Booked Tickets wrong way around!!

[Pauljw11]

Hi--I intended to book tickets from Wolverhampton to Liverpool South Parkway for 20/11/2015 and returning 23/11/2015, but I accidently booked the return journey for the outward date and vice versa, These are advance London Midland tickets booked through the London Midland website, the tickets have been posted to me. Is there anything I can do about this?

 

[yorkie]

2 x £10 admin fees may be unavoidable. You could try contacting Customer Services to see if they will either waive it in the circumstances, or be reasonable and only charge one £10 fee.

 

[Pauljw11]

Thanks--if that is the case it would be nearly exactly the same price to but new ones. I will ring tomorrow and see what they say.

 

[gray1404]

Its annoying when stuff like this happens. Always best to double check before clicking "book now."

 

[Hadders]

I booed some Advanced tickets from London to Leicester through Eat Midlands Trains website last week. Somehow I managed to selected the wrong time - selecting a far earlier train than the one I needed.

I thought I'd double checked before paying but I realised my mistake as soon as the confirmation email came through.

I called EMT's web support to see what they could do and they agreed to alter the tickets and waive the £10 admin fee. There was no difference in price. I did have to buy new tickets and collect and send in the wrong tickets for a refund. The refund was credited to my account within 5 days of posting the tickets.

 

[amarshe]

I think most firms will do this once or twice for you if you're nice and polite and it's a genuine mistake.

Ever the perfectionist, I once phoned Eurostar within seconds of booking as I'd booked for the wrong week...they changed it for me for free.

I now do pay extra attention and focus - i.e. no booking when I'm easily distracted.

 

[suzanneparis]

A genuine issue is people who suffer from dyslexia making mistakes whilst booking.

Also, sometimes websites are not as user friendly as they could be.

 

[najaB]

A genuine issue is people who suffer from dyslexia making mistakes whilst booking.

If someone is that seriously dyslexic then they shouldn't book things online without taking advantage of screen reading software or similar a11y accessibility aids or, alternatively, make their booking using tele-sales. There is only so much that website designers can do.

 

[gray1404]

I booed some Advanced tickets from London to Leicester through Eat Midlands Trains website last week. Somehow I managed to selected the wrong time - selecting a far earlier train than the one I needed.

I thought I'd double checked before paying but I realised my mistake as soon as the confirmation email came through.

I called EMT's web support to see what they could do and they agreed to alter the tickets and waive the £10 admin fee. There was no difference in price. I did have to buy new tickets and collect and send in the wrong tickets for a refund. The refund was credited to my account within 5 days of posting the tickets.

Is it Thetriainline who handels the bookings for EMT? (given their website uses their interface). so I am assuming it is them on the phone too?

 

[Hadders]

Is it Thetriainline who handels the bookings for EMT? (given their website uses their interface). so I am assuming it is them on the phone too?

Yes it is.

 

[reb0118]

Is it Thetriainline who handels the bookings for EMT?

I'm not sure if we should expect fireworks or waterworks in such a scenario?

 

[Pauljw11]

I just spoke to London Midland, and they say there is nothing they can do. Apparently if I had booked the wrong time on the day they could have, but they say they cannot alter the departure stations. So I have to buy new tickets.

 

[Spamcan81]

I just spoke to London Midland, and they say there is nothing they can do. Apparently if I had booked the wrong time on the day they could have, but they say they cannot alter the departure stations. So I have to buy new tickets.

Unlucky but I suspect it's more a case of LM not wanting to do anything rather than actually not able to do anything.

 

[razor89]

I just spoke to London Midland, and they say there is nothing they can do. Apparently if I had booked the wrong time on the day they could have, but they say they cannot alter the departure stations. So I have to buy new tickets.

I don't think that's correct. It should be possible to alter the date and time of travel for a £10 admin fee per ticket. It sounds like the person you spoke to may genuinely have not thought of this but it is possible.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I just spoke to London Midland, and they say there is nothing they can do. Apparently if I had booked the wrong time on the day they could have, but they say they cannot alter the departure stations. So I have to buy new tickets.

That is incorrect - well - sort of. For £10 admin fee plus the difference in fare, it is also possible to alter the date of Advance tickets. That's what they need to do - swap the dates over, for £10 per ticket plus the difference.

I think a member of staff was maybe not thinking sufficiently outside the box Try again and explain that that is what you want doing - not swapping the destinations, but swapping the dates.

 

[gray1404]

I agree with Neil. All you are doing is swoping the date. i.e. changing the date of you current Liverpool South Parkway to Wolves (and back) legs. Did you speak to LM telesales or to LM Customer Service directly?

