Buying Tickets Online/In Person

[rob.rjt]

I was buying an advance ticket yesterday at the station as I had RTVs to spend. As there was some time waiting in the queue I pulled up NRE on my phone to get prices for tickets. When I got to the counter I asked for the exact tickets I wanted, but the price was almost double.

When I queried this, the salesperson said that 'Online retailers have their own allocation of tickets'. If they had said that I had missed the quota I wouldn't have batted an eyelid, but other than online special offers, I thought that all retailers had access to the same pool of tickets. Was I wrong?

 

[bb21]

Hmm, I had the same issue with a certain ticket recently, and this was confirmed by three separate ticket offices using three different types of system.

There is nothing to suggest a different database being used, but there are certainly more special online offers than we have discussed on this forum.

What is your ticket? Was it still available online afterwards.

 

[Haywain]

The fact that the ticket showed as available online, doesn't necessarily mean it actually was. It is only available if you succesfully purchase it. That said, there may be faults in the way availability is shown in both web and ticket office systems that occasionally lead to discrepancies.

 

[bb21]

One of mine was a Birmingham - Stafford Advance. You'd have thought that it doesn't get simpler than that. Booking offices could only see £5.10 ones for First Class while online the £4.20 (lower tier) ones were available. I ended up buying online but there is certainly something that is different to our normal interpretation going on.

 

[Haywain]

As I said, the systems are not flawless. I believe they rely, to some extent at least, on using cached information to show what's available which can lead to inconsistencies.

 

[bb21]

Both fares have been available for at least three days and the same problem existed on three different types of TIS. If it were a cache problem or a flaw in the design, they really need to get that sorted out, or it is going to further reduce the role of a ticket office. (Maybe that is the secret plan all along.)

 

[northwichcat]

Another question to ask is why can't RTVs be used online, especially considering they might be sent to someone who's local station is unstaffed but has a TVM allowing TOD?

 

[island]

Well, I believe First TOCs will accept RTVs over the phone by way of taking full payment for the tickets and refunding the value of the RTVs when you post them in.

 

[maniacmartin]

At the moment, you can't use RTVs online, as there would be nothing to stop you then presenting them to a guard and using the RTV twice.

In addition to First TOCs, East Coast will also accept RTVs if you call their telesales, but instead of charging the full amount and issuing apart-refund, they will delay posting the tickets until the RTVs are received.

Additionally, some TOCs (ie Southern) can issue a credit to your online account on their booking engine instead of an RTV, and in Southern's case, you can also exchange RTVs issued by them for cash at their booking offices and then buy online.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Abolishing RTVs in favour of cheque refunds for cash tickets/deposit back to the payment card for card ones would be a wonderful statement in the customer's favour, and would remove all the hassle they cause by allowing them to be abolished.

They are a double whammy to the passenger - we delay you, so we give you a voucher that is inconvenient to use. It's rubbish.

Neil

 

[yorkie]

If they had said that I had missed the quota I wouldn't have batted an eyelid, but other than online special offers, I thought that all retailers had access to the same pool of tickets. Was I wrong?

Without knowing the details, we cannot be certain why the price increased, but missing the quota is certainly one such possibility, and perhaps the most likely.

This thread will be highly speculative without further information though!

 

[rob.rjt]

Thanks for all the replies so far.

The ticket was a Durham to Didcot advance for £59.50 leaving on the 12.54 from Durham on 16 January. The ticket office attempted to charge me £74 (or so - can't remember exactly.

I went home and bought the same ticket at £59.50 online from FGW online (the same operator as the station I attempted to purchase from) within 15 minutes of attempting in the station.

 

[yorkie]

£58.30 on East Coast (with their online discount), or £59.50 from any other website, so I don't know why the ticket office wasn't able to sell that.