Collection of tickets from Machine

[welshpax]

Hope one of you bright chaps maybe able to help me.

Booked some tickets on the First Great Western site for collection at a station from a machine, however, when I arrived at the station this morning, it was all locked up and I could not collect them, any ideas what I can do.

A bit of background to the trip, I am flying out to the middle east of business this morning and flying from Birmingham and returning into Heathrow. I booked some advanced tickets for the Heathrow - Bridgend leg to be picked up this morning when I caught the first train to Birmingham.

I called National Rail and they could not help, any ideas on how I can get these tickets?

 

[d1015fan]

ring FGW and see if they can send tickets, or get them moved to another ticket machine if not then I would think there is a breach of contract with collecting tickets in which you are unable to access them

 

[Olympian]

In reality you can pick them up from any station in the UK that has machines enabled for ticket collection, and not just at the station you nominated when you bought the tickets online. So suggest you just pick them up from a machine at Birmingham when you get there. I do this all the time - last week I collected tickets at Glasgow Queen Street for a booking where I'd nominated Birmingham New Street as the collection point.

 

[moonrakerz]

In reality you can pick them up from any station in the UK that has machines enabled for ticket collection

..........or any ticket office.

 

[yorkie]

ring FGW and see if they can send tickets, or get them moved to another ticket machine if not then I would think there is a breach of contract with collecting tickets in which you are unable to access them

they'll likely not want to send them; it's a 'different system'.

any* machine can be used.

* providing it's working and connected/online not a quickfare or similar

 

[welshpax]

Thanks everyone for your comments, I have picked up the tickets now, thought I would try a fast ticket machine in Birmingham and hey presto it worked, did not even need to put a reference number in, just put the credit card in and it printed the tickets out.

Just one point though, sometime I get the first train from Bridgend to London which is about 4:45am, what would happen if I purchased tickets for that journey and was unable to collect them due to the station being locked up?

 

[DaveNewcastle]

. . . what would happen if I purchased tickets for that journey and was unable to collect them due to the station being locked up?

It's not an uncommon situation.
If you suspect in advance that this might happen, then you could try to collect the tix from another station which IS likely to be open, but if not, just be very sure that you have your online booking reference with you (preferably on paper from the confirmation page when booking and not just on your phone) and the bank card you used for the booking (whose last 4 digits should appear on that page).
That should give you the confidence you need to travel.

Whilst this may not meet the full terms and conditions which the Train Operating Companies (TOCs) stipulate for conveying passengers, if you have the booking reference with you, and the corresponding bank card, and you are on the correct train, and the station from which you chose to collect the tickets is closed, then you should be permitted to travel (their system had offered you those choices).

I would be very very interested to hear if anyone challenged that permission.

 

[Username]

It's not an uncommon situation.
If you suspect in advance that this might happen, then you could try to collect the tix from another station which IS likely to be open, but if not, just be very sure that you have your online booking reference with you (preferably on paper from the confirmation page when booking and not just on your phone) and the bank card you used for the booking (whose last 4 digits should appear on that page).
That should give you the confidence you need to travel.

Whilst this may not meet the full terms and conditions which the Train Operating Companies (TOCs) stipulate for conveying passengers, if you have the booking reference with you, and the corresponding bank card, and you are on the correct train, and the station from which you chose to collect the tickets is closed, then you should be permitted to travel (their system had offered you those choices).

I would be very very interested to hear if anyone challenged that permission.

I can't speak for other TOCs but I am aware that Scotrail instructed their conductors to sell the passenger another ticket for travel with the attendant advice to collect their booked tickets at the earliest opportunity - at which point an immediate and full refund will be made (with no admin fee) for the ticket the passenger purchased on board for travel.

This instruction applied to all eventualities where booked tickets could not be collected including instances of ticket vending machine failure, the ticket office being closed, a problem with the collection (e.g. credit/debit card not recognised for booking) etc

That's the theory anyway.

In practice, many conductors will simply check the booking details and advise passengers to collect their ticket(s) upon arrival, though some will call up the ticket office with the reference in an attempt to ascertain if the booking has in fact been collected or not.

