Redspottedhanky booking fee

[bengolding]

Got an email from RSH, stating the £1 fee will be introduced shortly:

"At redspottedhanky.com we pride ourselves on being totally honest and transparent with our customers. That's why we wanted to let you know about a couple of changes we've had to make to our booking and delivery fees.

Booking fees - Rising costs mean that, reluctantly, we will be introducing a small charge of £1 when you book your tickets.

It's something we've resisted in the past, but in order to continue providing you with an excellent service it's a change that has become unavoidable.

The booking charge will be introduced over the next few days.

Rest assured, we are keeping it simple; just a flat rate of £1 per booking - no matter how many tickets you purchase with each booking or how much you spend.

What's more, unlike thetrainline we don't charge a credit card fee.

Delivery & collection fees - We will always aim to offer a free delivery option for your tickets. Choose an e-ticket or m-ticket and your delivery fee will be free. If neither is available then you can pick your ticket up at the station for free, too. Unfortunately there will now be a small charge of £1 for standard postal delivery (normal rules apply to next day delivery)."

 

[73101]

Last time I shall be using them

 

[Be3G]

I wonder if the £1 booking fee would still be needed if RSH ceased the relentless voucher giveaways?

 

[Bungle73]

Seen this too. They've just lost a customer. I've been buying tickets there for several years, but why would I want to buy there now with a fee, when I can get exactly the same ticket from the TOCs themselves with no fee?

 

[Greenback]

I haven't used them for a while, I certainly won't be using them now!

 

[Merseysider]

I wonder if the £1 booking fee would still be needed if RSH ceased the relentless voucher giveaways?

Possible, but you could flip that on its head and say that RSH might not have as much custom as they do without the every-so-often voucher giveaways (publicity).

 

[IanXC]

Hmm. Best find something else to redeem my Club card vouchers for!

 

[TUC]

Time to stop using them. If enough people do, that should focus their minds.
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Can anyone hazard a guess what RSH mean by the fee being necessary in order to continue to provide an excellent service? You book a ticket online. You pick it up from the TOD machine. There's not much to provide an 'excellent service' or not in that!

 

[Merseysider]

Time to stop using them. If enough people do, that should focus their minds.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Can anyone hazard a guess what RSH mean by the fee being necessary in order to continue to provide an excellent service? You book a ticket online. You pick it up from the TOD machine. There's not much to provide an 'excellent service' or not in that!

I counted "excellent service" as a way to book unusual tickets online at no extra cost and not get held up by suspicious clerks. Since TPE started offering Nectar points I haven't used RSH more than once since and definitely won't in future

 

[TUC]

I counted "excellent service" as a way to book unusual tickets online at no extra cost and not get held up by suspicious clerks.

Any kind of decent booking engine then.

 

[strowger]

It's very sharp practice to sell gift/pre-pay vouchers and then put up the prices sharply at "a few days" notice, without even giving a firm date from which the change will apply. Typical Atos practice.

Worth pointing out, as it's slightly buried in their email, that not only is there a new £1 charge per booking, there's also a new £1 charge for postal delivery.

Another recent change is that their former policy of refunding uncollected ToD tickets once per customer is gone - there's no leeway anymore.

TBH I'll probably keep on using them, as they're still unbeatable for most tickets. As per http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?p=1895826 but using some further refinements, I'm getting >20% discount on tickets via RSH. Even on a £10 ticket it's still worth it.

They may return to TCB/Quidco once they've got this extra revenue coming in...

 

[Merseysider]

Any kind of decent booking engine then.

Yep! Also, anyone who opted out of receiving emails from RSH when registering probably won't be notified of the new charge (I haven't got the email yet) - I doubt it'll be very prominent on the website either, nor will staff on Twitter be forthcoming about the new charges

 

[IanD]

Got an email from RSH, stating the £1 fee will be introduced shortly:

Stupid idea. Will just be using my existing vouchers up and then only use them in future if there's any freebies going.

 

[tractakid]

Well, they gained a customer in me this evening, trying their website for the first time (for the sake of it) while it is still free booking and postage!

 

[DelayRepay]

They lost another customer here.

It's hard to see who will use them now. I know plenty of "sheep" use Trainline despite the fees, but everyone's heard of Trainline and they advertise all over the place. RSH isn't so well known and I think the fee will put a lot of their existing customers off.

Hey ho - back to buying direct from the TOCs. I suppose it's still worth using Tesco vouchers at RSH (for now) since they're worth double face value so there's still a saving even with the new fee.

 

[bb21]

I wonder how long the Tesco deals will last.

They're playing their hand quite well.

 

[CockneySparrow]

Hmm. Best find something else to redeem my Club card vouchers for!

Depends on the value of your total tickets, I read it to be £1 fee per transaction so therefore if you book £100 worth of tickets (several journeys on different dates) it will be a small price to pay

However if you are booking one journey £5 then no its not worth it

 

[Kite159]

Back to FGW for low-value tickets for me

 

[CockneySparrow]

I wonder how long the Tesco deals will last.

They're playing their hand quite well.

