Southern - overcharged me for ticket! 3-4x more!

[torent5]

What do i need to do???? I Should pay fot it(Gatwick Airport - London zones 1-6 traveled by southern) about 13 pounds but they charged me 44 pounds and now after two weeks (when i noticed on my banking internet account) they want me to show them a proof! What are all of the people doing with their tickets??? Throw away... So from where do i get it back? So they can charge everyone like that... He sold me right ticket but charged a lot more... What do i need to do? any idea?... thx for help

 

[MCR247]

What?

 

[torent5]

that? what more do you need to know? i`ve texted customer service so he asked me for statement copy. ok i`ve sent him and after he asked for copy of ticket...

 

[paul1609]

Calm Down, then you might make more sense!
Is this a ticket office sale or on board?
You must have authorised this amount by the use of your PIN?

 

[MCR247]

that? what more do you need to know? i`ve texted customer service so he asked me for statement copy. ok i`ve sent him and after he asked for copy of ticket...

It didn't make any sense at all!

 

[torent5]

it was busy time so many people and maybe i didn`t look at the amount...
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
ok then...
1. Gatwick Airport(southern ticket desc)
2.Ticket (Gatwick Airport - London Zones 1-6) He told me it cost 12.40 or something so i agreed and entered pin...
3.I`ve check at home few days later and i see they charged me 44.
4.Emailed customer service they asked for statement copy(sent straight away...)
5. they asked me for ticket as a proof...
6.i don`t have it...
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Is there any chance to find a connection betweet my credit card number - transaction - and ammount charged?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Calm Down, then you might make more sense!
Is this a ticket office sale or on board?
You must have authorised this amount by the use of your PIN?

ticket sale office...

 

[ChrisTheRef]

It may well have been a simple case of typing on a number pad and hitting a 4 instead of a 1.
You should always check the amount before you enter your pin

 

[royaloak]

And check the receipt immediately afterwards.

 

[glynn80]

It may well have been a simple case of typing on a number pad and hitting a 4 instead of a 1.
You should always check the amount before you enter your pin

This is actually a problem on certain Chip & Pin machines (especially it seems in restaurants, although I've never encountered this problem at railway stations) whereby the amount is entered manually by the member of staff handling the C&P machine and then hands it to you for you to enter your pin. The screen that the customer uses does not show the amount and it is only when the receipt is printed that you can be certain what amount was actually entered by the member of staff. I realise this is on a minority of machines, but you can't always check the amount on the machine itself.

 

[ralphchadkirk]

It also happens that vendor hasn't pressed enter after entering your amount, so you put in your PIN, price up 4 figures, press enter, then it asks you for your PIN, so you put it in again thinking you made a mistake...

 

[torent5]

ok then tell me what to do? if i have made a payment for ticket they need to have me in the base so if they see my credit card number they should see what i bought? and amount they have charged me?

 

[A60K]

Tell them you don't have the ticket any more, then just calm down and wait for them to get back to you. They may well acknowledge the mistake and refund you immediately.

If they don't then write a polite and comprehensible letter - get someone to help you if necessary - explaining the circumstances in detail, and send this to the train company with a copy to the card issuer. It's possible that you're not the only person that this has happened to.

 

[LondonLarry]

If they have a date, approximate time, amount, last 4 digits of card, and location which issued the ticket, Southern will have no issues in tracking down the original sales transaction in LENNON or SHERE.

As far as I'm aware, no railway ticket issuing system requires the retailer to type in the price.

 

[glynn80]

As far as I'm aware, no railway ticket issuing system requires the retailer to type in the price.

That isn't entirely true. Shere and Fujitsu STAR (there maybe others?) I know for sure have manual modes, which allows booking office staff to basically create the ticket of their choice and then requires them to enter all the characteristics of the manually created ticket, including the price. I realise of course though it is extremely unlikely that the manual mode was used when issuing the ticket the OP requested.

 

[torent5]

let`s say i`ll go today evening and ask what kind of this machine they using... ok but what should i ask for? model? company? or buy cheapest ticket and chceck if i can see the ammount?

 

[jon0844]

Write to Southern and explain the whole sequence of events, clearly, and offer to give them the necessary details (which would include part or all of the card number and a copy of a bank/card statement to prove a transaction existed).

They might then be able to investigate to find out what ticket was bought with that card, although I suspect that if you write clearly and politely enough they'll opt to give a partial refund (i.e. the difference) or even the whole amount as a goodwill gesture.

I would certainly recommend you check your receipt, or indeed the amount on the display (either the till or the PIN pad) when you order. Are there gates at Gatwick Airport? As you bought a Travelcard, I'm surprised you didn't end up getting to keep the ticket or notice the high amount at any point during its use that day.

