I received a letter from Northern rail about an incident that occurred at Burley in Wharfedale. I had bought a ticket but I left it on the train. As I got of the train and left the station into the car park. I was stopped by a member of staff doing a ticket check. I looked through my pockets as I thought I still had the ticket on me I produced what I thought was the correct ticket but the man took this from me as it was the wrong date. he then asked me to step into the station and took my details, he said 'don't worry, you're not in any trouble mate.' I have now received a letter asking me to say what happened and they say they will prosecute if I don't reply within 14 days, this was about 4 days ago. I don't know what I should do. I don't want this to go to court.
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Northern Rail debt recovery and prosecutions unit letter
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If events transpired as you have described, then reply to them saying exactly the same as you have said here: You had a ticket. You handed over what you thought was the ticket, but it was an old one. You must have left the correct ticket on the train.
Ideally, if you bought the ticket using a debit/credit card include a copy of your statement showing the transaction.
Offer to pay any costs they have incurred investigating this incident and apologise for causing them to have to spend time dealing with the result of your mistake.
I would say that it is more likely than not that Northern will settle the matter out of court.
ryan125hst
Established Member
Northern Rail have replied to the tweet automatically generated by this forum for this thread:
@northernrailorg said:@RailUKForums I would suggest calling our payment and information line on 08445448458. They will be sure to help if you explain
ryan125hst
Established Member
Someone replied to their tweet with that comment! It's the first I've heard of it though. Since when has this been the case and why? More to the point, why are Northern giving out illegal phone numbers?
I'm pretty sure it isn't. The regulations don't stop you using 084 numbers, they just say that there must be a lower-rate number available for customer services.
Northern have such a number published on their website (0333 222 0125), so they aren't in breach of the regulations.
I agree. 0844 numbers have not been outlawed as far as I can recall.
OP, be honest and explain what happened. It's the only thing you can do, really.
LateThanNever
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It's outlawed for 'post sales' calls. So if you're going to buy a ticket it's fine, but not if you have a query about one you've already bought!
Premium rate customer service phone lines are to be banned in a Government crackdown, but banks, train operators and airlines have been let off the hook by ministers.
Thats only about the draft proposals yet I simply cant find anything solid about it.
Thats only about the draft proposals yet I simply cant find anything solid about it.
Not entirely correct. Your company must have a lower-rate number for customer service / fault helpdesk type calls. However, you can have a higher-rate number for anything else - e.g. product support other than fault reporting.
There is also nothing stopping you having both a higher and lower rate number for customer service as long as you make both public and don't favour the higher rate one in your publicity. Typically you would market the higher-rate number as a premium service - perhaps by guaranteeing a faster time to answer. However, in my market sector only one company has announced that they were going to do this - the market feedback was very negative and they quickly dropped the plan. Also, unless the call streams are being delivered to separate advisor groups, it is very hard to prove that customers on the lower rate number aren't getting a poorer service as a consequence of the premium service.
In your example you are correct - if a customer has a general query about a ticket then Northern must provide a lower rate number for them to call. I believe that Northern Rail are complying with the regulations as the number given wasn't for general customer service, but was to speak with the revenue and prosecutions department which can legitimately be classed as a non CS role.
The Regulations are a little more specific than this. The requirement to provide a Basic Rate phone number only relates to people who have contracts with the company. Therefore if you have a general query about a ticket then the TOC could have a premium number. However if people want to contact the company regarding a specific ticket they have already purchased then they must be able to do this via a Basic Rate number. In practice, the TOC will probably use the same number for both types of calls. I'm not sure about a Premium Rate number to call the Prosecutions Department. Could this fall foul of the Regs - provided that a contract had been entered into and not a case of failing to enter a contract!
The Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013
Quite correct - I should have said "If a customer has a general question about a ticket that they have bought", thanks for the clarification.
The thing is that the reason for the call to the prosecutions department is because the OP couldn't produce a ticket - hence there's no proof that a contract existed!
LateThanNever
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Ah, but there might be if he has credit card proof! So if he's bought a ticket they're illegal and if he hasn't they're not! Maybe a quid pro quo for strict liability?!!
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