Yes indeed, with recent reports it will be interesting how they proceed in general, round here (Chatteris) we have a new £23m store built and they cant afford to open it, its currently boarded up and so is the car park
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Back to FGW for low-value tickets for me

And Nectar points too ??????

 

[dcsprior]

Can anyone hazard a guess what RSH mean by the fee being necessary in order to continue to provide an excellent service? You book a ticket online. You pick it up from the TOD machine. There's not much to provide an 'excellent service' or not in that!

In fairness:

• programmers/analysts/etc don't generally work for free... something I'm grateful for
• you can't run servers and other infrastructure for free - or have someone else run it for you for free
• I presume there are intra-industry costs such as charges for access to ticket data, ToD costs, etc

So presumably you need to fund this - as well as any profit to repay those that invested to cover your setup costs - from commission plus any fees. I had presumed that commission was fairly generous, based on what the value of the EC points I can get even when booking tickets on others' services, but maybe its not.

I wonder whether most ordinary customers look further than either the TOC's own website and thetrainline (the latter due to advertising)... if this is the case, then other companies would find their richest pickings from corporate customers who may not mind modest fees in exchange for business-friendly features such as a 2-stage booking/approving process, management reporting, etc.

 

[Kristofferson]

Well, East Coast rewards it is from now on then.

Is that the sound of ATOS dying I hear...?

 

[Jordy]

That's annoying, I shall have to revert to East Coast and use up my existing RSH vouchers quickly then!

 

[CockneySparrow]

Well, East Coast rewards it is from now on then.

Is that the sound of ATOS dying I hear...?

That's all well and good, the only issue is whether you can get your return journey in before EC changes hands, not sure whether the new operator will continue or even honour existing points probably not

Lots of unanswered questions on EC

 

[CaptainHaddock]

I wonder if the £1 booking fee would still be needed if RSH ceased the relentless voucher giveaways?

RSH haven't had a voucher giveaway for months. I'm on their mailing list and all I get from them these days is emails urging me to play some infantile game on their website in return for reward points or pointless competitions. Not a lot of point in using them now if all their fares are going to be more expensive than anywhere else.

 

[TUC]

In fairness:

• programmers/analysts/etc don't generally work for free... something I'm grateful for
• you can't run servers and other infrastructure for free - or have someone else run it for you for free
• I presume there are intra-industry costs such as charges for access to ticket data, ToD costs, etc

So presumably you need to fund this - as well as any profit to repay those that invested to cover your setup costs - from commission plus any fees.

But that wasn't my point. The costs you mention are the costs of any online ticket retailing business. My point was that RSH are claiming they need the £1 fee to continue to provide an 'excellent service'. I was asking what they were claiming constituted an excellent service as opposed to just doing the day job.

 

[Clip]

But that wasn't my point. The costs you mention are the costs of any online ticket retailing business. My point was that RSH are claiming they need the £1 fee to continue to provide an 'excellent service'. I was asking what they were claiming constituted an excellent service as opposed to just doing the day job.

Maybe its the continued use of double clubcard points for each transaction that has caused the increase? I dont remember any other TOC letting you do the same.

 

[MarlowDonkey]

Maybe its the continued use of double clubcard points for each transaction that has caused the increase? I dont remember any other TOC letting you do the same.

I recently booked a trip using RSH, the main incentive being to use up some Tesco points. I didn't really need to book early as I elected for an Off-Peak Return rather than Advances, but it seems I saved £ 2 by doing so. If you don't pass a ticket machine on a regular basis and the nearest machine is three miles away and not at the local station, then £ 1 for first class mail is a hit alongside £1 booking fee.

 

[Clip]

I recently booked a trip using RSH, the main incentive being to use up some Tesco points. I didn't really need to book early as I elected for an Off-Peak Return rather than Advances, but it seems I saved £ 2 by doing so. If you don't pass a ticket machine on a regular basis and the nearest machine is three miles away and not at the local station, then £ 1 for first class mail is a hit alongside £1 booking fee.

Fair enough I agree with you on there but dont RSH have to pay Tesco/Clubcard to allow you to use double points, which is what I was getting at. If the increase in administering it comes from Tesco(who seem to be sinking a little at the moment) then they may have passed that onto the consumer.

Whats worth more - a quid or double Clubcard points?

 

[BlueFox]

all I get from them these days is emails urging me to play some infantile game on their website in return for reward points

You should play the infantile games.

Their recent fantasy golf game took a few minutes to enter and it was very easy to win the maximum £15 worth of rewards points. You can also win a decent amount from their grand prix game without much effort. Some of their other games have been a bit harder but they're always worth entering.

 

[dcsprior]

But that wasn't my point. The costs you mention are the costs of any online ticket retailing business. My point was that RSH are claiming they need the £1 fee to continue to provide an 'excellent service'. I was asking what they were claiming constituted an excellent service as opposed to just doing the day job.

Fair enough!

And yes, I'd say that the things I've noticed as genuine improvements to the booking service are offered by TOCs rather than other ticket sellers:

• Choice of specific seat (on EC, and perhaps others)
• Travel with a number sent to mobile phone which doesn't have to be exchanged for physical ticket (XC, Scotrail sleeper)
• Reservations while train is moving (XC - though an example of a good idea executed badly)