Refusal to sell super off peak return from another station

RunawayTrain · 2 Sep 2020

I am encountering a problem at Surbiton station which has happened once before and again today. I asked to buy a super off peak return from Woking to Surbiton for Friday (2 days time). The ticket office staff member (a team leader from his badge) said that normally they cannot sell a super off peak return from this station and the reason he gave was somewhat vague but something to do with being in London zone 6 and you only can travel from here using off peaks, not super off peak tickets. He tried to sell me an off peak ticket for Friday (about £2 more expensive) and when I stood my ground he asked for my train times (459pm Woking-Surbiton, about 745pm return Surbiton-Woking). In the end he said he would sell me a super off peak ticket this one time, but said in future I would not be able to buy one at Surbiton (then later changed this to 'may not'). In the past a different ticketing staff member flat refused to sell me a super off peak from woking, and said that they physically didn't have the capability which now seems untrue given I got one today.

I thought that all ticket offices could sell all tickets? Or maybe I'm mistaken. Anyway, I'm not happy about this experience and wondered does anyone know if the ticket office team leader was wrong, or was he actually right, and in fact did me a favour selling the super off peak return? Many thanks in advance!

RailUK Forums

ForTheLoveOf · 2 Sep 2020

Being made to feel you've been done a favour when in fact the member of staff has merely done their job is far too common an occurrence at ticket offices unfortunately. Ticket offices ought to sell you almost any fare, including the one you were asking for. Sadly there is effectively no-one who gives a toss about staff who mistreat customers in this way - see for example @RJ's comment here.

Now, it is entirely fair for the ticket office to ask for the times of the trains you intend to take so as to ensure that your intended ticket is valid on those trains. But to suggest they will only sell it you this once when it's a valid choice of ticket to want to buy... I simply wouldn't sully their window again. I'd buy your ticket online and pick it up at the machine next time.

As for Surbiton being in the London Zones, this does mean that certain ticket restrictions are different than for the next station out of London. But there is no such thing as a blanket ban on Off-Peak or Super Off-Peak tickets based on the station you board or alight at. When you can use Off-Peak tickets depends on the individual journey in question - i.e. the restriction for an Super Off-Peak ticket from Surbiton to Guildford would be very different to the restriction on a Super Off-Peak ticket to Exeter.

Relevant to your case, there are no evening restrictions on a Super Off-Peak ticket from Surbiton to Woking, only morning restrictions (barring arrival on trains due into London before 12:00).

Haywain · 2 Sep 2020

RunawayTrain said:
I am encountering a problem at Surbiton station which has happened once before and again today. I asked to buy a super off peak return from Woking to Surbiton for Friday (2 days time). The ticket office staff member (a team leader from his badge) said that normally they cannot sell a super off peak return from this station and the reason he gave was somewhat vague but something to do with being in London zone 6 and you only can travel from here using off peaks, not super off peak tickets. He tried to sell me an off peak ticket for Friday (about £2 more expensive) and when I stood my ground he asked for my train times (459pm Woking-Surbiton, about 745pm return Surbiton-Woking). In the end he said he would sell me a super off peak ticket this one time, but said in future I would not be able to buy one at Surbiton (then later changed this to 'may not'). In the past a different ticketing staff member flat refused to sell me a super off peak from woking, and said that they physically didn't have the capability which now seems untrue given I got one today.

I thought that all ticket offices could sell all tickets? Or maybe I'm mistaken. Anyway, I'm not happy about this experience and wondered does anyone know if the ticket office team leader was wrong, or was he actually right, and in fact did me a favour selling the super off peak return? Many thanks in advance!

He was wrong. Complain to SWR.

RJ · 2 Sep 2020

RunawayTrain said:
I thought that all ticket offices could sell all tickets? Or maybe I'm mistaken. Anyway, I'm not happy about this experience and wondered does anyone know if the ticket office team leader was wrong, or was he actually right, and in fact did me a favour selling the super off peak return? Many thanks in advance!

I suspect you know the answers to these questions.

If someone is doing their job incorrectly to your detriment, what you do is feed back directly to the TOC, so they can arrange for the member of staff to be spoken to to iron out any issues.

If the TOC fails to do that or there are signs that it's a systemic issue then feel free to post and other ways of dealing with that can be discussed.

packermac · 2 Sep 2020

I assume this is the £8.20 fare that SWR call super off peak return on their website, but National Rail seem to call off peak, which seems strange if it is the same fare.

