Wrong ticket but great customer service

[John R]

Arrived at an unfamiliar terminal station, but very confusing to find the ticket office or machines, so with only a few minutes to go I buy online.

Just as the train departs I notice to my panic it has defaulted to tomorrow. As we depart the train manager announces she will start a ticket check from the front coach.

Not wanting to wait until she gets to us I walk through the train, show her our tickets and she immediately says no problem, she’ll accept the tickets, but did I need any connections or a return ticket booked. (I didn’t.)

Great customer service, from which company I hear you ask? It’s Swedish Railways, and I can’t help wondering what the outcome would have been in a similar situation at any of the U.K. companies. At the very least a requirement to buy a new ticket I would have thought (which I would have been happy with, to be clear.)

 

[BazingaTribe]

Arrived at an unfamiliar terminal station, but very confusing to find the ticket office or machines, so with only a few minutes to go I buy online.

Just as the train departs I notice to my panic it has defaulted to tomorrow. As we depart the train manager announces she will start a ticket check from the front coach.

Not wanting to wait until she gets to us I walk through the train, show her our tickets and she immediately says no problem, she’ll accept the tickets, but did I need any connections or a return ticket booked. (I didn’t.)

Great customer service, from which company I hear you ask? It’s Swedish Railways, and I can’t help wondering what the outcome would have been in a similar situation at any of the U.K. companies. At the very least a requirement to buy a new ticket I would have thought (which I would have been happy with, to be clear.)

I got caught out once on an Advance ticket when I got on the wrong train and as a result watched the one I should have been on leave the station after I'd got comfortably settled. I found the guard and she allowed me to excess my ticket. I've since found out she didn't have to do that for me, but as I was too anxious to wait and hope it would be ok, I was able to sort it out without a problem.

Back when Reading West was still ungated, I was also able to buy a ticket from the guard when we arrived at Basingstoke. Again, I approached him, regularised the situation and went on my way. (I'd spent the night with my mum and dad near Reading, worked a full day, come home via the ungated station and was so used to having a return ticket that I boarded without a ticket. I started going right into Reading central station a while later so it didn't happen again.

I think it pays to try and regularise the situation as soon as you realise there's something wrong.

 

[John R]

I think it pays to try and regularise the situation as soon as you realise there's something wrong.

Yes, being proactive and searching out someone is definitely to be recommended.

 

[Alex C.]

I actually think a lot of guards will show compassion in these situations. I recently got to the station for my regular commuting train and whilst i can't remember the exact times, two trains depart within 5 minutes to the same destination but via different routes. I got there with 2 minutes to spare and got on my train which looked the same. I only realised the error about 10 minutes in, when we'd already took the diverging route. Went and found the guard, explained the situation and they had no problem with me staying on board with no extra charge.

On the other hand, during some significant disruption during a derailment near Rugby last year, we were advised by different staff to go different ways and I ended up about 3 hours late at Paddington (rather than Euston). Despite every member of staff I'd met beforehand in the journey confirming my proposed alternative route was fine, the gateline at Paddington wanted to charge me for a full new ticket because I hadn't come in to Euston, eventually relenting after about 10 minutes of discussion.

In my eyes, the problem is consistency, and the imbalance of rights when 'the railway' makes a mistake vs when 'the customer' makes a mistake (or 'the railway' thinks they have)...

 

[The exile]

Yes, being proactive and searching out someone is definitely to be recommended.

Saved me a 60 Euro fine in Germany a few years ago! (Had bought my ticket the previous night but had forgotten to stamp it that morning)

 

[signed]

Yes, do lookout for the TM on SNCF as soon as possible, they are usually very nice (and even if they fine you, by rule you will pay a much lower penalty than the control fare)

Had a carfuffle with Rodalies train breaking down, having a Renfe MD special stop to pick us up + massive wildfires on the border area, it was clear we were gonna miss the night train, so I rebooked my party's tickets and put them back to next day TGV and booked an hotel.

SNCF ended up holding a TER to get us to Perpignan, and by pure luck we arrived cross-platform to the night train, without us having any ticket valid, we immediately go through the train to seek the TM, explaining the situation and they said "we'll deal with that later, go to bed"... they never showed up to fine us.

 

[johntea]

I’ve just completed a journey on an advance (paper) ticket

‘Ticket not yet valid’ at the barriers…hmm strange but the gateline staff did a quick scan of the ticket and swiped me through

On board ticket inspection no problems

It was only when I got home I looked at the ticket one more time before disposing of it that I noticed what the problem had been all along…idiot here had obviously somehow managed to select 2 April for travel at the TVM rather than 1 April…talk about April Fools day

The first time I’ve selected a wrong date in hundreds of advance ticket purchases!

 

[BazingaTribe]

I’ve just completed a journey on an advance (paper) ticket

‘Ticket not yet valid’ at the barriers…hmm strange but the gateline staff did a quick scan of the ticket and swiped me through

On board ticket inspection no problems

It was only when I got home I looked at the ticket one more time before disposing of it that I noticed what the problem had been all along…idiot here had obviously somehow managed to select 2 April for travel at the TVM rather than 1 April…talk about April Fools day

The first time I’ve selected a wrong date in hundreds of advance ticket purchases!

Oh no! How awkward. I guess you were getting off at an unbarriered station? I've had a lot of similar calamities on multiple modes of transport so now I check and double check and print stuff off, but the last actual trouble I got into at the station was losing my ticket between Bristol and Reading and being hit with a £50 excess that I couldn't pay out of pocket. A kind stranger put up the money -- this was when £50 actually meant something -- and I was on my way, but since then I have been VERY careful with tickets. (Not so much with phones given my recent escapade in Stockholm, but that's a story for another forum.)