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Glagow to Edinburgh with First Scotrail
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Really? What for??
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LexyBoy
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Presumably because an excess is only valid with the original ticket. In this case I would have thought it would be a ticket withdrawal and reissue however.
Fraud sounds a bit far fetched, especially for the customer, though I'm sure the member of staff concerned could get into trouble (after all, anyone could have picked up a receipt).
Also, *centre.
scotsman
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Ironically, a sense of humour failure on her part.
90019
Established Member
I do believe my irony meter has just exploded.
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Now she's on about irony. I really fail to see any irony in it - perhaps she should look up "irony".
I'm a bit miffed at being quoted out of context - it'd make more sense if she linked to here and her further comments) - she's still not approved my comment on her blog (though she has allowed one critical one on each of the two posts).
I'm a bit miffed at being quoted out of context - it'd make more sense if she linked to here and her further comments) - she's still not approved my comment on her blog (though she has allowed one critical one on each of the two posts).
Finally a response from Scotrail - oh, and a £5 travel voucher!
http://tessaheywood.wordpress.com/2011/11/01/scotrail-update/
http://tessaheywood.wordpress.com/2011/11/01/scotrail-update/
bb21
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I am actually quite disappointed in this response. Is this some form of point-scoring? At the beginning I actually thought you had a case as the first guard should really have excessed the ticket for you. The guy who issued the excess on the basis of a receipt on your part is clearly in the wrong for reasons explained by those before me, but of course you wouldn't care about that. The person who actually did nothing wrong got slagged off in the end.
Yes I agree that some of the responses from Scotrail staff could have been better, as AlterEgo has already pointed out, however you cannot just blame everyone while not reflect on what you could have done better as you didn't really help matters on that day.
I have made a comment on your blog just moments before as I have only noticed this thread today. I have not pinned blame on you but merely offering advice so maybe it could pass as being something reasonable?
I'm glad that common sense won at the end, however it was not done in the correct manner and could well have resulted in serious consequences for you and the member of staff concerned. It is encouraging to see Scotrail understanding the event from your point of view, however I don't think slagging off staff who rightly could not help you is the best way to showcase a blog which you would hope demonstrates a balanced view.
90019
Established Member
Looks to me to be like a fairly standard fob off "here's £5, now go away" response because they can't be bothered with the hassle over something so minor, where the passenger in the wrong wants to kick up a fuss.
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Mind you;
Actually if you go back and read it again Scotrail clearly state that the £5 voucher is compensation for taking more than 7 days to deal with the complaint. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the complaint itself.
"The Off-Peak single is an anomaly in the system and cannot be removed." - haha! The TOCs will remove anomalies when it suits them to have them removed. In this case, hardly anyone is actually going to be bothered about saving 10p when they want a single, so I suspect most of these tickets sold will be people wanting returns and buying them in error. So it benefits Scotrail to have this so-called "anomaly", therefore they choose not to remove it. Their wording suggests that it is not by choice; but clearly it is!
The £5 voucher, and the reason for it, gives a good excuse for Scotrail to effectively satisfy the customer while still scoring points and not admitting any liability or fault with the fact that the fare structure is daft, and ticket machines are not easy to use and people are likely to make mistakes. If the original letter from the OP admitted that they were "rushing" then unfortunately that does give Scotrail a good excuse to blame it purely on the passenger rushing and ignore issues of how easy (or not) ticket machines are to use.
Southern will refund customers who use Southern Only tickets on trains that are operated by Southern but have Gatwick Express branding, and - like Scotrail in this letter - try to score points and don't admit liability. It seems a common thing when some TOCs realise they are wrong, to give compensation but not admit any fault or take on board any suggestions for improvement whatsoever. Not all TOCs are like that though.
The £5 voucher, and the reason for it, gives a good excuse for Scotrail to effectively satisfy the customer while still scoring points and not admitting any liability or fault with the fact that the fare structure is daft, and ticket machines are not easy to use and people are likely to make mistakes. If the original letter from the OP admitted that they were "rushing" then unfortunately that does give Scotrail a good excuse to blame it purely on the passenger rushing and ignore issues of how easy (or not) ticket machines are to use.
Southern will refund customers who use Southern Only tickets on trains that are operated by Southern but have Gatwick Express branding, and - like Scotrail in this letter - try to score points and don't admit liability. It seems a common thing when some TOCs realise they are wrong, to give compensation but not admit any fault or take on board any suggestions for improvement whatsoever. Not all TOCs are like that though.
The mistake is very common, and was discussed extensively in the 'Excess a Single Ticket to a Return' thread (and others, I'm sure). To give you an idea how common it is, when I asked for an excess at New Cross Gate, I was told that the only type of excess he knew of, was to excess a single bought in error from the machine, to a return. That topic is useful reading if you'd like to know what the difficulties can be. I'd imagine people with visual impairments are most likely to make that mistake. Also, sometimes if you are unsure of the ticket you want, if you are selecting different tickets to compare you can pick the wrong one when you go back and re-select, and if a single is 10p less than a return the price looks about right.
Different machines act in different ways. I've never been caught out by purchasing one of these pointless single tickets, but I was caught out when I bought a ticket late at night from a TVM that worked in a different way to the TVMs I am used to, and ended up buying for the wrong day. Needless to say it ended up costing me and, although I should really have written in to complain, and would probably have got a £5 voucher along with a dismissive reply, I just couldn't be bothered in the end (the ticket was only about £5).
Some TVMs are a lot easier to use than others. Whether what you say is true of all TVMs or not, I am unsure personally, but if you assure me that is the case then I'll take your word for it! But, these mistakes happen regardless.
Some TVMs are a lot easier to use than others. Whether what you say is true of all TVMs or not, I am unsure personally, but if you assure me that is the case then I'll take your word for it! But, these mistakes happen regardless.
Well I don't know about all of them, just the ones I've used, and they all seemed to work pretty similarly.
At last, someone with some common sense makes a response!
I don't think most people have argued that it's not possible to make the mistake - just that, having made it, you should have made an effort to sort it out there and then instead of banging on about how unfair life is and then trying to ridicule people on this forum who tried to advise you.
Ok, lets go back to the initial post that I made - this said:
If you haven't experienced this journey, please be aware that the difference between a single off peak and return off peak is 10p - make sure you buy a return as it's easy at the self-service machines to get the wrong one as I did yesterday.
There were initially some helpful comments posted but yours, Deerfold, was the first to, using your words, "ridicule" me - you said:
"Sounds like someone with a sense of entitlement wanting to publish her woes far and wide. I doubt she'll be back to see any responses anyway."
Perhaps you should go back to the beginning of this thread and read it from an objective perspective?
I note you still seen unwilling to accept that you may have any blame to take in this at all. You came onto a forum and registered, apparently just to promote your blog.
If you were to read other threads on this blog I suspect you'll find a lot of people I've shown rather more sympathy to - beause they're not trying to just blame everyone else and then make fun of us.
I note you *did* come back but then you quoted various comments on your blog from here without posting a link so people could see the full conversation.
You've decided that most of the responses people gave on your blog should not be allowed to be shown.
I stick by my comments.
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