Advance Ticket Error Advice

[headshot119]

Hi all,

Yesterday I booked several sets of tickets to do a Wrexham - Wrexham round trip via Scotland and London.

Wrexham General - Glasgow Central Standard Advance £14.85
Glasgow Cen/QST - Edinburgh Off peak Day Single £7.45
Edimburgh - London Terminals First Advance £36.65
London Terminal - Wrexham General Standard Advance £16.50

These where all booked for the 25th of November.

I've picked them up from the TVM today at Wrexham got home from college and realized that the last ticket is dated the 19th of September 2011, and is printer totally differently to the other three.

What do I do?

NB : All tickets are with 16-25 railcard.

 

[dvboy]

Where did you buy them from?

 

[First class]

show us a few pics mate

 

[headshot119]

Booked via East Coast, who I've never had a problem before which is why I always book with them.

First class if you want to PM me your email I'll forward you the booking confirmation and a photo of the tickets.

 

[dvboy]

Have you tried logging into your East Coast account and amending it from the journey history? It may not let you for a ticket dated today, in which case your next port of call would be to call 08457 225 111.

Failing that visit the ticket office at Wrexham and explain. This may be what telesales advise you to do anyway. Take a copy of the booking confirmation email from East Coast - it will be obvious to station staff that you have made an honest mistake especially since ticket numbers should be consecutive.

At worst you will have to pay £10 admin fee to change the ticket but you might be able to get it waived (I'd assume the East Coast website won't do this however I know the LM one does).

 

[headshot119]

Ok well the phone lines are closed at East Coast. I will ring them in the morning to find out what to do.

My booking confirmation email has all the journeys down as the 25th Nov 11. As well the tickets are different "styles". The first three have a black box round the date, the last one doesn't.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

I (nearly) always buy my tickets from EC, which include a lot of 'Advance's, and I have twice made a mistake like yours. While searching and searching on the siter, it sometimes but not always, replaces some of your journey details such as the date with the site's default values - in the case of date, the default is today. That seems to be what has happened to you.

On both occassions that it happened to me, I contacted EC's Customer Service Centre here in Newcastle (now in Mumbai). The first time I was told quite clearly that I could have and should have checked on-screen when confirming the bookings (which is possible but tiresome on a long list of different date's journeys each with several portions of travel); and that 'there was nothing they could do'. I relented.
The second time, I was told that I could have and should have checked before leaving the ticket office (now a Customer Travel Centre) and I was less ready to take 'no' for an answer. As it happened, I had queried the tickets with an EC Customer Services Assistant (CSA) in the CTC, and was told 'if that's what the machine issued, then you'll be okay'. (hmmm.)

I left, but then called them and was friendly, supportive and even sympathetic, while also remainig firm that 'we' had to work through this to find a solution.
We got there in the end, and with no, er, £10 "Admin Fee".

I suggest you contact them ASAP and be as supportive and patient as you can (as if you are tending an animal with a broken leg which needs time but no logic) and just waiting for the agreement to change the date. That's all you want, just to corect a simple mistake arising from their website's software resetting the Form fields to today's date in a manner which casual users cannot predict.

Have you tried logging into your East Coast account and amending it from the journey history? It may not let you for a ticket dated today. . . .

It does allow customers to Edit tickets bought on-line, you are quite correct. But that option does NOT exist once the tickets have been collected from a TVM.

 

[dvboy]

Ok well the phone lines are closed at East Coast. I will ring them in the morning to find out what to do.

My booking confirmation email has all the journeys down as the 25th Nov 11. As well the tickets are different "styles". The first three have a black box round the date, the last one doesn't.

The black box is to highlight it's a date in advance. It won't be black on the ticket dated today, and there won't be an A next to the date.

Can you copy and paste the confirmation email here (delete the personal details)?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

It does allow customers to Edit tickets bought on-line, you are quite correct. But that option does NOT exist once the tickets have been collected from a TVM.

That differs from LM's site then whose website states that you have to have collected the tickets before amending them so that you can enter the original ticket number, but in reality you actually don't need to and it never asks for this - the CTR number is printed on the Excess instead. I recently did this with an couple of advances to Durham changed from 3&4/9 to 22&23/10 - the excesses were printed at 4586 about 17 before the original tickets were at a TVM.

 

[headshot119]

Here we go, I have changed the last four digits of the card number.

Dear Mr Latham,

We're happy to say that we've organised your booking – you're now a step closer to enjoying an East Coast journey. And with our guaranteed site security you can rest assured that your details are completely safe.

Please find your booking details below - and take a moment to check that all the information is correct.

