Ticket offices can't print advance rover tickets

[tighcorrie]

Anyone else had this? Have tried three times at two Scottish stations to buy a 7-day all line rail rover, and also a W Midlands Day Ranger. All advance purchases for several days hence.

The ticket offices found the tickets, got the correct fares up and set the valid from date (rovers) or valid on date (ranger) - and the printed ticket was issued with the date of issue where the valid from/on date should have been.

Despite very helpful/bemused staff, they could not persuade their computers to print an advance rover or ranger ticket - nothing later than the date I was standing there.

Ordering from Scotrail Telesales wasn't a problem and the correct tickets were issued that way.

Anyone else had this problem? I'm alerting Scotrail to it as it might suggest a bug in their ticket issuing processes. Hope it's not just me......interested to know if it's just a Scottish ticket office issue or wider, ie national.

 

[dcd]

I used a First Great Western Station to buy an ALR on 24th May and it printed fine with the Start Date set to 10th July and Valid until set to 16th July. and with Printed data at the bottom of 24th May.

I bought early in order to get seat reservations sorted for the seats I want. But that did not work out as some journeys marked in the timetable as reservable would not let the ticket office reserve seats.

 

[First class]

Isn't there a 3-day rule in place for certain tickets?

 

[island]

Probably something to do with the TIS in use.

 

[tighcorrie]

I used a First Great Western Station to buy an ALR on 24th May and it printed fine with the Start Date set to 10th July and Valid until set to 16th July. and with Printed data at the bottom of 24th May.

I bought early in order to get seat reservations sorted for the seats I want. But that did not work out as some journeys marked in the timetable as reservable would not let the ticket office reserve seats.

That's really useful - looks like it might be specifically a Scottish problem.

 

[RJ]

Anyone else had this? Have tried three times at two Scottish stations to buy a 7-day all line rail rover, and also a W Midlands Day Ranger. All advance purchases for several days hence.

The ticket offices found the tickets, got the correct fares up and set the valid from date (rovers) or valid on date (ranger) - and the printed ticket was issued with the date of issue where the valid from/on date should have been.

Despite very helpful/bemused staff, they could not persuade their computers to print an advance rover or ranger ticket - nothing later than the date I was standing there.

Ordering from Scotrail Telesales wasn't a problem and the correct tickets were issued that way.

Anyone else had this problem? I'm alerting Scotrail to it as it might suggest a bug in their ticket issuing processes. Hope it's not just me......interested to know if it's just a Scottish ticket office issue or wider, ie national.

The ticket issuing software they use has a default limit on how many days in advance season tickets can be purchased. This can be manually overridden, slightly tricky process to the uninitiated.

 

[tighcorrie]

The ticket issuing software they use has a default limit on how many days in advance season tickets can be purchased. This can be manually overridden, slightly tricky process to the uninitiated.

So maybe it's a staff training issue after all....that would make sense given that dcd was able to buy his at a local station and telesales can sell them with no problem. I've alerted Scotrail and await their response. Thanks for that - it makes perfect sense and would explain it. All of the staff involved said "Hm, think it's the first time I've sold one of those"....

 

[rail-britain]

Anyone else had this? Have tried three times at two Scottish stations to buy a 7-day all line rail rover, and also a W Midlands Day Ranger. All advance purchases for several days hence.

The ticket offices found the tickets, got the correct fares up and set the valid from date (rovers) or valid on date (ranger) - and the printed ticket was issued with the date of issue where the valid from/on date should have been.

Despite very helpful/bemused staff, they could not persuade their computers to print an advance rover or ranger ticket - nothing later than the date I was standing there.

Which stations did you visit?

I purchase my All Line Rail Rovers from Glasgow Central, the time limit is 6 weeks in advance

 

[RJ]

So maybe it's a staff training issue after all....that would make sense given that dcd was able to buy his at a local station and telesales can sell them with no problem. I've alerted Scotrail and await their response. Thanks for that - it makes perfect sense and would explain it. All of the staff involved said "Hm, think it's the first time I've sold one of those"....

To be fair, certain things almost never crop up so the clerk wouldn't have a reason to know about it. It has been said that knowledge comprises two components - knowing and knowing where to look to find out. I don't think it's a training issue, more like the clerk taking the initiative to visit The Manual, or at least hitting the F1 button...

 

[dcd]

Which stations did you visit?

I purchase my All Line Rail Rovers from Glasgow Central, the time limit is 6 weeks in advance

It cannot be 6 weeks as I would then not have been able to book mine until 29th May and bought it on 24th.

 

[First class]

To be fair, certain things almost never crop up so the clerk wouldn't have a reason to know about it. It has been said that knowledge comprises two components - knowing and knowing where to look to find out. I don't think it's a training issue, more like the clerk taking the initiative to visit The Manual, or at least hitting the F1 button...

Staff certainly at Merseyrail aren't told "The Manual" exists, never mind told how to access it. Additionally, the F1 button on a Merseyrail STAR terminal will only give information about Windows 2000 IRRC.

 

[tighcorrie]

Which stations did you visit?

