Advance puchase with a warrant

[Bill Badger]

The ticket office at Farnborough is closed for refurbishment this week so there was an RPI selling tickets.

I wanted to buy an anytime day return with a warrant to London for the next day, but he told me he wouldn't/couldn't (it wasn't really clear) sell me one. He would sell advanced tickets for cash/card, but not with a warrant and suggested I return to buy the ticket in the morning.

Concerned the queue in the morning, exacerbated by the ticket office closure, would be pretty long, I said I didn't want to do that and why wouldn't he sell me one now. He then called the ticket office clerk over, who didn't see why he couldn't sell me a ticket, but still he refused, saying if he sold me one I might use it straight away!! I didn't follow the logic of this either.

Eventually the ticket office clerk went and found the station supervisor who asked the RPI to sell me a ticket, but he again said he couldn't sell a ticket with a warrant in advance, at which point the supervisor took me to his office and sold me the ticket I wanted.

So was the RPI correct or just being awkward?

 

[glynn80]

Looking through the FRPP it seems that there is nothing stopping your purchasing with a warrant before you travel (in fact it states that you must purchase your ticket before you board the train, unless the ticket office was closed). RPIs are notoriously unhelpful in my opinion often making up their own rules to satisfy their argument at the time. You did the right thing by talking to the station supervisor who sold you the correct ticket.

 

[yorkie]

Pretty sure he could have done it. If he is refusing to sell a ticket in advance just because it is on a warrant, but would sell a ticket with a warrant for the same day, then clearly that is illogical!

BTW it's not an "Advance purchase" ticket if it's an "Anytime". Advance purchase generally means a ticket that is restricted to a specific train, perhaps the name is a bit misleading as any ticket can be bought "in advance", although the only time a Anytime would need to be bought in advance is if in a penalty fare area with barriers to beat queues. Elsewhere they can be bought onboard.

 

[Bill Badger]

Thanks for the reassurance, given me the confidence to write and complain about his attitude - I wanted to be as sure as I could be that he was wrong as I didn't want to get the station supervisor into trouble, in case it turned out he was doing me a favour he shouldn't have!

I now need to write 2 letters in fact as I got to the station this morning and the train I was aiming to get was cancelled, the next one was only 20 minutes later, so I was only 5 mins late for my meeting. However, it was the first train on which off peak tickets were valid. So I went and spoke to the RPI who was there today and asked if I could issue me a new ticket and refund the difference between an anytime and off peak return, as I now no longer needed the more expensive ticket, due to the cancellation. Not really too surprised when he said he couldn't issue that and I would have to write in!

The irony of course was as it turned out I had plenty of time in the morning to buy a ticket anyway!

 

[glynn80]

Thanks for the reassurance, given me the confidence to write and complain about his attitude - I wanted to be as sure as I could be that he was wrong as I didn't want to get the station supervisor into trouble, in case it turned out he was doing me a favour he shouldn't have!

I now need to write 2 letters in fact as I got to the station this morning and the train I was aiming to get was cancelled, the next one was only 20 minutes later, so I was only 5 mins late for my meeting. However, it was the first train on which off peak tickets were valid. So I went and spoke to the RPI who was there today and asked if I could issue me a new ticket and refund the difference between an anytime and off peak return, as I now no longer needed the more expensive ticket, due to the cancellation. Not really too surprised when he said he couldn't issue that and I would have to write in!

The irony of course was as it turned out I had plenty of time in the morning to buy a ticket anyway!

Well actually the RPI would not have been able to do the refund on train. You could however before you started your journey from Farnborough headed to the ticket office (who would be obliged to issue you with a refund regardless of who sold you the ticket or what kind of ticket it was, as your train was delayed) and they could have issued a refund to the warrant account holder, you then could have purchased a new ticket with your own cash (as I assume you would not have had another warrant to use). If you were hoping for a cash refund from a warrant you can forget it.

 

[clagmonster]

Reading the original post, I assume that the booking hall was still closed, and Bill went to the RPI who was acting in place of the booking staff. In this case, I am not sure whether the RPI's presumably portable machine would be able to handle a refund.

 

[yorkie]

...the train I was aiming to get was cancelled, the next one was only 20 minutes later, so I was only 5 mins late for my meeting. However, it was the first train on which off peak tickets were valid...

This is exactly why it's best to buy on the day. TOCs should be forced to either let you buy on board at no penalty if appropriate (eg rural/long distance), or buy within an absolute maximum of 5 minutes of queuing before the train. We shouldn't have to feel compelled to purchase walk-on fares in advance - that is unnacceptable. If the queues are too long forcing you to do this, then I'd add that to the complaint.