TOD problems

[northwichcat]

It does not work like that. The pubilc need ticket offices it would not be possible to shut ticket offices because staff did not deal with internet / tech issues that are doing away with their jobs. TSSA are dead against this new technology that is doing away with their jobs. 10% 15% off tickets bought online then people want the ticket office to sort any ticket problem out. When one sees this attitued administered on some unsuspecting member of the public it is quite embarrassing! at the same time one can see the point TSSA are making.

It's been mentioned at unstaffed Northern stations they'll soon be the option for someone to press a button on a TVM and to make a transaction using a member of staff via a video link. I don't know how reliable that'll be but there's an opportunity there for ticket offices to increase the number of transactions they make through it if the TSSA embraces technology rather than the approach you are describing which might do more to put passengers off the railways than replacing ticket offices with TVMs.

 

[sheff1]

Just seen ticket office staff today turn a couple who bought tickets using and 'app' so they were cheaper.The 'app' did not work when they got to the railway station so they went to the ticket office for assistance.The member of ticket office said they could do nothing as they had chosen to buy via an 'app'.

When I had a problem with a ticket collected from a TVM the booking office staff were insistent that they could do nothing and that I must contact the company I had bought it from. I had bought it from TPE and the booking office staff were employed by TPE.

 

[Hadders]

When I had a problem with a ticket collected from a TVM the booking office staff were insistent that they could do nothing and that I must contact the company I had bought it from. I had bought it from TPE and the booking office staff were employed by TPE.

Staff making things up, I'm afraid.

 

[sheff1]

Staff making things up, I'm afraid.

Indeed. Making things up seems to be the standard way of operating in far too many booking offices. We have even had booking office staff coming on here and putting forward made-up rules as fact.

 

[waynemorrell]

Sorry this is a bit long.

I haven’t had many issues with TVM’s, and TOD touch wood, the one incident that did happened nearly caused me to miss my train though.

It was at Chester a few weeks ago, I had already purchased my Chester to Wrexham Central single on line (Southern) and I got to the station, duly queued up and entered my reference number, so far so good, then it asked for the payment card.

OK I knew which card it was so duly inserted said card and the message came up, something to the effect of wrong card. I thought hang on a minute I’m sure I used that card, tried again same message, tried another card, same message.

At that point I tried one of the other TVM’s, guess what? same message so I went to the booking office, showed the cashier my phone with the reference number on it, was asked to insert my card into the chip and pin device and she finally issued the ticket. By then it was three or four minutes after departure time but the train happened to be running nine late that day due to severe weather so I caught the service after all.

So don’t know what the problem was, never had that before or since.

As an aside anyone know why the TVM’s at Chester won’t sell a walk up fare to Wrexham Central only to Wrexham General? The fares are slightly different.

 

[yorkie]

Just seen ticket office staff today turn a couple who bought tickets using and 'app' so they were cheaper.The 'app' did not work when they got to the railway station so they went to the ticket office for assistance.The member of ticket office said they could do nothing as they had chosen to buy via an 'app'.The couple concerned had to buy new tickets at full price. The station staff were approached by the couple but they took the same line as the ticket office. 'app' is nothing to do with us.

Do you know which company's app this was, and which company operates the ticket office? Can you disclose which ticket office it was?

There have been some issues with some of these apps recently and customers should not be penalised if it's not their fault.

 

[northwichcat]

Regarding Wrexham on the Chester TVMs it could be that they've done it so passengers don't wrongly presume the Wrexham train from Chester goes to Central. However, have they fixed the off-peak tickets to Merseyside issue or do they still have the notice advising Liverpool passengers not to buy a Liverpool ticket?

 

[waynemorrell]

Regarding Wrexham on the Chester TVMs it could be that they've done it so passengers don't wrongly presume the Wrexham train from Chester goes to Central. However, have they fixed the off-peak tickets to Merseyside issue or do they still have the notice advising Liverpool passengers not to buy a Liverpool ticket?

I recall seeing the notice of which you speak but I can only vaguely remember what it said, something about cheapest Liverpool ticket after a certain time being some sort of travelcard?

Sorry can’t be more presise then that, been at least a few weeks since I was there.

 

[Merseysider]

Stickers advise using ‘Northwirrallines’ as the destination for several Merseyrail journeys such as Birkenhead, Liverpool, Southport etc.

 

[jon0844]

It's been mentioned at unstaffed Northern stations they'll soon be the option for someone to press a button on a TVM and to make a transaction using a member of staff via a video link. I don't know how reliable that'll be but there's an opportunity there for ticket offices to increase the number of transactions they make through it if the TSSA embraces technology rather than the approach you are describing which might do more to put passengers off the railways than replacing ticket offices with TVMs.

Great Northern have some of these already. Welwyn North has one, but I've never actually used the video link and remote assistance option. No idea how well it works, but as it hasn't appeared on all machines my guess is that it has many issues (or is never used).

 

[Haywain]

Great Northern have some of these already. Welwyn North has one, but I've never actually used the video link and remote assistance option. No idea how well it works, but as it hasn't appeared on all machines my guess is that it has many issues (or is never used).

Or it might just be an option that needs additional infrastructure or different TVMs, both of which may be difficult to justify.