Blank tickets printed

[Mojo]

Someone I know sent me a message to advise that they bought tickets online for a SOR from Glasgow to Brodick, price £16.40 with a 1625 Railcard. They went to an Overground station to collect them, and all they got was three blank coupons. Station staff claimed they were unable to assist, and advise to call Customer Services. The helpline number is a generic number for TfL rather than Arriva Rail London, so they advise they cannot help with ticketing queries of this nature (only tickets purchased from LUL, DLR, Tram, TfL Visitor Centre, Ticket Stops, or Oyster/CPC issues).

ScotRail web support, who sold the ticket, is closed.

Can anyone advise the best approach to take; they will be travelling in the morning well before the ScotRail help line reopens. I said to enquire at the ticket office, and be prepared to have to buy a new ticket, as I suspect it will be too early for the ticket office to deal with it. Who would they get in touch with, Overground or ScotRail? As a side point, who is responsible for this, and what if the person does not have the wherewithal to pay for a new ticket; they might be able to discuss with the Ticket Examiner (trains to Ardrossan Harbour are DOO), but that won't help with the ferry company.

 

[Merseysider]

There is a chance the magstrip on the back of the tickets will hold the correct data - staff should be able to interrogate this, which would hopefully solve the issue for the passenger.

 

[causton]

Usually in these circumstances, if something similar happened at one of the ticket machines I "am in charge of", there is not much I would be able to do other than give an authority to travel. There is a central Ticket on Departure helpdesk, but they will not be open until Tuesday morning I am guessing. Usually we call up the helpdesk or the issuing company (Trainline are actually really good at reissuing ToD tickets in the right circumstances!)

Alas I digress. At the moment, I would suggest keeping the old tickets as they are, safe so that in the vain hope the magstripe works, and buy a new ticket. Send the blank tickets and the replacement tickets off to ScotRail, and they should hopefully be able to give a refund. Especially with a ferry, can't see anything else not potentially causing argument. Let customer services deal with the stress, with the new Consumer Rights Act regulations hopefully they will have a positive response!

Technically, the Overground are responsible I guess, as it is their ticket machine, but as the old ticket was not bought from them and the new ticket won't be either, I can't see them giving any recompense.

 

[Hadders]

This happened to me at Stevenage station a couple of months ago. I'd bought an SDR from Stevenage to London Terminals (£21.30 paid for by my employer which is why it was a TVM collection). It was the printer that had failed as if you looked very carefully you could see very slight indentations on the ticket.

I went to the ticket counter and explained what had happened. The ticket clerk asked me for the details of the ticket and printed a zero fare excess (valid only with ticket number 123456 iirc!). I didn't have any issues travelling as there was no ticket inspection.

On arrival at KGX I used a blank ticket to open the barriers with no problems.

Perhaps this is one where the 'lighter trick' might help?

 

[father_jack]

Perhaps this is one where the 'lighter trick' might help?

Probably not.
There is a clip inside the newbury data printer in the TVM that sometimes comes loose or isn't securely tightened so the print head won't be down on the blank ticket stock. The ticket will process but not be printed on but will be encoded. The booking office printer can interrogate the ticket as previously alluded to- or put it through a gateline and bingo it will open !

 

[Haywain]

This happened to me at Stevenage station a couple of months ago. I'd bought an SDR from Stevenage to London Terminals (£21.30 paid for by my employer which is why it was a TVM collection). It was the printer that had failed as if you looked very carefully you could see very slight indentations on the ticket.

I went to the ticket counter and explained what had happened. The ticket clerk asked me for the details of the ticket and printed a zero fare excess (valid only with ticket number 123456 iirc!). I didn't have any issues travelling as there was no ticket inspection.

On arrival at KGX I used a blank ticket to open the barriers with no problems.

Perhaps this is one where the 'lighter trick' might help?

whilst I have no reason to doubt your story, any indentations you saw in the blank ticket will not have been caused by a thermal printer.

 

[embers25]

This happened to me at Stevenage station a couple of months ago. I'd bought an SDR from Stevenage to London Terminals (£21.30 paid for by my employer which is why it was a TVM collection). It was the printer that had failed as if you looked very carefully you could see very slight indentations on the ticket.

I went to the ticket counter and explained what had happened. The ticket clerk asked me for the details of the ticket and printed a zero fare excess (valid only with ticket number 123456 iirc!). I didn't have any issues travelling as there was no ticket inspection.

I've been issued an excess for use with ticket number 12345 today, despite me having a readable ticket with a number. Only noticed it after the ticket office closed so we'll see what happens! Just wish they weren't so lazy as it doesn't take long to type in 5 digits.

 

[A Challenge]

Shouldn't you just go and see the same ticket office, as can't they prove when it was issued?