Brighton to Bedford Refund?

[pat okeeffe]

Dear All, Last wednesday at around 17:30 I travelled with my two children from Brighton to Bedford, purchasing an off-peak return from the ticket machine at Brighton with my Family and Friends rail card for £44.30. It was not until the next day, already in Bedford, that when I compared my ticket with my partners ticket who had also used her discount card from Brighton but travelled on that day, that I had been overcharged and should have paid £26.60 for my ticket (the kids £2.00 each were correct). Although in a bit of a rush, I was I pretty sure that I had punched in the railcard details, so I was surprised that my ticket did not have "FAM" printed near the top left of the ticket. So somehow I had purchased a non-discounted ticket from the machine. So, to check, at around 17:45 yesterday, I returned to Brighton station and punched in the same details again and found that even with the family and friends details entered, the system was returning both the correct £30.60 fare and the non discounted fare of £44.30. In my rush I must have selected the higher fare assuming that it would be discounted and failed to notice the lower correct fare. I queried this with one of the very helpful Southern Staff who regularly patrol the machines at Brighton Station, and he thought this was odd as when we put in similar details with other discount cards all of the fares were discounted, no non discounted fares were listed. Would I have grounds for a refund?

 

[319321]

Sorry, but your post is hard to read and you refer to several different prices. If I have understood you correctly:

• You went to the Ticket Vending Machine at Brighton and bought an adult ticket and two child tickets to Bedford with what you thought was Family Railcard discount.
• You later realised that you had not been given the discount you asked for
• You checked the machine, and noticed that it was offering you two different fares and you believe that you selected the higer one erroroneously.
• You want to know whether or not you can claim a refund of the difference between the price you paid and the price you wanted to pay

If it is the case that you selected the Family Railcard discount and were then still offered the fare without the railcard discount, you could claim a refund un the Consumer Protection Act. Otherwise, you could seek a goodwill gesture.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
http://www.brfares.com/#!fares?orig=BTN&dest=BDM
http://www.brfares.com/#!fares?orig=BTN&dest=BDM&rlc=FAM

Exactly what ticket(s) did you buy? And which ticket(s) were you intending to buy?

 

[pat okeeffe]

To recap then, I bought Brighton-Bedford off-peak return tickets from the ticket machines at Brighton station for myself and two children with a family and friends railcard which cost in total £44.30 (£40.30+£2+£2) The correct fare with this discount is £30.60 in total (£26.6+£2+£2). I had assumed that once I had enterd the passenger details and the type of railcard that all the fares listed would have the appropriate railcard discount applied. On getting to Bedford I had found that I had paid the non discounted fare.

When I checked again today on the machines at Brighton thinking that perhaps I had just forgotten to enter the railcard details, I found that indeed the fares listed for my original journey and railcard seemed to be a confusing mix of both discounted and non discounted fares. This did not seem to be the case with other railcards (e.g. student or senior). A member of staff at Brighton checked this with me and agreed this was confusing and that one would reasonably expect only the discounted fares to be listed.

 

[talldave]

I would complain to Southern. I had a similar problem in the past with one of their TVMs where it just refused to apply a railcard discount and they sent me a Rail Travel Voucher for more than the missing discount.

Ask them to fix the TVM error too, it takes them a while but does eventually happen.

Be aware though that Southern's Customer Services are usually incompetent. If you email, it may take a couple of email exchanges before you get someone who understannds written English. It may also take several weeks, but don't give up.

 

[bb21]

I don't know under what terms in the Consumer Protection Act this is covered so I will skip over that, but I agree that you simply need to bring it to Southern's attention in this case, and give them an opportunity to resolve it.

 

[James Wake]

I once also had a problem with a Southern TVM at Three Bridges. I was travelling to Sevenoaks, changing at Redhill and Tonbridge. I had a season ticket to London, so that would cover until Redhill, so I went to the TVM as the ticket office was closed to buy a day return ticket from Redhill to Sevenoaks routed via Edenbridge.

I put in all the details, then went to select Annual Gold Card for the discount. It was a Sunday morning at 8am, but the AGC option was not there or blanked out. I tried again with the same result. I then spoke to the gateline staff member (one of the good ones thankfully), who tried the same thing.

He then asked if I had a 16-25 railcard instead, I said yes, but it is at home, its not my fault if the TVM wont give me the Gold Card discount and I would rather not carry both around. He then said no problem, buy on the train or at Redhill. As I was getting a Southern train I could seek out the conductor.

After the train pulled in, I saw the conductor near the middle, so found my mate, left my bag with him and went to buy the ticket off him once we had left Three Bridges. It was done with no hassle at all.

I also have had a similar issue with higher price fares being shown ahead of lower fares that are for the most logical route. Again at Three Bridges, I wanted to go to Fleet, changing at Clapham Junction (this was a few years ago when I just had a 16-25 or Network Railcard) and the first page was full of via London fares, whereas I wanted the considerably cheaper not via London fare. I found it on the third page.

Please write something to Southern, they may give you something as a goodwill gesture, and don't worry, you are not the only one who finds ticket machines condusing and annoying at times, even us rail enthusiasts sometimes have problems with them.