 

[SquirrelJunction]

Hmmmmmm

Something just does not add up to me here. There are a number of circumstances that add up to a larger overall event and I do have quite a lot of alarm bells going off over the 10 minutes it took me to decypher some of the posts in here.

Lets start with my interpretation of the original posters recollection of events:

He bought a ticket at Gatwick Airport Train Station for Gatwick - R1256.
He states the price of the ticket was about £13 and he also states he knows he has the right ticket, yet two weeks later he noticed a charge for £44 on the statment.
He has text someone (or e-mailed) who has asked for bank statements to prove the charge. They then asked for the ticket.


Before we get into the realms of was this a technical fault with certain units, was this a mistake by using the manual mode of one of the various manufacturers of the rail networks machines, etc, etc. I have to ask:

What time of day was this?
Did you opt for travel by Gatwick Express?
Was this standard or first class?
You already say you KNOW you had the right ticket... so what ticket did you have?


I find it difficult to understand why the thread so quickly turned to blaming either the shortfallings of the equipment or a short falling in the use of "manual overide" prior to asking queston like I have stated above, especially as making some statements as those noted above could be exploitable by those minority who set out to defraud companies.



That being said, Torent5, I will point out that I am not an employee of Southern, therefore have no influence on your complaint to the company, I am merely interested and asking questions so that we can se a fuller picture and be able to offer proper assistnace instead of firing wildly.

 

[glynn80]

I find it difficult to understand why the thread so quickly turned to blaming either the shortfallings of the equipment or a short falling in the use of "manual overide" prior to asking queston like I have stated above, especially as making some statements as those noted above could be exploitable by those minority who set out to defraud companies.

I think that is because if this section of the forum descends into existing members giving every new person who attempts to ask us for help an interrogation on the exact circumstances of their query and if the answers they give don't satisfy us, we assume they are fraudsters, it will lead to a collapse of confidence amongst the general public. People will feel unable to post their questions without fear of the third degree.

I don't think it is anyone's right on this forum to judge those members who come and ask questions within this section. If the staff of the forum feel something is amiss then it is up to them to investigate.

Also following on from your point regarding information being posted within this thread that would be used to defraud TOCs, I have read above, and there is nothing above that I feel remotely fits that description, what were you thinking of?

 

[SquirrelJunction]

I would hope that people think that the questions I have asked are for a perfectly valid purpose and for a perfectly valid reason. We can rule out routing and peak ticket issues (although the most expensive combination is still not near £44) and other options such as did the original poster still have the CC receipt which should have been additionally given.

I am sure that those of us that have worked within the ticketing side of things (or still do) would know what qustions to reasonably ask. I have not made the assumption that this person is a fraudster in any way.

I would also point out that by suggesting that ticket machines can be manually overidden as a matter of cause is a concern. As a matter of fact I have encountered a ticket in my previous role as a Commercial Guard where said actions could have been responsible, although I never head anything back from the TIR and confiscated ticket I produced. It only takes a chance comment for someone to attempt to be an opportunist fraudster if they are that desperate.

 

[First class]

I would also point out that by suggesting that ticket machines can be manually overidden as a matter of cause is a concern. As a matter of fact I have encountered a ticket in my previous role as a Commercial Guard where said actions could have been responsible, although I never head anything back from the TIR and confiscated ticket I produced. It only takes a chance comment for someone to attempt to be an opportunist fraudster if they are that desperate.

Being able to create 'manual' fares is essential to a lot of TOCs retail operations. SILK arrangements, zero fares, some excess fares, special offers all depend on the manual fares section. They are also commonly used to alter anomalies, i.e. if a ticket is too expensive than intended, the TOC can brief it out to override the fare UFN.

However, these 'created' fares always appear at the end of the operations shift and appear on their 'shift sheets'. Therefore, accounting departments of the TOCs will be able to detect misuse. Also, random audits are made where someone will come in and take you off the machine whilst your cash and ticket sales are checked. No notice period, no 'just a minute', he arrives, you leave the window.

 

[SquirrelJunction]

I completely agree with your comments about the requirement to manully overide the fares. I had to on occasions with my Avantix (and incidntally, never got pulled up for it).

I will stand by my comments on the thread though; and not knowing the original poster, nor the majority of members on here, still think that it was a point which would have been better not to be mentioned.

 

[torent5]

That`s the letter i have recived today...
THX for advicing...

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/48/zdjcie0034e.jpg

 

[LondonLarry]

That`s the letter i have recived today...
THX for advicing...

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/48/zdjcie0034e.jpg

I'm glad to see Southern have sorted this out for you so quickly.

 

[SquirrelJunction]

Kudos to Southern, especially when I doubt they have been fully staffed all week because of the weather.

 

[torent5]

i`m just not sure if its because of automatic system correction or maybe because of my emails to customer service...
i`ve checked the ref. number and it doesn`t match with the one in email...