Excess fare query Sheffield to Chesterfield

[matthewluck]

I've just been to the ticket office at Sheffield with an Anytime Day Single £5.50 Sheffield to Chesterfield.

As I'm now making a return journey I asked to excess this to an anytime day return by paying the difference in fare. I was told that this was not possible and I would need to buy a new single ticket for my return journey.

I also approached the Guard before departure who told me that if the ticket office can't do it then she would not be able to.

Should I have been able to excess my ticket to a return? Would appreciate any advice

 

[Merseysider]

As far as I know, there’s no obligation for you to be sold such an excess.

That said, I’ve never been refused one in such circumstances and it’s not exactly good customer service to refuse to sell it.

Where the difference between a single and return is negligible, it’s better to buy the return, just in case.

 

[matthewluck]

Yes, Merseysider I should have just purchased the return given the price difference.

It was a perfectly reasonable request. They are saying that it is because I booked online they could not excess it.

I've had quite a poor reply from their customer service too. The ticket was booked on the Transpennine website and collected from a ticket machine at Sheffield.

Hi Matthew, I have chased this up for you and the answer you have been told is correct. As the ticket was collected via a reference and sold at the booking office window, there is no way of excess-ing this ticket. If the ticket had been purchased at our stations or on train, they have a 30 minute window that they can use to excess/refund/non-issue the product. If you wish for more information, please contact the site where the ticket was purchased.

 

[Merseysider]

That last bit is nonsense; it’s perfectly possible for staff to excess a ticket purchased from anywhere, online or not.

An exception exists, de facto, for m-tickets/e-tickets.

 

[Starmill]

EMT can't (or at least couldn't) sell these excesses. It's definitely possible to do a single to return excess generally.

Good ticket offices will ask if the customer is coming back for an extra 10p. In your case, as you have an Anytime Day Single when an Off Peak Day Single/Return would do, there would be no excess to pay.

You could always get the bus back. I assume that the single fare they charge is more reasonable than £5.40?

Alternatively, buy a single back for £5.40 and post both tickets to EMT very very politely asking them to refund the extra £5.40 on the basis that you already paid £5.50, which was the fare due for the journey you made (the Off Peak Day Return). They may send you a 'gesture of goodwill'.

 

[matthewluck]

I think the X17 bus is a little more reasonably priced.

That seems like sound advice about posting the tickets to EMT with a letter. In the end I got back to Sheffield on the train without having to buy another ticket.

 

[Hadders]

Isn't the relevant thing here Sheffield ticket office.....

 

[matthewluck]

Isn't the relevant thing here Sheffield ticket office.....

I've never had any problems like this anywhere else

 

[_toommm_]

I've never had any problems like this anywhere else

Well more about EMT:
'Can I have a Cheshire Day Ranger please?'
*faffing about*
We don't issue that.

Ask the guard on the train before I board
'This is Saaaath Yorkshire mate. Cheshire is that way. Course I can't issue that'
'Yes, but I'm paying for a single to Stockport where it becomes valid'
*starts getting all angtsy at the prospect of selling something other than a single or return*

 

[Merseysider]

Yeah, pretty much.

It’d be nice if all rovers and rangers were available to purchase online/from ticket machines, just like they have been in Germany for the best part of a decade, but I suppose that’s too much to ask.

 

[bb21]

Officially once your ticket expires, it expires. There is no entitlement to this excess and the ticket office are perfectly entitled to refuse this transaction.

For all they know you could have picked it up the floor.

Some staff will offer them, but this is strictly discretionary, so there is no case to answer here.

 

[matthewluck]

The ticket hadn't expired. It had just been collected from the ticket collection machine a couple of minutes earlier and was presented with the collection receipt.

 

[Starmill]

Officially once your ticket expires, it expires. There is no entitlement to this excess and the ticket office are perfectly entitled to refuse this transaction.

The OP was not using an expired ticket.

 

[bb21]

OK then, I misread that part, so scratch that, but the point still stands that there is no automatic entitlement. It is entirely discretionary, so there is no case to answer.