MikeWh · 2 Sep 2020

packermac said:
I assume this is the £8.20 fare that SWR call super off peak return on their website, but National Rail seem to call off peak, which seems strange if it is the same fare.

If you hover over the words 'off-peak' the pop up box says its a super off-peak return.

RunawayTrain · 2 Sep 2020

Thank you for your responses everyone, I shall complain to SWR, and come back to post their response.

RJ said:
I suspect you know the answers to these questions.

Just to clarify this point, no I didn't know the answers, as I said I thought all ticket offices could sell all tickets (from something I think I read on here), but didn't know, hence my post

island · 2 Sep 2020

Ticket office clerks like this are doing a great job at making themselves redundant; this ticket is readily available online and in your circumstances I would just buy online in the future.

Mainline421 · 3 Sep 2020

island said:
Ticket office clerks like this are doing a great job at making themselves redundant; this ticket is readily available online and in your circumstances I would just buy online in the future.

Or just buy from the TVM which may be a better solution if the OP is already at the station.

Mag_seven · 3 Sep 2020

island said:
Ticket office clerks like this are doing a great job at making themselves redundant;

They might behave differently if they were on some sort of commission for the value of tickets sold?

DorkingMain · 3 Sep 2020

Mag_seven said:
They might behave differently if they were on some sort of commission for the value of tickets sold?

Most revenue / ticket office grades gave this up many many years ago in return for other concessions.

I have to agree a lot of ticket offices do a damn good job of making nobody want to use them, simply by their behaviour towards customers paying hefty fares. There are too many who treat passengers like an inconvenience and not the people who ultimately keep them in a job.

tiptoptaff · 3 Sep 2020

DorkingMain said:
Most revenue / ticket office grades gave this up many many years ago in return for other concessions.

I have to agree a lot of ticket offices do a damn good job of making nobody want to use them, simply by their behaviour towards customers paying hefty fares. There are too many who treat passengers like an inconvenience and not the people who ultimately keep them in a job.

I did a stint in a booking office a few years back as part of my apprenticeship. The way they spoke to and treated me, a colleague, who happened to know something they didn't, was appalling. It is the only time in my entire working life I have "pulled a sickie" simply so I didn't have to spend the last couple of days working with them. I dread to think how they speak to customers. Wouldn't be a loss in the slightest if they lost themselves their jobs by carrying on the way they do.

RunawayTrain · 3 Sep 2020

I've already received a response from SWR:

Dear xxxxx

Thank you for contacting us.

I’m sorry that you had a disappointing customer experience with one of our ticket office clerks at Surbiton station. The incident as you describe it doesn’t reflect the good customer service our staff are trained to provide. Even if it’s not possible to meet every request, we expect staff to treat customers in a pleasant and courteous manner.

I’ve let the Surbiton Flagship Station Manager know about your complaint, so that he/she can carry out a full investigation. Although I can’t let you know the results of this, I can assure you that we take all feedback such as yours seriously. Thanks again for taking the time to tell us what happened, and once again, I’m sorry for any upset or distress caused.

Kind regards,

xxxxx
Video Contact Centre Advisor
South Western Railway

It is somewhat unsatisfactory as is left vague as to whether they agree I should have been able to purchase the ticket I wanted. I've followed up with a request that they confirm I can buy this ticket type from Surbiton in future.

Haywain · 3 Sep 2020

DorkingMain said:
Most revenue / ticket office grades gave this up many many years ago in return for other concessions.

I'm not aware that commission for ticket office staff has ever been paid.

SussexMan · 3 Sep 2020

RunawayTrain said:
I’ve let the Surbiton Flagship Station Manager know about your complaint,

What on earth is a Surbiton Flagship Station Manager? Has the HR dept gone overboard on the job titles?

Darandio · 3 Sep 2020

SussexMan said:
What on earth is a Surbiton Flagship Station Manager? Has the HR dept gone overboard on the job titles?

Loads of stations on the SWR network have these 'Flagship' titles now. Certainly up there with Sandwich Artist and Waste Disposal Technician.

SteveM70 · 3 Sep 2020

Darandio said:
Waste Disposal Technician.

I think you’ll find that’s an Effluent Engineer

DorkingMain · 3 Sep 2020

SussexMan said:
What on earth is a Surbiton Flagship Station Manager? Has the HR dept gone overboard on the job titles?