I purchase my All Line Rail Rovers from Glasgow Central, the time limit is 6 weeks in advance

Dingwall and Inverness. The ticket office guy at Dingwall (Brian) has a reputation for being meticulous, methodical and determined to get to the bottom of any problem. At least in my experience. But this one defeated even Brian!

Since I can get ALR's and Rangers through Scotrail telesales it's not a big issue - but I quite like supporting my local station's remaining staffed facilities.

I remember Brian being quite excited about issuing an ALR - it was a first I think - and then SO disappointed he had to cancel it because he couldn't get the system to put a forward date on it!
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

To be fair, certain things almost never crop up so the clerk wouldn't have a reason to know about it. It has been said that knowledge comprises two components - knowing and knowing where to look to find out. I don't think it's a training issue, more like the clerk taking the initiative to visit The Manual, or at least hitting the F1 button...

I must admit what I'd love to be able to do is to point out that the system is likely to over-ride the requested date on an advance ALR or Ranger ticket and be able, without being smug, to tell them what they need to try! Clearly staff at Glasgow Central have got it sussed too.

 

[tighcorrie]

For anyone considering buying an ALR from a Scottish ticket office....I raised the question of why at least 2 (Dingwall, Inverness) ticket offices appeared unable to print an ALR ticket with anything other than a date of issue valid date. Their system defaulted back to the DOI whatever start date was entered and Dingwall and Inverness were unable to force a system over-ride. Someone on here said they'd managed to buy an ALR in advance from Glasgow Central with no trouble.

Scotrail advised me (in more than the required 7 days to respond so I got a £5 voucher too!) that the supplier of their ticket issuing system was looking into the matter. This was 3 weeks ago. As of today, another "holding" response - still being looked into but "should be resolved very soon".

Looks like it is a real issue and therefore anyone considering buying an ALR in advance (in Scotland at least) might want to book from Scotrail telesales in Fort William. Don't know if it's an issue beyond Scotland.

But it might be sorted soon!

 

[rail-britain]

Someone on here said they'd managed to buy an ALR in advance from Glasgow Central with no trouble

On my first visit they had an issue, after some phone calls they were advised there was a 6 week time limit
I therefore returned a few days later and there was no such issue

I am also aware of other people having similar issues at ScotRail stations, hence why I travel to Glasgow Central and purchase tickets from Virgin Trains instead

 

[185]

Some time ago, the advance date rule was introduced and later tightened to stop growing amounts of misuse, same faces doing it all the time.

 

[Tim R-T-C]

Some time ago, the advance date rule was introduced and later tightened to stop growing amounts of misuse, same faces doing it all the time.

Out of interest, how was it being misused? By staff or passengers?

 

[185]

Lol. Probably both, there's enough staff using Rovers bought with Priv discount too.

 

[CaptainHaddock]

I may be wrong, but the ticket office staff I deal with don't seem to be able to issue tickets that cover other areas. For example, you can buy a Derbyshire Wayfarer in Sheffield but not in Leeds, likewise the Greater Manchester Wayfarer can only be bought at stations within the validity area.

Strange really considering they all use the same ticket issuing system.

 

[RJ]

I may be wrong, but the ticket office staff I deal with don't seem to be able to issue tickets that cover other areas. For example, you can buy a Derbyshire Wayfarer in Sheffield but not in Leeds, likewise the Greater Manchester Wayfarer can only be bought at stations within the validity area.

Strange really considering they all use the same ticket issuing system.

That's down to the clerk's own choice, not the TiS.

 

[Flying Snail]

That's down to the clerk's own choice, not the TiS.

The GM Wayfarer is a pre-printed scratchcard so it is unlikely to be stocked at any stations outside the area, not sure about the other tickets mentioned.

Of course if you know you are going to use one at some point in the future you can advance buy and date them yourself.

 

[OwlMan]

I may be wrong, but the ticket office staff I deal with don't seem to be able to issue tickets that cover other areas. For example, you can buy a Derbyshire Wayfarer in Sheffield but not in Leeds, likewise the Greater Manchester Wayfarer can only be bought at stations within the validity area.

Strange really considering they all use the same ticket issuing system.

No, A lot of the PTE / County Council special/rover tickets are multi-modal are are issued on special ticket stock. These are only stocked in the areas concerned. Issuing them on normal stock can cause problems when using the buses.

Peter

 

[tighcorrie]

It was my attempt to buy a West Midlands Day Ranger ticket in advance at Inverness Station that triggered my OP to this forum. Though the system refused to print the ticket with my required date, the ticket seller (though she'd never heard of the ticket) found it easily and was quite happy to issue it, apart from the date thing. Scotrail telesales issued it no problem with the correct date.

The issue seems to boil down to whether or not the ticket can be printed on standard ticket stock. If it can I guess you can buy it anywhere.

btw can I give a cheer for Scotrail telesales? Always efficient and knowledgeable. And they don't just issue Scottish tickets - I got my W Midlands Ranger from them no problem. Scotrail took a policy decision back in 2005/2006 to locate their call centre in Fort William and NOT offshore. I recently had cause to use the Trainline.Com's call centre which is clearly overseas. If anyone wants a smile they can read about that experience at http://travailsofatrainer.blogspot.com. Though I wasn't smiling by the end of it.....