Season Ticket Refund or Changeover?

[stonecold]

I purchased a Stone to Stafford standard annual season ticket at £500 and a Stafford to Birmingham 1st annual season ticket £2480 a couple of months ago (expires 16th Oct 13).

The new timetable changes have made the journey home very difficult. It now involves a nigh on impossible connection at Stafford or a 40 minute wait at Stafford, and getting in the house 20 minutes later.

The best option for me is going to be to ditch Stone (as everyone else seems to have done since yesterday, well done London Midland, genius...) and get a season ticket from Stoke to Birmingham. This route is very busy, so not ideal and due to the additional cost i will have to go standard all the way, it's really the only option I now have.

So, is it possible for me, and if so best to go for a changeover? In which case I assume someone will owe me a couple of hundred of quid, as a standard from Stoke to Birmingham is £2628.

Or do I have to go for a refund on my existing tickets and buy a new annual season ticket, in which case i'd need to find about £140?

Finally, I plan to do whatever I need to do at New Street, I assume it's possible to do either there over my lunch hour?

Any help appreciated.

 

[barrykas]

I would hazard a guess that, as you've bought two season tickets, you may need to get a refund on one of them and a changeover on the other, as the changeover form only has space for the details for one ticket.

As for getting the changeover done, I can't speak for other stations but we always say to allow three working days between submitting the request and collecting the new ticket to allow us time to calculate it and get it authorised.

Any refund due will be paid by the original method of payment, so if you paid by company cheque or warrant you'll need the appropriate details for repayment, or a letter from your employer authorising repayment direct to you.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

The simplest option would be a changeover on one and a refund on the other, though which way round is best would take some working out (the only other option I know of is refund on both and a new ticket purchased). It should be noted that you will have to pay any difference on the changeover (or pay for the new season if you go for two refunds) as the money for the refunded season will take time to come through, this may have an affect on which season you choose to changeover.

As advised by Barrykas, you should give some warning to the office you are changing them at (if you can), this will minimise the time you are actually waiting around for the new ticket to be issued.

 

[stonecold]

The simplest option would be a changeover on one and a refund on the other, though which way round is best would take some working out (the only other option I know of is refund on both and a new ticket purchased). It should be noted that you will have to pay any difference on the changeover (or pay for the new season if you go for two refunds) as the money for the refunded season will take time to come through, this may have an affect on which season you choose to changeover.

As advised by Barrykas, you should give some warning to the office you are changing them at (if you can), this will minimise the time you are actually waiting around for the new ticket to be issued.

Thanks for the replies.

So if I was to go to New St on Thursday lunch how would it work. Do they take the details and start the calculation process, and i keep my existing tickets for now, or replace the tickets at the same time. I assume I keep some tickets while its all sorted to continue my commute.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

They take down the details, including the date you will do the changeover, and let you keep hold of the tickets until that time, they may (should) give you a form to fill out.

 

[barrykas]

Again, can only speak for my TOC, but we get the passenger to fill out the top part of the change-over form (i.e. just the name and address bit) and take a photocopy of the current ticket to do the calculations from.