchers,but only took £40 of them,as all i wanted was a recognition they had done wrong, also had a meting with the area manager who confirmed Cambridge had sold me a wrong ticket(And wrote me a covering letter to let me finish my week off),i would not mind but this is the second time this has happened (differing tickets).

Why do the ticket sellers not know what they are selling i wonder,? anyhow the station area manager said he would be having words to make sure this kind of thing does not happen to me in future and gave me his name.

I think Paul Daniels must be running Norwich customer service as every time i approached them they disappeared.LOL.

 

[greatkingrat]

There are four possible Anglia Plus seasons available from Cambridge

rte Anglia Zone - 109.10
rte Cambs & Suffolk - 82.20
rte Via Ely - 82.20
rte Via Cambridge - 48.40

The fares manual says
Various combinations of zones are available. Tickets are issued from the origin station to destination K285 (Anglia Plus) with the zones of validity shown as the route, except Norfolk & Cambridge which has route “Via Ely”.

So it seems that you were actually sold the correct ticket, the problem is the use of a bizarre route description by GA, instead of the more obvious rte "Cambs & Norfolk".

 

[Richard1960]

There are four possible Anglia Plus seasons available from Cambridge

rte Anglia Zone - 109.10
rte Cambs & Suffolk - 82.20
rte Via Ely - 82.20rte Via Cambridge - 48.40

The fares manual says
Various combinations of zones are available. Tickets are issued from the origin station to destination K285 (Anglia Plus) with the zones of validity shown as the route, except Norfolk & Cambridge which has route “Via Ely”.

So it seems that you were actually sold the correct ticket, the problem is the use of a bizarre route description by GA, instead of the more obvious rte "Cambs & Norfolk".

Thats the one i got £82.20 via Ely, and was told the via Ely was not valid in Norfolk even though in Cambridge i was told it was.

Yes i agreee i hope some managers are reading this it really needs fixing properly .Thanks for your reply.

And the conductors also. Grrrrrrrrrrrr
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
I wonder if any ticket office staff are on here from Cambridge who may like to explain the Anglia Plus ticketing also.

 

[bb21]

I don't know what you mean.

As greatkingrat pointed out, you were sold the correct ticket so it would seem that ticket office staff at Cambridge did their jobs correctly. Your problem lies with the guard on the Sheringham train, and you were quite clearly incorrectly advised by the so-called "area manager".

You appear to be misdirecting your criticism.

 

[CyrusWuff]

[/B]
I wonder if any ticket office staff are on here from Cambridge who may like to explain the Anglia Plus ticketing also.

Not from Cambridge, but I had a look at the pricing options from Norwich at work yesterday and got the following:

rte Norfolk: £48.40
rte Anglia Zone: £109.10
rte Via Ely: £82.20
rte Norflk & Sufflk: £82.20

I wonder if the same Conductor would try to argue that the same ticket issued at Norwich wasn't valid in Norfolk...

 

[yorkie]

The long and short was i had an altercation with the guard on the Norwich -Sheringham route, got off at Salhouse and went back to Norwich their customer service told me there was no one i could speak to,they really were hopeless not all just the 2 i dealt with..

Unfortunately the Guards are not consistently nice in this area. While many of them are absolutely great (my guard on the 1000 Liverpool St - Norwich a couple of Saturdays ago was brilliant), there are one or two who work the lines around Sheringham & Lowestoft who are absolutely rotten and need to be dealt with appropriately, and I guess you encountered one of those people. Make sure you make a complaint and if you are not adequately compensated ensure that you don't hesitate to contact Passenger Focus.

Yes, managers read this forum, but you need to make the complaint through the official channels otherwise the one or two bad Guards will continue to harass customers. It's a small minority but they need to be dealt with as they are harming GA's reputation, and the reputation of the many great guards in that area (some of whom are members of this forum) who do a really good job.

 

[Richard1960]

Thanks i love Norfolk as a county and often visit but the conductors on some of the routes are now putting me off ,and two so called customer service reps at Norwich who seem to know less then nothing.

If you want to know who is dealing please PM me as i do not want to publish in a public forum.

 

[TheEdge]

*snip for effect*...and the reputation of the many great guards in that area (some of whom are members of this forum) who do a really good job.

