Saga "changing over" annual season ticket

Apologies if this is the wrong forum…

I’ve been trying to changeover my annual season ticket with Great Northern/Thameslink with little success. I’ve been given the run around by members of station staff and customer support for the last month and I’m not sure what to do. I’ve been using contactless to make the daily journey and the cost is adding up. My season ticket is from Alexandra Palace to London Terminals and expires at the end of October.

When this all started, I was told by a member of staff at Alexandra Palace that my ticket covered travel to London Blackfriars, however, the gateline staff at Blackfriars told me otherwise; they said I needed a London Thameslink ticket.

I tried to get my ticket changed at Blackfriars but I was told I need to go back to the station I bought the ticket from originally. So I went to Finsbury Park, as I’d recently had my ticket replaced there after it wore out. At Finsbury Park I was told that because my ticket was less than 3-months until expiry, changing the ticket wouldn’t be possible.

I wasn’t satisfied with the explanation because it sounded like conditions for a refund so I contacted Great Northern Twitter Support. They stated that changing the destination my season ticket wasn’t possible but after a bit of Googling I discovered changeovers.

With this new information I revisited Finsbury Park and was told what I wanted was possible but I needed to come back when a supervisor was on shift.

Eventually I went back to Alexandra Palace, where I originally purchased the ticket from, and was told a changeover wasn’t possible as my ticket was too close to expiry (1 month)! In exasperation I attempted to buy a monthly season ticket between St Pancras and Blackfriars and I was then told this wasn’t possible! I tried to push the situation with the staff member and told me they were new and didn't know the system well enough. This seemed suspicious as they had sold me my season ticket last year.

I have no idea how to proceed. I have faced an incredible amount of obstruction from staff members that just don’t seem to know or want to do something that seems to me fairly trivial. I feel like I am going crazy.

Ideally I would like to changeover my ticket and try and claim some money back. Does anybody have any advice on how to move forward? Or should I just cut my losses and buy a new season ticket online?

Sorry for the rant but any advice is truly appreciated. Thanks.

My initial thought here is that using the ticket offices at stations like Finsbury Park and Alexandra Palace isn't helping; a changeover can be done at any ticket office, and you might have more luck at the office at St Pancras.

My initial observation is that there isn't an Alexandra Palace - London Thameslink fare so it would have to be a Alexandra Palace - London Blackfriars (route Not Underground) which is actually the same price as the Alexandra Palace - London Terminals ticket that is not valid. Such is life on the railways.

janb said:

My initial observation is that there isn't an Alexandra Palace - London Thameslink fare so it would have to be a Alexandra Palace - London Blackfriars (route Not Underground) which is actually the same price as the Alexandra Palace - London Terminals ticket that is not valid. Such is life on the railways.

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How long has the London Thameslink fare existed for GN origins? I think its over a year now, as the prices that applied when the original ticket was bought apply.
And to be honest, if the fare is the same, then there's no refund or payment due. One of the easiest changeovers to work out!

I know it doesn't help you but I had a similar runaround with a SWR changeover - T&Cs say any ticket office, first office said try one with the old machines, 2nd ticket office said call, call centre said email, email reply indicated it wouldn't have been actioned until sometime later in the day I needed it to start so I had to call and email while on the phone to do it rightaway and wait for a callback! Seems the stumbling point was that it was a smart card rather than paper ticket!
Your rant reminded me that it is 2019, we live in one of the most technological economies, these things shouldn't be this hard!

Sounds like typical service from most Great Northern / Thameslink ticket offices.

I would say I wonder how most of them manage to keep their jobs when they don't seem to have a clue what they are doing, but then the answer is 'railway'.