Ticket machine printed off duplicate tickets

[FlyingPotato]

So I bought an advance ticket off train Pal and printed it off on an Avanti TVM

The machine printed off two copies of the same train ticket, same numbers, seats everything, like an exact duplicate of it
All other tickets printed were fine and didn't get duplicated

I spoke to the office and the person said it should be fine

However I'd like some advice with what to do as I have two versions of the same ticket, I don't want one to be valid and throw it away, but I also don't want to cause any problems

As well, has anyone else experienced this?

 

[lfc84]

Why not keep everything that was printed?

 

[FlyingPotato]

I have everything in my wallet

 

[DanielGeorge]

I have everything in my wallet

Then what's the question...?
If they're both EXACTLY identical, same ticket numbers on both, same seats, not a single digit difference, then you would be perfectly safe to discard one set. But if you're keeping both anyway, this is a non-issue.

 

[Joe Paxton]

This is an 'overthinking it' problem!

 

[styles]

What to do? Use one set of the tickets. Maybe keep the other set just in case.

Had it happened to me before? Nope! Usually my issue is TVMs not printing enough tickets, rather than too many!

 

[saismee]

Usually my issue is TVMs not printing enough tickets, rather than too many!

Seen that one before! Lady tried printing two tickets (outbound and return) in a hurry, ticket machine had ONE (!!) ticket left in the reel and gave up after giving her the outbound. Ended up missing the train because she had to go to the ticket office to get her return ticket printed. I do wonder if she could've done it at the ticket office at her destination...

 

[styles]

Seen that one before! Lady tried printing two tickets (outbound and return) in a hurry, ticket machine had ONE (!!) ticket left in the reel and gave up after giving her the outbound. Ended up missing the train because she had to go to the ticket office to get her return ticket printed. I do wonder if she could've done it at the ticket office at her destination...

I've had it in two common scenarios:

1. If you have too many collection references with the same payment card, some TVMs stop letting you use that card to collect. I got through three or four collections before an error popped up and said the card can't be used, so had to go to ticket office.
2. Too many tickets printed in quick succession. Had this when I booked a whole month of Advance tickets to get to and from work, as with a Railcard (after 9:30) it was cheaper than the season ticket. Printed about 30 of the 60 ish tickets then the machine went out of order. I felt bad because by this time there was a small queue behind me and we all had to go to the ticket office (or in their case another ticket machine).

Fickle things these TVMs!

 

[saismee]

I've had it in two common scenarios:

1. If you have too many collection references with the same payment card, some TVMs stop letting you use that card to collect. I got through three or four collections before an error popped up and said the card can't be used, so had to go to ticket office.
2. Too many tickets printed in quick succession. Had this when I booked a whole month of Advance tickets to get to and from work, as with a Railcard (after 9:30) it was cheaper than the season ticket. Printed about 30 of the 60 ish tickets then the machine went out of order. I felt bad because by this time there was a small queue behind me and we all had to go to the ticket office (or in their case another ticket machine).

Fickle things these TVMs!

Those certainly sound more like edge-cases that the average customer won't need to use. I would honestly just visit the ticket office for complex thing like this in the first place. Those both seem like pretty silly issues though, I wonder why they're programmed to stop after X tickets?

 

[styles]

Those certainly sound more like edge-cases that the average customer won't need to use. I would honestly just visit the ticket office for complex thing like this in the first place. Those both seem like pretty silly issues though, I wonder why they're programmed to stop after X tickets?

Yes they are for sure.

The card being blocked I assume is some intentional anti-fraud measure.

Stopping printing after a few dozen continuous prints I assume was some technical fault like overheating, or coincidentally running out of paper or ink.

 

[Haywain]

I wonder why they're programmed to stop after X tickets?

They are not programmed to stop, they stop because they run out of ticket stock or there is a jam in the machine. In TVMs where Newbury printers (for pre-cut ticket stock) are used the printer can only hold something like 250 coupons, so can easily not have enough when a large number of tickets are being printed.

or coincidentally running out of paper or ink.

They are not going to run out of ink - they use thermal printers.

 

[saismee]

Yes they are for sure.

The card being blocked I assume is some intentional anti-fraud measure.

Stopping printing after a few dozen continuous prints I assume was some technical fault like overheating, or coincidentally running out of paper or ink.

Surely it makes more sense to put the anti-fraud part into the purchasing part, not the collection?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 6 Apr 2025 ==

They are not programmed to stop, they stop because they run out of ticket stock or there is a jam in the machine. In TVMs where Newbury printers (for pre-cut ticket stock) are used the printer can only hold something like 250 coupons, so can easily not have enough when a large number of tickets are being printed.

So it was just an unlucky coincidence that it stopped printing in those cases where styles was using them? The mass-printing one definitely makes a lot of sense.

 

[Haywain]

So it was just an unlucky coincidence that it stopped printing in those cases where styles was using them?

I would say so, yes. I have never had a problem collecting tickets from a TVM but I wouldn't use that to claim that faults don't occur.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Surely it makes more sense to put the anti-fraud part into the purchasing part, not the collection?

The retailer and the TOC supplying may not each have the same view