cross country pre booked ticket charges

[knight2004]

Hope this is a good place to put this.
I have just managed to get some last minute tickets 28.50 in total return a baragin i'd say for Thursday going london to manchester via stafford spliting ticket at stafford through london midland and then x country to manchester. I have booked my x country train tickets but they apparently now charge 1 quid to collect them at a ticket machine. Are they allowed to do this? I'm having to use e ticket and i don't like that as i'm dubious if i lose my card or something that it won't be valid. Why should they charge a pound? I don't know other franchises doing this?

 

[YorkshireBear]

Hope this is a good place to put this.
I have just managed to get some last minute tickets 28.50 in total return a baragin i'd say for Thursday going london to manchester via stafford spliting ticket at stafford through london midland and then x country to manchester. I have booked my x country train tickets but they apparently now charge 1 quid to collect them at a ticket machine. Are they allowed to do this? I'm having to use e ticket and i don't like that as i'm dubious if i lose my card or something that it won't be valid. Why should they charge a pound? I don't know other franchises doing this?

they shouldnt no really, like that makes a difference though.

 

[MCR247]

Why shouldn't they?

Should have used a different TOC website, other don't

 

[yorkie]

I have booked my x country train tickets but they apparently now charge 1 quid to collect them at a ticket machine. Are they allowed to do this? I'm having to use e ticket and i don't like that as i'm dubious if i lose my card or something that it won't be valid. Why should they charge a pound? I don't know other franchises doing this?

Just book using another TOC's website, such as London Midland, Southern etc.

East Coast do not charge for collection but do charge for postage if the first train you book (on your entire transaction) is from a station that does have collection facilities (so I can get round it by booking from Poppleton).

Any website that has a charge you don't like, needs to be boycotted. There's loads of sites out there that don't charge. So those that do can be left to rot. As long as people continue to use them they will continue to charge! Vote with your feet (or should that be mice & keyboards?)

 

[TEW]

And for proof of the fact that boycotting websites that charge, redspottedhanky used to charge a booking fee but it no longer does. I can't see any other reason for that happening other than to tempt more people to use the site.

 

[cuccir]

Just book using another TOC's website, such as London Midland, Southern etc.

East Coast do not charge for collection but do charge for postage if the first train you book (on your entire transaction) is from a station that does have collection facilities (so I can get round it by booking from Poppleton).

Any website that has a charge you don't like, needs to be boycotted. There's loads of sites out there that don't charge. So those that do can be left to rot. As long as people continue to use them they will continue to charge! Vote with your feet (or should that be mice & keyboards?)

Buy of course cross countrys advance tickets are cheaper from their website, at least for the rest of the year. So if you're paying the pound charge to get a higher discount, its still a good deal.

 

[bnm]

Buy of course cross countrys advance tickets are cheaper from their website, at least for the rest of the year. So if you're paying the pound charge to get a higher discount, its still a good deal.

Yes it is a bit of a Catch 22 is this one. Particularly if you also want to utilise the ability to choose your seat on CrossCountry services.

I believe CrossCountry's reasoning behind the charge is that they lose a bit of the ticket price for every ticket collected from another TOC's TVMs. They can't receive that same small percentage from the issuing and collection of other TOCs tickets as they don't have any of their own TVMs.

 

[wibble]

I believe CrossCountry's reasoning behind the charge is that they lose a bit of the ticket price for every ticket collected from another TOC's TVMs. They can't receive that same small percentage from the issuing and collection of other TOCs tickets as they don't have any of their own TVMs.

You are correct - the TOC issuing the ticket will recieve a payment from the TOC selling the ticket. This isn't an issue for TOCs that own TVMs at stations as the majority of tickets collected through ToD are for their own journeys.

 

[taxidave]

I often use the xc website to book tickets if I am using their trains as you can select the seats you want, which can be an advantage if there is a group of you, also some of their fares are cheaper for their own services if booked through them, which can often outweigh the £1 service charge.

 

[Trainbuff]

I understand that XC, as a TOC have to offer a way of you getting a ticket without a charge. i.e. the e ticket. People often buy these weeks in advance and that could mean that you get a new card when the old one expires in that time. In practice I would accept a card with the same name on it.

The only thing I would say is if you are using a railcard you MUST bring it, otherwise you are in for a hefty excess.

 

[Leella]

I brought an E-ticket from Cross Country on Sunday and not only haven’t received the ticket yet but also not even the conformation email! I sent an email yesterday complaining about it to customer services with the ref no (thank god I saved the receipt). Still have neither! Just an auto message saying it can take up to 10 days for a response. I can't wait that long as my travel date is sooner! If they don't send me it, I'll have to buy another and they will have to refund me both tickets! They shouldn't have the system if they are not sending the tickets, even after I complained!

What a rubbish company!

Edit: not phoning them as the number isn't free. Why should I pay for their incompetence?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Why shouldn't they?

Should have used a different TOC website, other don't

I went through the national rail website and they redirected me to the cross country site. All sites will have to do this, unless they're fraudulent.

 

[island]

You can pre-book your CrossCountry ticket with East Coast, or your FGW ticket with Southern, or your Scotrail ticket with South West Trains, or your Grand Central ticket with Hull Trains, or your Virgin Trains ticket with TransPennine Express. Or any other combination. And you can collect the tickets from Penzance too. Either go directly to the website of the company you'd like to buy from or when you're going through the National Rail website choose "view summary" and choose the option to buy from a different train company.

As various TOCs use various combinations of the two popular booking engines and have various different costs attached to having your tickets posted out as against collecting them from a station or using an e-ticket (where available), there is generally no problem around using the TOC of your choice to book your journey. Some, but not all, TOCs offer small discounts for some, but not all, tickets on their trains. When in doubt, book with Southern, who will give you a refund on uncollected walk-up tickets.