Your confirmation number is: K6F6T3JX

Journey: 1 Glasgow Central to Edinburgh @ £7.45
OFF-PEAK DAY S £7.45 (1 @ £7.45)
With 1 16-25 Railcard railcard(s)
Remember to bring the railcard(s) for the journey
Journey: 2 Wrexham General to Glasgow Central @ £14.85
ADVANCE £14.85 (1 @ £14.85)
With 1 16-25 Railcard railcard(s)
Remember to bring the railcard(s) for the journey
Journey: 3 Edinburgh to London Kings Cross @ £36.65
ADVANCE 1ST £36.65 (1 @ £36.65)
With 1 16-25 Railcard railcard(s)
Remember to bring the railcard(s) for the journey
Journey: 4 London Euston to Wrexham General @ £16.50
ADVANCE £16.50 (1 @ £16.50)
With 1 16-25 Railcard railcard(s)
Remember to bring the railcard(s) for the journey

Journey: 1 Glasgow Central to Edinburgh
Ticket type: Off Peak Day Single Valid on off-peak services by the route and Train Operator shown. Valid for 1 day only.
Route: Via Any Permitted Route
Outward journey: 25 Nov 2011 departs Glasgow Central at 12:00 travel by Walk to station Glasgow Queen Street arrives at 12:15
departs Glasgow Queen Street at 12:15 travel by Train service provider First ScotRail to station Edinburgh arrives 13:07
Journey: 2 Wrexham General to Glasgow Central
Ticket type: Advance Valid only on your chosen service. Not refundable. Changeable prior to date of travel for a fee.
Route: Virgin Trains Only
Outward journey: 25 Nov 2011 departs Wrexham General at 07:00 travel by Train service provider Virgin Trains to station Crewe arrives 07:54 ( seats reserved: Coach: K Seats: 44 )

departs Crewe at 08:09 travel by Train service provider Virgin Trains to station Glasgow Central arrives 11:16 ( seats reserved: Coach: C Seats: 43 )


Journey: 3 Edinburgh to London Kings Cross
Ticket type: EC First Advance Valid on chosen train only. Non refundable. Changeable for a fee. No access to 1st Class Lounge.
Route: Via East Coast & other TOC connecting services.
Outward journey: 25 Nov 2011 departs Edinburgh at 13:30 travel by Train service provider East Coast to station London Kings Cross arrives 17:56 ( seats reserved: Coach: M Seats: 47A )


Journey: 4 London Euston to Wrexham General
Ticket type: Advance Valid only on your chosen service. Not refundable. Changeable prior to date of travel for a fee.
Route: Virgin West Coast & connections
Outward journey: 25 Nov 2011 departs London Euston at 20:43 travel by Train service provider Virgin Trains to station Birmingham New Street arrives 22:06 ( seats reserved: Coach: C Seats: 22 )

departs Birmingham New Street at 22:21 travel by Train service provider London Midland to station Shrewsbury arrives 23:30
departs Shrewsbury at 23:37 travel by Train service provider Arriva Trains Wales to station Wrexham General arrives 00:14

Divider


Payment Details:

Your Payment Card ****1234 has been charged £75.45

Ticket Collection:

You have chosen to collect your tickets from Wrexham General. Your Booking Reference is K6F6T3JG
Please remember to collect all coupons including your tickets, receipt and any seat reservations.

To collect your tickets, you must have both the credit/debit card used to purchase the tickets and your ticket booking reference. If you do not have them, a new ticket at the full fare will have to be bought to travel.
Please note that if you are starting your journey at an unmanned station without a self service ticket machine, and have selected to collect your tickets from an alternative station, you must collect your tickets before you travel. You are not permitted to travel to that station using the booking reference or confirmation email for this booking to collect your tickets.


Our terms and conditions and the National Conditions of Carriage apply to this booking and you can find them at www.eastcoast.co.uk. Remember that our train doors close up to 2 minutes before departure, so please allow yourself plenty of time to arrive at the station and find your platform.


Best regards,


Your East Coast team

 

[Mike395]

Slightly puzzled as to how the EC booking engine would have been able to book said ticket for today, Advance Purchase tickets are not purchasable on the day of travel...

As dvboy says, if you could post a copy of the email (with personal details removed) on here, or send it in a PM to myself if you'd prefer, we would be able to better assist you
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Ah there we go - sounds like an error on the EC computer system in that case, how bizzare. Best thing to do is to ring them in the morning, they should get the ticket 're-issued'

 

[headshot119]

Mike just to make it clear, I booked all the tickets yesterday (18/09/11) and Collected them today from Wrexham General TVM (19/09/11)

 

[dvboy]

OK that is strange. I suspect if you phone EC they will insist the ticket has 25/11 printed on it and the call be a waste of your time. I suggest you go back to Wrexham General with all of the tickets and collection receipt, plus a printout of that email, as it seems to be a fault with the TVM.

 

[MikeWh]

That looks like a railway error then. Go into your East Coast account and see if it also says the same information. If it does then they will have to sort it out. I wonder whether the error might have been at Wrexham. Were the tickets printed in reverse? I know mine often are when I have multiple journeys. If so, the first set were the wrong ones.

 

[rail-britain]

Wrexham General - Glasgow Central Standard Advance £14.85
Glasgow Cen/QST - Edinburgh Off peak Day Single £7.45
Edimburgh - London Terminals First Advance £36.65
London Terminal - Wrexham General Standard Advance £16.50

These where all booked for the 25th of November.

I've picked them up from the TVM today at Wrexham got home from college and realized that the last ticket is dated the 19th of September 2011, and is printer totally differently to the other three

This is a known issue where the fourth ticket has the wrong date
I've never had any problem as the actual travel date is shown on the ticket, it is the reservation date that is printed incorrectly

Carry the original copy of the order, email, and tickets, and you should not have any problem