 

[Failed Unit]

I can see why that advice exists. It prevents a fare dodger from picking up the tickets early and giving them to someelse to travel with, then claiming the machine would not vend. Although it is a lot of money to be out of pocket if you had a £13 stirling to London ticket unless you only get sold a ticket to Edinburgh to sort it out there. (time could be tight)

I didn't realise the ticket could be collected anywhere. Useful to know if I have tickets for collection a station x but I find myself at station y with some spare time.

 

[Flamingo]

Also, a fairly common dodge is to turn up on the train with a random number written on the back of an envelope and give the old "Well it's like this mate..."

We've been told to issue a UPFN or sell a new ticket, the UPFN will be cancelled when the proof of the original ticket being picked up is sent in with it.

re:Welshpax, why not go down the day before and collect them?
p.s. Bridgend ticket hall may not be open at that hour, but the station is (usually) manned overnight. Knock on the office door and ask the night man to let you through to get your ticket, the ticket hall is just locked up to keep the drunks out of it.

 

[Failed Unit]

Of course I can't speak for Welshpax but it could happen to me in the sense. Buy ticket at midday the day before for the first train in the morning. I have often had the fast ticket advise me to go to the booking office. Luckily not at 620am. If you can get to the station you may as well just buy the ticket from the clerk.

 

[mickey]

It's not an uncommon situation.
If you suspect in advance that this might happen, then you could try to collect the tix from another station which IS likely to be open, but if not, just be very sure that you have your online booking reference with you (preferably on paper from the confirmation page when booking and not just on your phone) and the bank card you used for the booking (whose last 4 digits should appear on that page).
That should give you the confidence you need to travel.

Obviously you should check with the NR website first that the ticket collection facility should be available at the time you travel. If it's an ungodly time of the day and they've made no promises you will be able to collect it then I can see why they would refuse to accept it as an excuse.

We've been told to issue a UPFN or sell a new ticket, the UPFN will be cancelled when the proof of the original ticket being picked up is sent in with it.

Do you have (and are you able to give out) something that says this at the time? If so I would happily accept this but if not I would be very wary of accepting one as the company could so easily refuse later.

 

[tony_mac]

If it's an ungodly time of the day and they've made no promises you will be able to collect it then I can see why they would refuse to accept it as an excuse.

I think that any reasonable person would assume that, when you book a ticket, it is implied that you can actually collect it!

They know what time the train is booked for and choose not to bother informing you, why would you think to go looking for the information? - which doesn't even seem to be available online.

I know of at least two people who had this problem at Lime St, they used to keep the machines locked in the travel centre - and gave you no warning when you booked that it wouldn't be open.

One was 'let off', and allowed to collect it en-route, the other was charged for a new ticket. Not everyone can find £150 at short notice, and wait for it to be refunded.

If this is happening a lot, it wouldn't exactly be difficult to put the opening times into the booking engine - but I somehow doubt that is going to happen any time soon.

Do you have (and are you able to give out) something that says this at the time?

That would also make things easier; but I don't expect that it happens.

 

[Flamingo]

Do you have (and are you able to give out) something that says this at the time? If so I would happily accept this but if not I would be very wary of accepting one as the company could so easily refuse later.

I'll write on the UPFN to the effect that pax unable to collect ref ****** as the machine at X is not working / unavailable, and do the UPFN for the whole journey, not just to the next station. If it's just that they didn't collect it as they hadn't left themselves enough time, and the next train would have been within a reasonable period, then I take a dimmer view.

If they are not happy with that, then my suspicious mind kicks in, and I wonder if the reference is kosher or not. I might (depending on the time of day and how much time I have to spend with that particular passenger) be able to check with telesales, or not.

If they refuse to accept the UPFN, well, the bottom line is that they are travelling without a ticket and all that entails. I will then request that they leave at the next manned station, and sort it out there.

 

[mickey]

I'll write on the UPFN to the effect that pax unable to collect ref ****** as the machine at X is not working / unavailable, and do the UPFN for the whole journey, not just to the next station.

In that case I would be satisfied and would be much happier with the situation. Thanks for clearing that up - I'm glad to see a reasonable attitude can exist among revenue staff.

 

[Flamingo]

I'm glad to see a reasonable attitude can exist among revenue staff.

Shushhhh, don't tell anybody - I have a reputation to keep up, and my boss does so like to have the complaints about me to read on a Monday morning