Printing out of an old ticket

[Simon11]

Today, I was at Marylebone, getting tickets preordered from the TVM.

I first inputted the code for the tickets I had purchased online. I got this with no issue.

I then went to repeat this for a prebooked business ticket, however the machine went straight to printing and gave me old tickets (which I didn't get printed off at Euston TVM on an old trip since the friend didn't join us). So I now have a ticket printed on 14th March, for a AP ticket dated 14th Feb.

 

[Deerfold]

The system keeps details of old tickets for a while after the expiry date - useful if you need a ticket for a refund (e.g. there was no service on the day of your Advance ticket) - as you may not have even gone to the station in that case.

 

[Simon11]

I didn't even type in the booking reference and it was originally ordered to be picked up at Euston.

Well, Virgin would be happy as they will now receive revenue from the ticket when the next period revenue is sent to them.

 

[jon0844]

The last few times I've collected prebooked tickets (via EC), they've printed immediately without entering the reference code (at Hatfield station).

Which is good because the touchscreens are bloody awful and it can take ages to successfully enter the code without much frustration!

 

[tsr]

If only unprinted ticket(s) from one transaction remain associated with your card, they do often then print automatically following insertion of the card (without the code being entered), but not absolutely always.

I am unsure why tickets with expired dates would print automatically, should a further purchase end up being related to the card in question. For a start, certain types of tickets purchased online for travel on the Southern network have a money-back guarantee, but you can only claim this full refund if your ticket is uncollected and you haven't travelled (well, unless the NRCoC refund obligations override this).

This may well be part of what the "two-hour" rule is all about. Tickets for a single purchase are often ready for collection well before the two hours are up, when purchased through some websites. However, I suppose it may take longer to add the purchase to any list of multiple transactions associated with a given account & card. And an error involving any database containing such a list is always possible.

 

[Deerfold]

Well, Virgin would be happy as they will now receive revenue from the ticket when the next period revenue is sent to them.

I can't see this making a difference - so long as the ticket has been bought they'll get their revenue whether it's been printed or not.

 

[Simon11]

Ticket Revenue only gets allocated to TOCs once issued.

Thus If I buy on the 5th, but only collect it on the 30th, it will be the 30th when it is allocated. Although TOCs only receive one payment from Lennon per period into their bank account.

 

[Deerfold]

Ticket Revenue only gets allocated to TOCs once issued.

Thus If I buy on the 5th, but only collect it on the 30th, it will be the 30th when it is allocated. Although TOCs only receive one payment from Lennon per period into their bank account.

So if it's not issued does the seller keep all the money?

 

[Paul Kelly]

Hmm, I think Deerfold's claim sounds a bit dubious too. It reminds me of the discussion in another sub-forum about the dispute between the operators of the 747 bus and Luton Airport, where a lot of friction arose because a manager at the bus company had incorrectly reported to the airport that revenue from internet sales wasn't included in revenue reported to the airport for revenue-sharing purposes. What he'd failed to appreciate was that passengers who'd pre-purchased internet tickets were still issued with a ticket on the bus - thus a record of all internet purchases (as long as they were actually used on the bus) was reported through the bus ticket machines and thence through normal accounting channels - there was no extra work required to report internet revenue and it was already included in the figures reported.

In both cases if a ticket is purchased but not issued, it would appear to be pure profit for the operator of the website.
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Actually for rail tickets there will be a cost for inserting the booking into the booking database to make it available for ticket machine pick-up. So they won't keep *everything*.