I guessed this would happen. It seems that I've now got a new enemy in the form of the RPI that gave me my PF!!
Last week, I went to WGC again. He was there with some other RPIs that had come on the same train as me (but weren't gripping – or I'd have been able to get my extension) and was laughing with them.
When I got to ask for my ticket extension, he pretended he didn't know me (funny how he'd approached me from a distance to ask if I won my appeal last time I saw him) and kept asking where I'd boarded. I said Old Street, for him to say 'where?' as if I'd said something stupid (but I speak very clearly). I said it again and he paused for thought, stepped aside and said 'get a ticket upstairs'. Rather odd really, as he's gone from issuing penalty fares in error to letting me leave the station. I guess someone has spoken to him, as he still didn't believe me when I'd proven he was wrong last time - figuring I was lucky to win the appeal.
Still, I did the right thing – and went upstairs and bought a ticket to Hatfield (the exact same cost). As I did so, the two RPIs came up and left the station and saw me buying the ticket. I am sure they were quite surprised, expecting that I'd have just walked out. Still, that would make me a total hypocrite.
Anyway, today, he comes on – on his own – into the first class carriage of my train. For the record, it's declassified.
He then sees some tickets and starts off on the 'this is first class'. Okay, fair enough – he may not realise at this point. He's then told by two other passengers that it isn't on this service.
And this is when he showed his true colours. He told us all that it definitely was first class, and when told what train it was to look up – he said 'this isn't the xx.xx train'. Surely he has some sort of schedule of trains to cover and would know?
No, he's now getting his pad ready to issue a bunch of penalties, even though pretty much everyone in the compartment is now telling him HE'S wrong.
Then he said another thing that must be his trademark; 'Listen, if I'm wrong – I'll happily apologise', suggesting we can all take a penalty fare and appeal. We would then have to find him and ask him to apologise. I now know his modus operandi – give as many penalty fares as possible, then say how you can appeal. No bloody way this time! I'd have happily got him to call BTP before accepting another 'illegal' penalty.
He simply won't EVER believe what anyone says, even if he's told by multiple people that he's wrong. That worries me. Are we all conspiring to rip off FCC, or is there a chance that we might be right? And shouldn't he at least check before going for the PF pad?
I also told him he didn't apologise to me, quite loudly, which made him lose it. He shouted at me that he did apologise, and I said he didn't at first – and I'd had to show him a letter to PROVE I'd won the appeal and then ask him to apologise, which he did sarcastically. Very childish arguing, on both our parts, but he's got the uniform and the authority and must have missed the training day on how to diffuse a situation or avoid allowing things to escalate.
Only when I think he realised that I was standing up to him (and today, he wore his name badge so I now know who he is!) and nobody was going to accept a PF did he look up the service he was actually on in the timetable. Of course, now he attempts to a make a strong apology (still obviously sarcastic) to prove that he does apologise and belittle me. It didn't wash, and people were saying how rude he was or sighing and smirking.
I know (as in see regularly on the train) someone that sat on the next row and she told me she had made complaints before about him, namely for being 'caught' on a declassified train. He'd now gone to deal with some people who didn't have a YPRC (and were travelling before 0930) but he was clearly listening because as soon as he heard her saying something about him, he rushed back and said 'if you're going to talk to a stranger about me, you can at least include me in the conversation'.
I said that we knew each other, and neither of us had said anything that wasn't true. I'd said about the PF I'd got (and that I'd won the appeal) and she said she'd made two complaints. Hardly a case of getting lawyers involved for slander, especially as I'm sure both of us could quite easily substantiate our claims. We then had a bit of an argument about discretion, which I said he had – but he didn't comment.
Instead, he asks to see my ticket again. He looks at it closely, then asks to see my Oyster card. I show it (it's a Barclaycard / Oyster card) and he asks what it was. I explain that the card is also the Oyster and invite him to scan it with his wand, but he declined. I'm not sure why showing an Oyster card is any good if you don't read it – but still. We both knew he was now just trying to be awkward.
Perhaps it was rude of me to talk about him in public, which WAS done as much for his benefit as for those around him. I should probably apologise to him for that (maybe in an equally condescending manner?), as I did once to another RPI that I had a bit of a go at for trying to issue a PF for sitting in a declassified first class compartment. In that case, I got off the train to find him and ultimately we shook hands, with him accepted his error and understanding my feelings. Somehow, I didn't feel like doing that today.
This guy LOVES confrontation and the feeling of power. To be honest, there's little point complaining to FCC either as they probably LOVE him. He must issue loads of penalty fares every day. He'd have issued at least 3 to the people without their railcards after I got off at Finsbury Park, and may well target other services with declassified first class services – on the basis that he'll issue a PF and then tell you to appeal it. The law of averages suggest that many of his penalty fares WILL be valid so perhaps the TOC isn't too bothered. After all, they issued a refund to me of just £1.30 when I won my appeal. That's considerably less than a lot of nice easy £20s.
Why do I just know that he's going to try and make my life a living hell from now on? He's going to be checking my ticket to embarrass me in the future, and look to catch me out at any opportunity. What's going to frustrate him most is that I won't ever BE travelling illegally. I could have even given him the ticket I bought the day he let me out of Welwyn Garden City to show that I'm not ripping off the railway. Goodness knows what he'd have made of that!!
