Why do some TOCs make it so difficult to buy tickets?

[Bill Badger]

I'm trying to buy an advance ticket for 9th January from SWT. I have been to two ticket offices and neither have been able to sell one to me. The first clerk told me to come back at the end of November, the second was marginally more helpful and said although they weren't on his system yet I should check on the website to see when I could buy them.

I had already done this of course and they were already there; however as I have a rail voucher I wish to use, I’m unable to purchase online.

How is it that tickets can be available on the SWT website to everyone, yet booking office staff can’t access them. I’ve posed SWT Customer Services the question of how I’m supposed to use my rail vouchers, before all the cheap advance tickets are sold out, but am not confident of a helpful answer.

Rant Over!

 

[Greenback]

Sorry, I'm a bit confused! Acording to National Rail Enquiries, advance tickets for 9 January have not yet been released for any TOC.

Do you want to buy a ticket in advance, or an advance (ie cheap) ticket? From your post it looks like the latter! You can, of course, buy walk up tickets for that date online, could it be that those are the fares that appeared on the SWT site?

(I'm checking the NRE site daily at the moment because cheap advance tickets for my intended journey haven't been released yet!)

 

[Bill Badger]

They are definitely available.

For example a £9.50 advance ticket is there for the 07.58 from Farnborough to Birmingham on both the NE and SWT Websites.

 

[tony_mac]

the National Rail website says that advance tickets are available for the 9th on NXEC and Virgin, but it hasn't been updated for a couple of days.

I can only suggest printing out exactly what you want and taking it to the ticket office. I have found that they will try for a while longer if they can see in black and white that what you are asking for definitely exists.

 

[moonrakerz]

They are definitely available.

For example a £9.50 advance ticket is there for the 07.58 from Farnborough to Birmingham on both the NE and SWT Websites.

Strange, I've checked the SWT site and there isn't a 0758 train according to that !

 

[Greenback]

I have found it!! On NXEC you need to unclick the show fastest services box and then click Via London! Lo and behold the 0758 £9.50 fare appears!

Sorry for my earlier confusion! I should have tried NXEC!

 

[LondonLarry]

I'm trying to buy an advance ticket for 9th January from SWT. I have been to two ticket offices and neither have been able to sell one to me. The first clerk told me to come back at the end of November, the second was marginally more helpful and said although they weren't on his system yet I should check on the website to see when I could buy them.

I had already done this of course and they were already there; however as I have a rail voucher I wish to use, I’m unable to purchase online.

How is it that tickets can be available on the SWT website to everyone, yet booking office staff can’t access them. I’ve posed SWT Customer Services the question of how I’m supposed to use my rail vouchers, before all the cheap advance tickets are sold out, but am not confident of a helpful answer.

Rant Over!

I've spoken to some at SWT who tells me it's taken longer than expected to update their services for the new hourly service to/from Exeter and the engineering works at Southampton Central Tunnel. They say their Advance reservations will open on either Friday 23rd or Saturday 24th October.

If you can't get their Advance fares at the station, you certainly won't be able to buy them online or over the phone!
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They are definitely available.

For example a £9.50 advance ticket is there for the 07.58 from Farnborough to Birmingham on both the NE and SWT Websites.

Sorry, just read this bit - thought you were referring to SWT specific Advance fares!!

SWT don't do reservations on trains from Farnborough so the issue might have been with the Virgin service from Euston.

 

[Bill Badger]

If you can't get their Advance fares at the station, you certainly won't be able to buy them online or over the phone!

But that's the whole point of my frustration as this is clearly not the case as they ARE showing up on the web to be booked; even SWTs own website

 

[LondonLarry]

But that's the whole point of my frustration as this is clearly not the case as they ARE showing up on the web to be booked; even SWTs own website

The £9.50 fare via Euston is available to book through RJIS - someone's just tried it!

 

[SquirrelJunction]

Well I just tried Havant to MKC for middle of December and no advance fares were even mentioned!

Saying that Google kept hijacking and displaying 404 Error pages

 

[Bill Badger]

The £9.50 fare via Euston is available to book through RJIS - someone's just tried it!

Thanks - I'll head off to the station again then. This time I'll also go armed with a print out from the SWT website too; wish me luck!

 

[yorkie]

If you told SWT you wanted a SWT reservation then the response is understandable. And if not, well the system is so complicated I'm not surprised they got it wrong!

But for a Virgin & Connections reservation, you won't be able to get the suggested connection on a train that is reservable until reservations open (the worst ones are Southern's semi-reservable services that can never be a suggested service on a "and connections" ticket) so getting a non-reservable train solves the problem. Sometimes you have to specify strange via points to achieve this. e.g. York to East Croydon specify via somewhere like Norwood Jn.
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Thanks - I'll head off to the station again then. This time I'll also go armed with a print out from the SWT website too; wish me luck!

Good luck!
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Well I just tried Havant to MKC for middle of December and no advance fares were even mentioned!

Saying that Google kept hijacking and displaying 404 Error pages

There aren't any with Virgin. If Virgin don't offer an AP fare to London, then there won't be an "and connections" ticket, as these are basically extensions of London tickets. Sorry

There is a "Southern only" option on the system (this will take a while!) but I can't find any fares to show.

