Can someone help me recover some of my money!?

Hello there,
I am a student had to come home early from my holiday to go to work, in order that I could pay my rent. I paid £26.70 for a single from Bodmin Parkway to Biggleswade. This was using a YP railcard. I have two railcards, one of which expires 31 July of this year and I have already bought a new one that expires next year. Of course I brought the old one which expired while I was on holiday and the ticket collector was forced to charge me the (I thought) extremely unfair price of £86.70 for another single ticket. I was extremely upset as I simply cannot afford this.

Is there something I can do to at least get a portion of the amount refunded if not the whole amount?

Thanks
Matt

I don't think so I'm sorry to say:

Railcard T&C Section 6 said:

You must carry your Railcard with you on your journey and when asked by rail staff, you must show a valid ticket and valid Railcard. If you fail to do so, you will be required to pay the full price Standard Single fare for your journey as if no ticket was purchased before starting the journey and in some cases a Penalty Fare.

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Source

As the railcard you were carrying was expired your ticket was invalid. I'm fairly sure that having a valid railcard at home won't matter as you have to be carrying a railcard to take advantage of the discount. Sorry.

Is it worth writing anyway?
Can I get a refund of the original ticket?

mbaker1991 said:

Is it worth writing anyway?
Can I get a refund of the original ticket?

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yes as long as it is not an advance purchase ticket plus they will take £10.00 admin fee

Condition 2. Requirement to hold a ticket
Before you travel you must have a ticket or other authority to travel which is valid for the train(s) you intend to use and for the journey you intend to make.

If you travel in a train:

(a) without a ticket; or
(b) the circumstances described in any of Conditions 10, 11, 12, 18, 19, 22,30, 35 and 39 apply;

you will be liable to pay the full single fare or full return fare or, if appropriate, a Penalty
Fare (see Condition 4) for your journey. You will not be entitled to any discounts or special terms.

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Condtion 22 applies to your case.

22. Inspection of tickets
You must show and, if asked to do so by the staff of a Train Company or its agent, hand
over for inspection a valid ticket and any relevant Railcard, photocard or other form of
personal identification in accordance with Condition 15. If you do not, you will be treated
as having joined a train without a ticket and the relevant parts of Condition 2 or 4 will
apply. If an Electronic Ticket cannot be displayed, you will be treated as if you were unable to hand over for inspection a valid ticket.

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Additionally, your railcard terms state:

You must carry your Railcard with you on your journey and when asked by rail staff, you must show a valid ticket and valid Railcard. If you fail to do so, you will be required to pay the full price Standard Single fare for your journey as if no ticket was purchased before starting the journey and in some cases a Penalty Fare.

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You have no leg to stand on with this one sorry. You can get a refund on the original ticket, but there is an administration fee of £10 and takes up to 28 days. The refund is usually made in the same way in which you paid.

Best case: £16.70 refund
Worst case: Refund app lost in post

mbaker1991 said:

Is it worth writing anyway?

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Well you can try, but I'm 99.9999% certain the TOC will point to what myself and First Class have pointed to and will say "No".

Can I get a refund of the original ticket?

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As long as it isn't an advance ticket then yes, but you will lose £10 for the admin fee. However having looked at tickets for your journey I'm guessing that you had an advance ticket so you will not be able to get a refund.

Definitely an AP fare. Sorry, no refund allowed on these tickets.

Just a lesson to be learnt I'm afraid.

mbaker1991 said:

Hello there,
I am a student had to come home early from my holiday to go to work, in order that I could pay my rent. I paid £26.70 for a single from Bodmin Parkway to Biggleswade. This was using a YP railcard. I have two railcards, one of which expires 31 July of this year and I have already bought a new one that expires next year. Of course I brought the old one which expired while I was on holiday and the ticket collector was forced to charge me the (I thought) extremely unfair price of £86.70 for another single ticket. I was extremely upset as I simply cannot afford this.

Is there something I can do to at least get a portion of the amount refunded if not the whole amount?

Thanks
Matt

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What is unfair about it :? I have re-read it and I think that is perfectly fair

I don't want to get your hopes up but if you definitely had already purchased the new railcard before the day you made this journey and can prove this is the case, it is worth a try, I don't see how that is much different to forgetting a season ticket which I believe is refundable so morally they might do it.

But remember the railway does make money from people making silly mistakes like this and times are tight, and the rules are worded against the passenger in many ways (although not as bad as airlines!) so I don't think you are entitled to it, so you are best off writing it off and assume you won't get it back, but give it a try just in case.

Where were you checked? It may have been cheaper to buy to the next stop, get off, buy an additional railcard, then buy additional tickets.

It's also cheaper to split.

Bodmin - London £46.50
London - Biggleswade £13.00
Total £59.60

They can't advise on splits but if you ask for it then they have to sell it.