Odd period travelcard from Overground ticket office?

[tannedfrog]

I tried to buy an odd period travelcard from an Overground ticket office and despite the TFL website saying these are available, the guy behind the counter was adamant that they are only available for 1 day, 7 days, 1 month or 1 year.

I thought that any Overground ticket office could sell any National Rail product which would include season tickets for odd periods - can anyone clarify?

Thanks

 

[Deerfold]

Tube stations will sell odd period travelcards - see http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/tickets/where-can-i-buy-my-ticket.pdf
so I can't see why Overground ones wouldn't.

 

[maniacmartin]

London Overground do seem to have problems with giving their ticket office staff adequate training. I would be willing to bet that they can issue the odd-period travelcard but just don't know they can or don't know how.

 

[Be3G]

The link provided by Deerfold does explicitly say that odd-period travelcards are available from London Overground station ticket offices.

 

[RJ]

I tried to buy an odd period travelcard from an Overground ticket office and despite the TFL website saying these are available, the guy behind the counter was adamant that they are only available for 1 day, 7 days, 1 month or 1 year.

I thought that any Overground ticket office could sell any National Rail product which would include season tickets for odd periods - can anyone clarify?

Thanks

This shoddy quality of retail staff is incredibly frustrating for customers, who should quite rightly be able to assume that they're dealing with a professional!

 

[Goatboy]

This shoddy quality of retail staff is incredibly frustrating for customers, who should quite rightly be able to assume that they're dealing with a professional!

It amazes me quite how poor so many of them are. Jobs are hard to come by at the moment, this puts employers in a great position because they'll be able to cherry pick decent applicants from the large amount that will apply.

So how do we end up with poor quality staff? It's a shame because the public encounter these people on a daily basis and then tar the entire industry with the same brush, so it's a real shame for the many excellent railway staff out there.

 

[bb21]

It amazes me quite how poor so many of them are. Jobs are hard to come by at the moment, this puts employers in a great position because they'll be able to cherry pick decent applicants from the large amount that will apply.

So how do we end up with poor quality staff? It's a shame because the public encounter these people on a daily basis and then tar the entire industry with the same brush, so it's a real shame for the many excellent railway staff out there.

It is not really the fault of those staff, the overwhelming majority of whom would have received very little training in these matters. Their employers do not really care.

 

[barrykas]

Assuming it was one of the stations that uses FasTIS, the "standard" periods it offers are 7 day, 1 month, 2 months, Quarterly, 4 months, 6 months and Annual. For "odd" periods you have to enter the desired expiry date in the appropriate field.

 

[greatkingrat]

I don't know why they can't sell odd-period Oyster travelcards from the TfL website either.

 

[RJ]

It is not really the fault of those staff, the overwhelming majority of whom would have received very little training in these matters. Their employers do not really care.

It's a job where staff cannot expect to be spoon fed every tiny detail of what they can and can't do. Certainly responsibility lies on they clerk if they do something they're not supposed to, including refusing to sell a ticket they're supposed to sell.

Whilst some procedures, such as season ticket changeovers are actually reasonably complex, some things just require a little bit of common sense, or the initiative to look it up in The Manual. Sale of period season tickets is one of the latter.

 

[bb21]

It's a job where staff cannot expect to be spoon fed every tiny detail of what they can and can't do. Certainly responsibility lies on they clerk if they do something they're not supposed to, including refusing to sell a ticket they're supposed to sell.

Whilst some procedures, such as season ticket changeovers are actually reasonably complex, some things just require a little bit of common sense, or the initiative to look it up in The Manual. Sale of period season tickets is one of the latter.

That is, provided that they are aware that Travelcard seasons can be sold for a period other than whole months/weeks. If what I heard of LO training standards are anything to go by, I wouldn't be so sure.

Using initiatives is all jolly good, however not everyone is motivated enough to do so, for various reasons, and that says much about the company/job as anything else. They are probably employing the wrong people, guaranteed, and even that puts a large part of the blame at the company. Fundamentally whichever angle you look at it from, the company does not take training in these areas seriously and has to take much of the blame.

This doesn't detract from the possibility that the member of staff in question was just too lazy to do anything, and this is not to defend such action.

 

[tannedfrog]

Thanks for the replies. The guy was polite but firm and genuinely believed he could not sell an odd period travelcard. He also said that the page I was trying to show him on my phone must contain incorrect information. He had no interest in looking at it or checking that it was indeed TFL's own website (which would be less likely to be inaccurate on this point than other travel sites).
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

Assuming it was one of the stations that uses FasTIS, the "standard" periods it offers are 7 day, 1 month, 2 months, Quarterly, 4 months, 6 months and Annual. For "odd" periods you have to enter the desired expiry date in the appropriate field.

Thank you - in case I use that station again would you be willing to tell me more about that appropriate field, so I can point the member of staff to it?

 

[maniacmartin]

He also said that the page I was trying to show him on my phone must contain incorrect information.

Why am I not surprised. I'd advise you take a printout of the web page next time - its easier to hand over than your phone.

 

[barrykas]

Thank you - in case I use that station again would you be willing to tell me more about that appropriate field, so I can point the member of staff to it?

It's not exactly rocket science...Though obviously depends on whether it's one of the ex-Silverlink stations that switched from APTIS/Tribute to FasTIS, or one of the ex-Southern stations that (AFAIK) still uses Shere SMART.

On the FasTIS Season Ticket issuing screen, one of the rows contains three fields: Start Date, Validity (which is where they choose from 7 Day, Monthly, etc) and Expiry Date. Not hard to find.