From today's Guardian:
What does the rulebook have to say about such situations? How long does a passenger have to produce a valid ticket? It seems extremely harsh for East Coast to refuse a refund when the ticket was found "shortly after" the passenger was made to buy another ticket. Was East Coast's change of heart an admission that they had not followed their own procedures, or were they simply embarrassed into a climbdown by the media attention?
Full story here.JL said:Railing against heavy handed East Coast ticket policy
My wife was travelling on an East Coast train from Grantham to Edinburgh on 13 July, and while still a bit flustered after making a quick change of train in Newark was asked to show her ticket. She was unable to immediately find the ticket and was asked by the collector to pay £68 (with senior rail card) for a replacement. She found the original ticket shortly after, showed it to the next (different) collector to appear and asked for a refund. She was told that a refund could be obtained in the ticket office in Edinburgh. On arrival she went straight to the office and was given a form to send to the Customer Relations Department. A member of staff stapled the original ticket to the form to ensure that it would not be lost, details were completed and the form was sent off.
Two weeks later we received a response which, in summary, said they sympathise with how distressing and inconvenient it must have been but that they require all customers to possess a valid ticket and have it ready to be checked by their onboard guards. To ignore the fact that a ticket had been purchased and was available for inspection on the train shows a ridiculous lack of flexibility.
What does the rulebook have to say about such situations? How long does a passenger have to produce a valid ticket? It seems extremely harsh for East Coast to refuse a refund when the ticket was found "shortly after" the passenger was made to buy another ticket. Was East Coast's change of heart an admission that they had not followed their own procedures, or were they simply embarrassed into a climbdown by the media attention?
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