I'll put down my flaming torch now!

 

[Sleepy]

Thanks i love Norfolk as a county and often visit but the conductors on some of the routes are now putting me off ,and two so called customer service reps at Norwich who seem to know less then nothing.

If you want to know who is dealing please PM me as i do not want to publish in a public forum.

For the record the "customer service reps" are train dispatchers so unlikely to know much about tickets - perhaps the signage at Norwich should be changed to Information point or similar ?

 

[Richard1960]

For the record the "customer service reps" are train dispatchers so unlikely to know much about tickets - perhaps the signage at Norwich should be changed to Information point or similar ?

Yes of course but that is one for Abellio Greater Anglia not me.(Mimd you they were no good at info either read on)

Mind you even customer service/ information point reps ,in this case i recognised one that used to be a conductor,should at least have the knowledge to not p--s customers off,who are paying their wages .


And point them in the right direction,they did not tell me about area managers i found that out only because i saw a big board in the entrance to Norwich Station .

That was never mentioned by them either they were blind or could not care less.,guess which one i think..
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

I don't know what you mean.

As greatkingrat pointed out, you were sold the correct ticket so it would seem that ticket office staff at Cambridge did their jobs correctly. Your problem lies with the guard on the Sheringham train, and you were quite clearly incorrectly advised by the so-called "area manager".

You appear to be misdirecting your criticism.

Deleted.







______________________________________________________________________
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Unfortunately the Guards are not consistently nice in this area. While many of them are absolutely great (my guard on the 1000 Liverpool St - Norwich a couple of Saturdays ago was brilliant), there are one or two who work the lines around Sheringham & Lowestoft who are absolutely rotten and need to be dealt with appropriately, and I guess you encountered one of those people. Make sure you make a complaint and if you are not adequately compensated ensure that you don't hesitate to contact Passenger Focus.

Yes, managers read this forum, but you need to make the complaint through the official channels otherwise the one or two bad Guards will continue to harass customers. It's a small minority but they need to be dealt with as they are harming GA's reputation, and the reputation of the many great guards in that area (some of whom are members of this forum) who do a really good job.

Passenger focus have been informed do not worry about that.

And yes i could name many great guards who work the Sheringham /Lowestoft lines,the good ones out number the bad many times thankfully.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---


Hi all just an update.

Passsenger Focus have now been in contact with me they said it sounded incredible,i have passed all the info onto them about the route codes being used on the Cambridge/Norfolk 7 day Anglia Plus tickets .

As i do not want to be sorting this mess out again whilst travelling.

Kind regards.

Richard.

 

[Richard1960]

First i would like to thank everybody who gave advice in this thread it proved very useful.


Just thought i would give an update passenger focus are still awaiting a response from all of this from GA . It is quite a mess but am hopeful of a resolution soon fingers crossed.

Norwich may be a big station but as i said nobody including the ticket staff at Norwich could find the ticket on their systems, even when the area CS manager asked them, for such a large station staff knowledge with the people i have dealt with anyway seems woeful, the barrier staff are quite nice and jokey though platform staff i mean not all guards or drivers as most are very good...

Richard.

 

[Richard1960]

Hi Just had a reply from passenger focus, in it Abellio Greater Anglia have agreed to change the coding on the "weekly 7 day Anglia Plus Season ticket",but not until next april. Meanwhile they are to re-rebrief all staff who have dealings with this ticket .

Passenger focus have stated they cannot force them to do this earlier as they are not a stautory regulator,so next stop my MPs surgery next monday morning.

So almost there sorting this one out phew.

 

[greatkingrat]

I think that is as good an answer as you are going to get. The December fare change data will already have been finalised, so next year is the earliest realistic date at which it could be changed.

I doubt your MP would even understand the problem, or do anything other than forward your letter to AGA again.

 

[Richard1960]

I think that is as good an answer as you are going to get. The December fare change data will already have been finalised, so next year is the earliest realistic date at which it could be changed.

I doubt your MP would even understand the problem, or do anything other than forward your letter to AGA again.

Thanks for your reply and earlier help really appreciated,yes i think you are right this is the best answer i will get, however this is only a side issue to the main issue nothing to do with transport i am going to see my MP about.

Once agian many thanks for your help and all the others that replied.