I think the "flagship stations" are responsible for staffing and maintaining a group of other surrounding stations, e.g. Berrylands, Thames Ditton, Esher

Darandio · 3 Sep 2020

DorkingMain said:
I think the "flagship stations" are responsible for staffing and maintaining a group of other surrounding stations, e.g. Berrylands, Thames Ditton, Esher

Ahh, just like the other TOC's who have a person responsible for many stations. They just call them a Station Manager.

Haywain · 3 Sep 2020

Darandio said:
Ahh, just like the other TOC's who have a person responsible for many stations. They just call them a Station Manager.

I doubt many of them actually do call them station managers.

Bungle965 · 3 Sep 2020

Haywain said:
I doubt many of them actually do call them station managers.

I can think of 4 TOC's off the top of my head who still call them station managers.

RunawayTrain · 3 Sep 2020

Another super-fast reply from SWR, saying they will get back to me after the investigation is complete. Sounds promising that they are looking into it seriously. I'll report back.

DorkingMain · 3 Sep 2020

Darandio said:
Ahh, just like the other TOC's who have a person responsible for many stations. They just call them a Station Manager.

Well, my apologies for trying to offer insight into why the job title (and grade) is different.

43096 · 4 Sep 2020

Darandio said:
Loads of stations on the SWR network have these 'Flagship' titles now. Certainly up there with Sandwich Artist and Waste Disposal Technician.

Barista - coffee maker
Train presentation team - that’ll be the cleaners (and nothing to do with PowerPoint!)

kristiang85 · 4 Sep 2020

DorkingMain said:
Most revenue / ticket office grades gave this up many many years ago in return for other concessions.

I have to agree a lot of ticket offices do a damn good job of making nobody want to use them, simply by their behaviour towards customers paying hefty fares. There are too many who treat passengers like an inconvenience and not the people who ultimately keep them in a job.

Indeed. I find with SWR's in particular, I actually dread having to speak to ticket office staff as they just make me feel like I'm intruding on their personal time (whereas platform staff are usually exceedingly helpful).

DB · 4 Sep 2020

43096 said:
Barista - coffee maker
Train presentation team - that’ll be the cleaners (and nothing to do with PowerPoint!)

Retail Service Manager - person with the trolley

Wallsendmag · 5 Sep 2020

I started working in a Ticket Office best part of 32 years ago and with the exception of selling insurance for InterRail and European tickets have never heard of commision payments for Travel Centre staff

CyrusWuff · 5 Sep 2020

Wallsendmag said:
I started working in a Ticket Office best part of 32 years ago and with the exception of selling insurance for InterRail and European tickets have never heard of commision payments for Travel Centre staff

We still get 50p for selling Network Railcards. Must be worth a whole...£10 a year usually.

Haywain · 5 Sep 2020

CyrusWuff said:
We still get 50p for selling Network Railcards. Must be worth a whole...£10 a year usually.

Some people manage to get into double figures each month, but it’s really not much of an incentive these days.

RunawayTrain · 5 Sep 2020

I've had some further discussion which speaks for itself:

Dear xxxxx

Thank you for contacting us. Sorry for the confusion, if your outward is Woking to Surbiton and you are travelling on a weekday you are able to purchase a Super off-peak ticket However, if you travel in the opposite direction on the outward you would not be able to get this type of ticket on a weekday. There are no restrictions with purchasing this ticket on weekends. Please let me know if you require any further information.

Kind regards,

bbbbbbb
Customer Service Centre Advisor
South Western Railway

---------------------------------------------------------
Dear bbbbbbb

Thank you for clarifying. Do you know why the ticket agents have been adamant that I can't purchase this ticket (super off peak return WOK-SUR-WOK) at Surbiton, or is this something that will come to light in the investigation?

Kind regards

------------------------------------------------------------
Dear xxxxx

Thank you for contacting us.

I apologise that you have not been able to purchase your desired ticket from the ticket office at Surbiton. As long as the ticket office clerk can explain the restrictions on the ticket and that the customer then understands them, the sale should not be refused as you can purchase the said ticket at any time and at any ticket office. The Station Manager has been informed of this and will investigate this further with an aim of informing all staff.

Once again, I apologise for the inconvenience caused.

Kind regards,

cccccccc
Video Contact Centre Advisor
South Western Railway

On the face of it this seems quite well handled by SWR.

Refusal to sell super off peak return from another station

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