Starting late on Anytime Day Return and then using the origin later

[htwestern]

I regularly commute from where I live (between Weston-s-Mare and Bristol) to Temple Meads, including the morning peak. I'm on GWR's PAYG smartcard.
Recently, I left where I live still in the morning peak time, returning late afternoon to where I live, then later I went to Weston and back.

GWR have charged me for 1 peak PAYG single in to Bristol, and then an Off-Peak Day return from BRI to WSM.
If I were buying a paper ticket from the TVM (which is my backup choice after my smartcard) I would have bought an Anytime Day Return from WSM to BRI. This is 30p cheaper than what I have been charged.

Would this not actually be valid? I would be using half of the Out portion, then the entire return portion with a break of journey, then the other half of the Outward portion. At no point would I be passing the same place twice in the same direction.

I know that if I'd had a paper ticket I would've asked the gateline at Bristol to let me keep my ticket, they've normally let me do this after a quick look. Otherwise the gate would have swallowed the ticket, as BRI would have been the final destination.

 

[Bletchleyite]

No, this is not valid. If you start short on a ticket you can't go back and use the initial bit, nor can you use any part of the outward after any part of the return has been used. That applies to all tickets.

Certainly stop doing this now, and you've been lucky you did it on paper tickets as if you'd done it on e-tickets you might have found yourself getting a letter asking for the situation to be regularised at significant cost! (Would be easy to detect due to the scans being in the wrong order).

 

[htwestern]

Certainly stop doing this now, and you've been lucky you did it on paper tickets as if you'd done it on e-tickets you might have found yourself getting a letter asking for the situation to be regularised at significant cost! (Would be easy to detect due to the scans being in the wrong order).

Haven’t done this on paper tickets since before 2022 when I switched to the PAYG card. It’s quite rare that I go out later that way after work, previously I’d just assumed it charged me the one return fare because the amount charged to my card was cheaper than 2 separate returns. Only recently the payment confirmation emails tell you how much you’ve been charged the day after.