Edit: Found them! Using Southern site, I specified via East Croydon then selected the route as Southern only, they are available at £4.50 with a change at Clapham Jn. for early December (Tue 8 Dec I tried) (not yet available for mid-December!)

All journeys leaving Havant at xx30 and taking 3.5 hrs.

 

[Bill Badger]

If you told SWT you wanted a SWT reservation then the response is understandable.

On my first two visits to the booking office I never got as far as discussion reservations as the conversation hit a brick wall after I asked for an Advance ticket from Farnborough to Birmingham.

Good luck!

Thanks – and I was successful Handed the website print out over, showing the journeys and tickets I wished to book and it was all done effortlessly in a couple of minutes. Whether, they had been added to the system since the morning or I had found a competent booking clerk I’ll never know.

Back to web bookings in the future I think, which is a shame as I like to support the booking offices which are left, but anything above a simple request seems to flummox them too often….. and don’t even get me started on PlusBus!

 

[yorkie]

Back to web bookings in the future I think, which is a shame as I like to support the booking offices which are left, but anything above a simple request seems to flummox them too often….. and don’t even get me started on PlusBus!

The ones that offer good customer service (or at least try) deserve to be supported. But if they were to deny, for example, a Senior Railcard discounted ticket for a relative of mine who was travelling next week by enforcing the "you must show the railcard" rule (clearly intended for immediate travel) or if they refuse to print out tickets despite being given reference number, name & address used for the booking, then they do not deserve to be supported and they'd deserve it if people deserted them. Equally if a hotel treated guests badly, they'd be daft to expect to survive.

 

[Matt Taylor]

or if they refuse to print out tickets despite being given reference number, name & address used for the booking, then they do not deserve to be supported and they'd deserve it if people deserted them.

Except that some companies are so determined to make customers use self service machines that they insist that pre-booked tickets cannot be collected from a ticket office whether the staff want to or not.

 

[yorkie]

which companies have that policy?

 

[Matt Taylor]

It would be very unwise of me to say on a public forum.

But any company that wishes to reduce ticket office staffing below DfT levels would have to prove that not enough people were using a given ticket office for it to be economical and a policy like the one I alluded to would go a long way towards helping the figures on a downward trend.

So it could be any TOC that is looking at reducing staffing levels.

 

[craigy68]

or if they refuse to print out tickets despite being given reference number, name & address used for the booking, then they do not deserve to be supported and they'd deserve it if people deserted them. Equally if a hotel treated guests badly, they'd be daft to expect to survive.

... the TOC is simply adhering tp the T&C's of the internet/telesales booking ... in effect it's the financial institutions that dictate this part of the T&C's ... if the TOC sticks to it then the financial institution is liable for any fraud ... if the TOC doesn't ... then the TOC is liable ...

 

[Hager98]

But lets say a RPI disagreed with what was written on the printout from the National Rail website, i was told by one conductor it only selects the fastest route only and ''to hell with anything else'' surely it must follow some rules. Lets say for example if he disagrees with whats printed will the customer be fined for following it.

 

[yorkie]

... the TOC is simply adhering tp the T&C's of the internet/telesales booking ... in effect it's the financial institutions that dictate this part of the T&C's ... if the TOC sticks to it then the financial institution is liable for any fraud ... if the TOC doesn't ... then the TOC is liable ...

Are you saying Virgin, National Express and Cross Country are not adhering to terms & conditions?
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But lets say a RPI disagreed with what was written on the printout from the National Rail website,

They can disagree all they like, but a court is less likely to disagree.

i was told by one conductor it only selects the fastest route only and ''to hell with anything else''

Not true. It follows an interpretation of the Routeing Guide (RG). It shows the fastest valid options by default unless you change the parameters of the search.

surely it must follow some rules.

It follows the RG, which is available on the RSP section of the ATOC website. http://www.atoc.org/rsp/Routeing_Guide/

Lets say for example if he disagrees with whats printed will the customer be fined for following it.

Refuse to pay then. In law, only a court can fine you, and they are unlikely to do so if you are complying with a printout from the NRES site.

 

[craigy68]

Are you saying Virgin, National Express and Cross Country are not adhering to terms & conditions?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---QUOTE]

... yes I am

 

[janb]

Except that some companies are so determined to make customers use self service machines that they insist that pre-booked tickets cannot be collected from a ticket office whether the staff want to or not.

Or indeed certain TOCs may have experienced actual fraud and this may have prompted them to issue clear instructions over the issuing of ToDs. Which staff have to follow.

 

[evil_hippo]

I find that some fares that show on NXEC after "show slower routes" has been checked do not actually work; when you attempt to make a reservation with that fare, it tells you that there is no availability. One thing I remember it doing is giving me the London Midland advance fare on Virgin trains from Stafford to London, and then telling me at the next stage no seats were available to be reserved.

This may be the case with that £9.50 fare.

 

[tony_mac]

Not true. It follows an interpretation of the Routeing Guide (RG). It shows the fastest valid options by default unless you change the parameters of the search.

The NR website quite often shows fastest but invalid options; it doesn't need any persuading to do so!
Obviously it does give you the 'multiple ticket' icon when that happens.