CrossCountry demonstrates "astonishing contempt for fare-paying passengers"

js1000 said:

Also, CrossCountry should have gone further than simply refunding the £161 as if nothing happened. They threatened a passenger who had a valid ticket with prosecution and successfully bullied them into paying a fine. Simply refunding the fine is very poor and they should be disappointed with their actions. It is little surprise Joe public have such a low opinion of railway companies when you hear unfortunate stories like this.

Click to expand...

Yeah - you would not go back to Tesco (ever I suspect) if on an occasion they randomly accused you of shoplifting when you had not done so, and then got heavy handed about it.

Slightly off topic, but germaine to the general confusion about mobile ticketing: NRE describes an m-ticket thus:

An m-ticket is a train ticket held on your mobile device in a rail travel app. Just download one of the free apps and purchase a ticket online for participating stations.

Click to expand...

Very poor wording, given you do not just have to download the app and purchase a ticket, but also activate it!

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/191371.aspx

EDIT: Yes, if you read all the way to the end of the page, it does tell you:

If you have an M-ticket in a mobile app you will need to activate it before the barcode can be read

Click to expand...

Which is still not a correct explanation of the situation, I think. It's not acceptable to only activate it when the RPI asks to scan the barcode, is it? I'd always assumed it's more like validating ('composting') paper tickets in France and some other European countries, where you're in big trouble if you don't validate it before boarding...