Banbury ticket office closed

[XC victim]

hi, not sure if this is the right place to post but don’t know what to do. I travelled from Banbury to Rugby today (18/04/19). I arrived at Banbury station at about 11:40, but ticket office was closed due to a staff meeting. I tried to purchase tickets from the self service ticket machine, but although I wanted an off peak return the only tickets available from Banbury to Rugby were Anytime tickets, the return price was £215 where it usually costs about £19. I bought an Anytime Single to Rugby for £24.75 as it was the cheapest ticket on offer. I tried to purchase an off peak return on the train but they refused. I did manage to but an off peak return from Banbury to Rugby at Coventry but why was this ticket not available at Banbury. This has cost me £24.75

 

[causton]

From Chiltern's website:

"Ticket Vending Machine Price Guarantee
In the unlikely event that you purchase a ticket from one of Chiltern Railways’ ticket vending machines (TVMs) and discover you could have bought a cheaper product for the identical journey, you may be entitled to a refund to the value of the difference in cost. Please contact our customer relations team to discuss this further."

https://www.chilternrailways.co.uk/before-you-travel/ticket-types-fares/

 

[XC victim]

They say I may not be able to claim a refund as the ticket has been used

 

[Mag_seven]

the return price was £215 where it usually costs about £19.

I assume you mean £21.50?

 

[Qwerty133]

Ticket offices should not shut for meetings during advertised opening hours, this is especially the case on days preceding bank holiday weekends when it is extremely likely that the network will have a larger than normal number of irregular passengers travelling.

 

[XC victim]

No seriously the cheapest return ticket was £215. If it was £21.50 I would have purchased it

 

[Starmill]

I assume you mean £21.50?

There is an Anytime Return from Banbury to Rugby that costs £216, and a First Anytime Return that costs £326. Whether anybody would actually buy them, I do not know, but they are available. The correct fare would have been £18.65.

 

[_toommm_]

Does Banbury use the type of TVM that shows popular destinations as popular tickets, akin to the way Northern TVM's do?

 

[BlueFox]

No seriously the cheapest return ticket was £215. If it was £21.50 I would have purchased it

It was probably £216. That's the price of an anytime return via London. There are several cheaper tickets that should have been on the machine though.

 

[XC victim]

Rugby was not amongst the popular destinations. I had to enter it manually, the Anytime single I purchased was via Coventry. Only the Anytime fares were available. I did spend about 10mins trying to get an Off peak ticket but could not. There was a queue of people behind me so I gave up. Any ideas how I can get a refund?

 

[WesternLancer]

Rugby was not amongst the popular destinations. I had to enter it manually, the Anytime single I purchased was via Coventry. Only the Anytime fares were available. I did spend about 10mins trying to get an Off peak ticket but could not. There was a queue of people behind me so I gave up. Any ideas how I can get a refund?

Contact the customer relations team at chiltern as per the post above, in writing, retain copies of the tickets you bought, cite the times / dates when the office was closed when it should not have been and await their reply.