Ticket already collected?

[Ivo]

A friend of mine has contacted me asking for some advice.

He says he went to collect a pre-paid ticket, only to be told by the sales people it had already been collected. He didn't say whether he tried to collect it from a TVM specifically, as collection usually requires, but assuming this is the case what I can recommend to him?

The TOC was Greater Anglia, but I've been asked to not reveal the station unless it is essential.

 

[sonic2009]

Referring to the sales people, did he buy it from GA? or from someone like RSH?

 

[CyrusWuff]

I would suggest he contacts the company he booked it through, and they should be able to identify where it was issued and hopefully resolve the matter.

Note that if it was booked through a travel agency and intended to be collected from a Kiosk at an office, rather than a station, it will also show as having already been ticketed (regardless of collection status) due to the way such systems are configured.

 

[Ivo]

I am told it was booked through East Coast and that he only went to the office after trying the TVM.

 

[CockneySparrow]

I am told it was booked through East Coast and that he only went to the office after trying the TVM.

Just one question, does the station you are collecting from match the one selected on the website

Sometimes if I split ticket advanced and walk up fare to the advanced fare station the site will automatically select the pick up station, very easy to thrash through the site

One other note is that the codes will be recycled naturally

 

[SickyNicky]

Just one question, does the station you are collecting from match the one selected on the website

Sometimes if I split ticket advanced and walk up fare to the advanced fare station the site will automatically select the pick up station, very easy to thrash through the site

One other note is that the codes will be recycled naturally

The station you select won't make any difference. You will still be able to collect the tickets from any ticket on demand (ToD) enabled station.

You are only told to select a station to ensure that the station has ToD facilities - because if it doesn't they will need to post the tickets to you instead.

 

[greatkingrat]

One other note is that the codes will be recycled naturally

There are 2.8 trillion possible codes so it will be a long time before they have to start reusing collection references!

 

[trainophile]

I've had this happen... turned out I HAD already collected the tickets . Just sayin' - your friend might like to re-check all his wallets .

 

[Ivo]

I've had this happen... turned out I HAD already collected the tickets . Just sayin' - your friend might like to re-check all his wallets .

Not something I've ever done personally as I usually collect on departure unless I know there may be problems in doing so (e.g. office hours in the event of TVM unavailability), but it's feasible I guess.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

There are 2.8 trillion possible codes . . . .

Where did you learn that? Far, far fewer are valid for use.

 

[greatkingrat]

Well the codes are 8 alpha-numeric characters long so 36^8 = 2.8 trillion is the theoretical number of possible codes.

It may be that in practice not all of them can be used, but either way it is not likely that the system would allocate the same code to two different people's bookings.

 

[DaveNewcastle]

I've had this happen... turned out I HAD already collected the tickets .

Yes, I have made that mistake too.

Just this week a TVM failed to find any journeys associated with my card. 2 minutes later, and the same machine found them.

 

[tony_mac]

It may be that in practice not all of them can be used, but either way it is not likely that the system would allocate the same code to two different people's bookings.

That rather depends on how the codes are generated. It wouldn't particularly surprise me if there was only quite a small number of unique codes in use.

I've also referred to the wrong email (and hence collection code) and attempted to collect tickets that had already been collected some time ago.

 

[pinguini]

I have had problems collecting from a cash & card TVM at a Virgin trains station before, but wondered over to the card only machine which was friendlier

 

[DaveNewcastle]

Well the codes are 8 alpha-numeric characters long so 36^8 = 2.8 trillion is the theoretical number of possible codes.

It may be that in practice not all of them can be used

that's precisely what I'm telling you. Taking a trivial illustration of the actual algorithm from the first position, you'll never find the first letter, 'A' there.

Let's not confuse theory with fact.

 

[trainophile]

that's precisely what I'm telling you. Taking a trivial illustration of the actual algorithm from the first position, you'll never find the first letter, 'A' there.

Let's not confuse theory with fact.

I wish they wouldn't use 8 and B, or 5 and S, as I always have to be extra careful when noting them down at the end of my purchase! (I don't waste ink printing the confirmation details off, just rely on my handwritten scrap of paper.)

Easy to make the "already collected" mistake when you're perpetually booking about 12 weeks ahead, and collecting at the first opportunity. I have a clever little system, but even that isn't always foolproof.

 

[pjnathanail]

I have put my credit card in the wrong way round before, on several TVMs. I went to the ticket office where they put the card in then realised my mistake!

 

[David Goddard]

A good feature I found at Reading the other week was that I didn't need the code if I had only booked one ticket. Putting the Credit Card in the slot was sufficient for it to call up my ticket. I am unsure whether this worked on other TOCs machines.

 

[bb21]

A good feature I found at Reading the other week was that I didn't need the code if I had only booked one ticket. Putting the Credit Card in the slot was sufficient for it to call up my ticket. I am unsure whether this worked on other TOCs machines.

Yes, some machines (especially FasTicket ones) will print your tickets automatically if there is only one booking associated with the card.

However as a security measure, some of the machines that used to do this no longer do.

 

[pinguini]

I find withVirgin card only TVM's that will occur with tickets of value less than £10

 

[Delboy74]

I've just been searching the forums to see if East Coast gave me duff information and saw this thread so thought I'd tell you what they said to me. I was told that the tickets must be collected within 28 days of purchase (I had booked EC First Advance tickets) and when I didn't collect them in that time they just expired. It doesn't say that anywhere in the booking process online, in any of their terms and conditions, in any of their confirmations, or in their FAQs, but that is the answer I was given and told I'd need to buy a new set of tickets. Needless to say, that isn't happening, but that is what they tried to get away with.

 

[bb21]

When did this happen? Sounds like someone's been telling porkies.

 

[Haywain]

The tickets are "issued" around 28 days after the date of travel, which is clearly different to 28 days after booking. The booking remains visible but shows as ticketed. The NLC code for the ticketing location is the clue.

 

[island]

I've just been searching the forums to see if East Coast gave me duff information and saw this thread so thought I'd tell you what they said to me. I was told that the tickets must be collected within 28 days of purchase (I had booked EC First Advance tickets) and when I didn't collect them in that time they just expired. It doesn't say that anywhere in the booking process online, in any of their terms and conditions, in any of their confirmations, or in their FAQs, but that is the answer I was given and told I'd need to buy a new set of tickets. Needless to say, that isn't happening, but that is what they tried to get away with.

That's a nonsense. There is no requirement to collect tickets at any particular time after they become available for collection.