Today i was travelling from Southampton to Waterloo on the return half of an Off Peak Return, start date 11 Oct 2011. The ticket did not open the barrier so I asked the attendant to let me through. His response - "Your ticket has expired sir".
I pointed out that the Valid Until date was 10 Nov 2011. "Your ticket has expired sir".
I asked why he thought it had expired when the Valid Until date was over three weeks away. "You are only allowed to make one journey, so now it has expired".
I told him, through gritted teeth, that I had made the outward journey on Tues and was now returning to London, i.e. one return journey. With this he took the ticket over to the booking office. Not sure what he said to them (he certainly mentioned expired) but they did something with their machine and told him the ticket was still valid.
Finally, he handed the ticket back and opened the barrier whilst still going on about the ticket being expired after one journey.
I do not know whether he did not understand the meaning of 'expired' or the concept of a return journey, or even both. What I do know is, that if I had arrived closer to the departure time of my train this person's incompetance might have caused me to miss it. This ticket was, of course, not resticted to a specific train, but my ticket home from London was.
Is there any point in complaining to SWT about this (I did go to the Staion Supervisor's office in Southampton, but it was unmanned) or would I just get a standard fob-off response ?
I pointed out that the Valid Until date was 10 Nov 2011. "Your ticket has expired sir".
I asked why he thought it had expired when the Valid Until date was over three weeks away. "You are only allowed to make one journey, so now it has expired".
I told him, through gritted teeth, that I had made the outward journey on Tues and was now returning to London, i.e. one return journey. With this he took the ticket over to the booking office. Not sure what he said to them (he certainly mentioned expired) but they did something with their machine and told him the ticket was still valid.
Finally, he handed the ticket back and opened the barrier whilst still going on about the ticket being expired after one journey.
I do not know whether he did not understand the meaning of 'expired' or the concept of a return journey, or even both. What I do know is, that if I had arrived closer to the departure time of my train this person's incompetance might have caused me to miss it. This ticket was, of course, not resticted to a specific train, but my ticket home from London was.
Is there any point in complaining to SWT about this (I did go to the Staion Supervisor's office in Southampton, but it was unmanned) or would I just get a standard fob-off response ?