Money taken from account but no ticket

[Dormouse]

I just tried to buy a ticket at one of the self service ticket machines at Ashtead. The machine said 'completed; remove card' as usual so I did and then the machine froze for about 20 seconds. It didn't print my ticket and displayed the error message: 'Transaction cannot be completed at this time.'

The man at the ticket office checked my card against a machine and said the transaction had not gone through, but I checked my account online immediately and saw that it had gone through. I won't be able to see my itemised bill for a couple of days, but I knew the exact amount in there beforehand (I had checked it at home 20 minutes earlier) and after the failed transaction the total amount had decreased by exactly the amount of the ticket.

The man in the ticket office said that I may be refunded but I find this hard to believe as the transaction clearly did go through. I know it's only £8 but I'm furious at the principle of the thing as I just don't have the money to spare at the moment. I'd be grateful for any advice.

 

[W230]

I know it's only £8 but I'm furious at the principle of the thing as I just don't have the money to spare at the moment. I'd be grateful for any advice.

It may be that the money doesn't come out - although it was showing off your available balance I think this is quite usual when a transaction is authorised. Best bet if you're really worried is ring your bank to confirm.

My guess would be that it doesn't go out though they will be able to tell you for sure.

 

[gordonthemoron]

it could be that the transaction was authorised but abandoned. Therefore your available balance may be reduced for a few days and then the deducted amount will be readded, it would not show as a transaction on your statement in that case

 

[sarahj]

This once happened to me in WH Smiths. The machine failed halfway through the transaction. I found the cash and paid, and left with my goods and a transaction voided reciept. About an hour later I was checking my account and found the debit from the original transaction. Smiths said they had not taken the money, and a few days later the transaction was removed.

So on checking, this is what happens.
A You pay for the item. The money is reserved in your account for the item.
then you either have:
B The transaction is completed and the seller recives the money
or C The transaction is NOT completed, the seller does not get any money, but it takes the bank and few hours to unreserve the money,

Give it 24/48 hours and see whats what.
Yes, a pain, esp if your tickets were for a 12 months season.

 

[maniacmartin]

There was another thread on this recently, where the exact same thing happened.

It turned out that the Ticket Vending Machine (TVM) had pre-authorised the funds on the customer's card, but didn't actually complete the transaction with the bank, so after a few days the pre-authorisation expired and the money was once again available in their bank account.

This is probably what happened in your case. It is somewhat annoying that the TVM programmers didn't bother to make it tell you of what's going on when it encounters an error.

 

[30907]

There's been a thread on this a couple of months back (sorry, haven't time to search) which ended with all being well in a day or so.

 

[island]

Chances are very high that the transaction will not complete and the authorisation will drop off the card in a few days. Don't worry unless it is still there in a week.

 

[IanXC]

I know it's only £8 but I'm furious at the principle of the thing as I just don't have the money to spare at the moment. I'd be grateful for any advice.

As per the other posters it seems highly likely the transaction will not be processed to debit your account, however if the funds being authorised (reserved) by the transaction is a problem it is possible to have it removed. A call the Train Operating Company (TOC) who operate the machine in question should result in them calling their merchant acquiring bank who will remove the authorisation. If they won't do that, your bank may remove the authorisation if the TOC will send them a fax confirming they do not require the funds any longer.

 

[Dormouse]

Thanks very much for the reassurance! I imagine there's something built into the software to prevent money being taken if no ticket prints. I'll check my account over the next few days and report back.

 

[island]

As per the other posters it seems highly likely the transaction will not be processed to debit your account, however if the funds being authorised (reserved) by the transaction is a problem it is possible to have it removed. A call the Train Operating Company (TOC) who operate the machine in question should result in them calling their merchant acquiring bank who will remove the authorisation. If they won't do that, your bank may remove the authorisation if the TOC will send them a fax confirming they do not require the funds any longer.

This is true in theory only. In practice most merchants won't be knowledgeable/bothered enough to follow the procedure to void an authorization hold, especially for such a small sum.