 

[TheManOnThe172]

I just spoke to London Midland, and they say there is nothing they can do.

How dreadful it must be for staff who work for a company (like this one) that is so dishonest with its customers. And even worse for the poor call centre staff who are required to leave their integrity at the door and parrot such dishonesty in order to keep their jobs.

LM are quite entitled to say that there is nothing that they WILL do, but it is completely dishonest to say that there is nothing they CAN do. Giving money back to customers - if you really want to do it - is remarkably easy. It is the willingness to pass up the chance of a a quick and dirty profit from a customer's innocent error that seems much harder.

 

[razor89]

How dreadful it must be for staff who work for a company (like this one) that is so dishonest with its customers. And even worse for the poor call centre staff who are required to leave their integrity at the door and parrot such dishonesty in order to keep their jobs.

LM are quite entitled to say that there is nothing that they WILL do, but it is completely dishonest to say that there is nothing they CAN do. Giving money back to customers - if you really want to do it - is remarkably easy. It is the willingness to pass up the chance of a a quick and dirty profit from a customer's innocent error that seems much harder.

I'm not sure that's what has happened here though. It sounds like (but obviously I can't really know) the person on the phone thinks they have been asked to switch the origin and destination on the OP's ticket (which isn't possible), whereas all that actually needs to happen is to switch the dates (which is). Clearly there has been an oversight here but dishonesty is wide of the mark I think.

 

[Pauljw11]

OP back! The thing is that I can buy tickets for £19 and that they are entitled to charge me £20 to change tickets, so not too much point wasting time and energy. I spoke to both LM customer services and web support. I am aware that now there have been advance tickets booked for journeys that are not going to happen.

 

[pennine]

If someone is that seriously dyslexic then they shouldn't book things online without taking advantage of screen reading software or similar a11y accessibility aids or, alternatively, make their booking using tele-sales. There is only so much that website designers can do.

However, there is no reason why a severely dyslexic person should be denied online discounted travel, after all it can take away the pressure of explaining your travel requirements ... however, I do agree, software is available, and we are only mere humans after all.

 

[Bletchleyite]

However, there is no reason why a severely dyslexic person should be denied online discounted travel, after all it can take away the pressure of explaining your travel requirements ... however, I do agree, software is available, and we are only mere humans after all.

I think there is a good case for any telesales fee to be waived for anyone with any kind of disability making the use of an online journey planner difficult - but I don't think it's always viable that access should necessarily be by precisely the same means - i.e. the telephone is in my view a reasonable substitute if you find reading difficult.

I *do* think there should be a law requiring a short "cooling off period" for online purchases of this type that are not dispatched immediately - for instance, you can already cancel an Amazon order pre-dispatch provided it is from Amazon themselves. That would include rail tickets and might solve the problem to a good extent, recognising that mistakes are sometimes made.

 

[island]

However, there is no reason why a severely dyslexic person should be denied online discounted travel, after all it can take away the pressure of explaining your travel requirements ... however, I do agree, software is available, and we are only mere humans after all.

When travelling on LM you can get the same discounts by purchasing tickets over the phone or at your local station.

 

[pennine]

When travelling on LM you can get the same discounts by purchasing tickets over the phone or at your local station.

I was talking more in general, such as travelling on Virgin East Coast, Transpennine Express etc

 

[horizonflame]

I have done this before accidentally with LM. I asked LM staff at New Street and they stamped my tickets to authorise travel in reverse direction. May be worth a shot if you can get to a LM managed station where you live?

 

[gray1404]

I *do* think there should be a law requiring a short "cooling off period" for online purchases of this type that are not dispatched immediately - for instance, you can already cancel an Amazon order pre-dispatch provided it is from Amazon themselves. That would include rail tickets and might solve the problem to a good extent, recognising that mistakes are sometimes made.

Maybe there should be a 30 mimutes or one hour cooling off period with advances (or all tickets booked online for that matter) whereby if you book it online and have not yet collected the ticket (and in the case of an advance, the train has not yet departed), then you can also request a refund one. If there would be a cost involved to the TOC doing this, maybe they would levy a noninal fee of £1 in these circumstances.

 

[Bletchleyite]

That, or make all tickets refundable on the day of purchase against a fee, perhaps even the standard £10 would be better than nothing.

 

[najaB]

That, or make all tickets refundable on the day of purchase against a fee, perhaps even the standard £10 would be better than nothing.

One way to achieve that would be to eliminate Advance fares entirely.

As they say, be careful what you wish for.

 

[greatkingrat]

That, or make all tickets refundable on the day of purchase against a fee, perhaps even the standard £10 would be better than nothing.

But if you make a mistake it is already possible to change advances for a £10 fee.