refunds, excesses and administration charges

[cjp]

We all know that TOC charge ten pounds to change things and this might mean a ticket has little or no value. There do this under part F of the National Conditions of Travel



I do not know how much administration is involved but it strikes me as odd in a monopolistic sense that the ten pound maximum permitted has become the norm for all but a few cases and the "may be a charge of "29.2 has become "there will be a charge" or "in most cases there will be a charge of the maximum permitted administration fee". Does anyone here know how much fiendish paper work is involved?

Ignore the attached file as it seems to be junk

 

[GrimShady]

How can they justify £10 to start with?

 

[robbeech]

How can they justify £10 to start with?

To put off people taking little or no care or responsibility in their purchases.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

How can they justify £10 to start with?

It's designed not to represent their true costs, which are clearly unlikely to add up to £10 for the majority of requests, but to represent as a disincentive to having people treat Advances as completely flexible (before travel). They are a (minor) contractual penalty.

I think that, if there is anything that needs reform if or when the ticketing system is altered, this is one area that should clearly be looked at. It's one thing charging £10 for a ticket to be changed at a ticket office - £5 would be a somewhat more reasonable charge in my view, but I wouldn't say £10 is unfathomably excessive.

But it's utterly ludicrous to charge £10 where changes are made and processed entirely online, or in batch by a ticket refund processing centre (as most online retailers do, if you've already picked up the ticket). If Advances and the like are to become more widely accepted for journeys that are, really, turn up and go, then it must become possible to do this kind of change entirely electronically and without fee.

 

[cjp]

But then I read of a certain main line company that does not do excess and one has to get a refund and buy another ticket and I think I am right in saying the ticket in question was not an advance but a railcard discounted ticket where for one reason or another it could not be used. The travelling was still being made and they were getting more money plus ten pound.

My concern was if the condition of travel set out up to £20 that would become the norm for these monopolistic administration charges. With no maybe about them.

 

[GrimShady]

It's designed not to represent their true costs, which are clearly unlikely to add up to £10 for the majority of requests, but to represent as a disincentive to having people treat Advances as completely flexible (before travel). They are a (minor) contractual penalty.

I think that, if there is anything that needs reform if or when the ticketing system is altered, this is one area that should clearly be looked at. It's one thing charging £10 for a ticket to be changed at a ticket office - £5 would be a somewhat more reasonable charge in my view, but I wouldn't say £10 is unfathomably excessive.

But it's utterly ludicrous to charge £10 where changes are made and processed entirely online, or in batch by a ticket refund processing centre (as most online retailers do, if you've already picked up the ticket). If Advances and the like are to become more widely accepted for journeys that are, really, turn up and go, then it must become possible to do this kind of change entirely electronically and without fee.

Fair enough with regard to Advance tickets but why subject everyone to it? Even then it's excessive.

Like you say £10 for changes to a ticket sold online is a complete joke in all honesty.

In the East Coast days when changing an Advance online it was possible to pay the £10 plus price difference to book another set of tickets. Ever since VTEC came along you now have to buy a totally new ticket first, then use the booking reference to make a claim on the previous ticket minus the £10. Not only that you could be waiting 14 days for a refund, unacceptable in my view considering how easy it was before!

 

[Hadders]

In the East Coast days when changing an Advance online it was possible to pay the £10 plus price difference to book another set of tickets. Ever since VTEC came along you now have to buy a totally new ticket first, then use the booking reference to make a claim on the previous ticket minus the £10. Not only that you could be waiting 14 days for a refund, unacceptable in my view considering how easy it was before!

This is RDG's preferred way of amending tickets. It seems that getting an excess coupon is far too complicated for most people to understand.....