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Chiltern no longer selling car park tickets at Banbury station ticket office.

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BanburyBlue

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I'm not sure if this is across all of Chiltern stations, or just Banbury, but you can no longer buy tickets for the car park at the ticket office window.

It used to be useful when buying tickets in advance to be able to get a car park ticket at the same time. Now they insist you go to the machine in the booking hall, or use Ringo. This can be quite inconvenient.

I don't use Ringo (I believe you have to pay to use it?), so in my case I now have to use the machine. Meaning that if you buy a train ticket at the window, you then have to queue again at the machine to buy your car park ticket.

If collecting a ticket in advance (sold online), you can obviously pick up your car park ticket at the same time. However, the machine only sells car park tickets from the afternoon before the day of travel. So if travelling on a Monday, I now have to make a special trip down on the Sunday to collect my ticket.

I know I could buy on the day, but the traffic is so bad here some mornings, that you'd have to leave home super early to ensure you have sufficient time.

Is this now standard practice, or is it just Chiltern?
 
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PauloDavesi

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Ringo charge just 20p to use their service, hardly extortionate, & a lot cheaper than making a special trip to buy a ticket.
 

Bletchleyite

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I think the reason is that they have switched to ANPR instead of pay and display, and the ticket machines in the booking office aren't set up to deal with that - booking office issued parking tickets at stations are just a standard bit of orange card you put in the window.
 
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I don't use Ringo (I believe you have to pay to use it?)
I have never paid any extra to use Ringo. I am not keen on technology for the sake of it having seen so many problems with people trying to show tickets or railcard. However Ringo, and similar systems work fine, as you pay before you leave the house, using a computer or portable device, and get an e-mail as proof. You can look at the app on your phone at any time to see how long you have left. One thing they do charge for is if you ask for text reminders. It means no more queuing up in all weathers at machines and has never caused me any issues.
 

swt_passenger

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I have never paid any extra to use Ringo. I am not keen on technology for the sake of it having seen so many problems with people trying to show tickets or railcard. However Ringo, and similar systems work fine, as you pay before you leave the house, using a computer or portable device, and get an e-mail as proof. You can look at the app on your phone at any time to see how long you have left. One thing they do charge for is if you ask for text reminders. It means no more queuing up in all weathers at machines and has never caused me any issues.
I used to use the text messaging to confirm parking was paid for as a sort of “belt and braces”, but switched it off after a while as the App was so reliable. But as you say texts are all you pay for above the normal rate.

One useful change they made a while back is that the App no longer asks every time for the 3 digit CVV code off your debit card, I emailed them about this and apparently the banks allow them to miss that step out as most payments are low value.
 

Bletchleyite

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I quite like RingGo. I'd rather they didn't charge extra (as it saves them money by not needing to provide as many pay and display machines) but I generally find it a time saver. Though overall I'd prefer contactless at a machine.
 

PeterC

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I have never paid any extra to use Ringo. I am not keen on technology for the sake of it having seen so many problems with people trying to show tickets or railcard. However Ringo, and similar systems work fine, as you pay before you leave the house, using a computer or portable device, and get an e-mail as proof. You can look at the app on your phone at any time to see how long you have left. One thing they do charge for is if you ask for text reminders. It means no more queuing up in all weathers at machines and has never caused me any issues.
Depends where you use it. At my local authority car parks you pay a premium for using RingGo so I still carry a pile of small change in the car.
 

Bletchleyite

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Depends where you use it. At my local authority car parks you pay a premium for using RingGo so I still carry a pile of small change in the car.

Though RingGo does have advantages which may be worth paying for - for instance, if you don't know how long you're going to be you can extend without returning to the car.
 

Brissle Girl

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[QUOTE="BanburyBlue, post: 4276481, member: 30001]

It used to be useful when buying tickets in advance to be able to get a car park ticket at the same time. Now they insist you go to the machine in the booking hall, or use Ringo. This can be quite inconvenient.

I don't use Ringo (I believe you have to pay to use it?), so in my case I now have to use the machine. Meaning that if you buy a train ticket at the window, you then have to queue again at the machine to buy your car park ticket.

So if travelling on a Monday, I now have to make a special trip down on the Sunday to collect my ticket.
[/QUOTE]
So out of curiosity, how much at a sensible mileage rate does it cost you to make the special trip down, just to avoid using Ringo? And how does that compare with any service fee imposed by Ringo? (I’d have thought you would least have done some research and found out what the fee is before complaining on here about the new arrangements.)

The other advantage of Ringo or similar services is that if you find yourself short of time and have the details of the location to hand (which tends to happen anyway if you’re only using the one location) is that you can jump on the train and then immediately pay. So no fee if you’re in time and a small convenience charge (maybe?) if you’re not. I can’t see what’s not to like.
 

jimm

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I think the reason is that they have switched to ANPR instead of pay and display, and the ticket machines in the booking office aren't set up to deal with that - booking office issued parking tickets at stations are just a standard bit of orange card you put in the window.

I doubt that - at Leamington Spa (managed by Chiltern) the other month I paid for a ticket and car parking at the booking office counter and the member of staff asked me for my car's registration and entered that on the computer, so there is clearly no problem whatever in staff making sure the ANPR system knows which cars are supposed to be there and for how long.

I suppose there may be some new edict about selling car park tickets across Chiltern or just some local policy applied at Banbury to 'save time' by not having to type in the registrations or something - or just inconvenience passengers. Other TOCs seem to have varied approaches as well. On GWR, Gloucester wouldn't sell me a car park ticket the last time I was over there, but other stations will.

Apps are all very well if you use the same car parks regularly, but depending on where I am going I can find myself using GWR, Chiltern and WMR stations, which all require a different app, as the three companies have different parking contractors - so much for tech making life simpler. And I really can't be bothered having a bunch of apps on the phone that I only ever use on an occasional basis.
 

Brissle Girl

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Why is having 3 apps on a phone inconvenient? Most phones have far many than that preinstalled anyway. Find app, push button, bingo (or should that be Ringo).
 

Clip

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Why is having 3 apps on a phone inconvenient? Most phones have far many than that preinstalled anyway. Find app, push button, bingo (or should that be Ringo).


Because its unnecessary and people dont like having phones cluttered up with stuff they may only use infrequently.

Im all for modern tech to improve my life but im not installing crap for the rare times i may use a station car park. ill just use the text service for that
 

ajs1981

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I doubt that - at Leamington Spa (managed by Chiltern) the other month I paid for a ticket and car parking at the booking office counter and the member of staff asked me for my car's registration and entered that on the computer, so there is clearly no problem whatever in staff making sure the ANPR system knows which cars are supposed to be there and for how long.

Leamington was recently refurbished so maybe they had some new systems installed then and Banbury haven't had the new systems yet. I don't know for sure though.
 

Brissle Girl

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Because its unnecessary and people dont like having phones cluttered up with stuff they may only use infrequently.

Im all for modern tech to improve my life but im not installing crap for the rare times i may use a station car park. ill just use the text service for that

Ok, clearly that’s a personal view, and I respect that. Though if I were regularly using 3 different stations I’d probably feel that the benefit of being able to pay for parking by mobile phone, albeit using three different apps, was still worth it. It only goes to show how, as a provider of services, it’s difficult to please everybody all of the time.
 

Clip

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Ok, clearly that’s a personal view, and I respect that. Though if I were regularly using 3 different stations I’d probably feel that the benefit of being able to pay for parking by mobile phone, albeit using three different apps, was still worth it. It only goes to show how, as a provider of services, it’s difficult to please everybody all of the time.

Oh for sure and there are 3 different providers due to each TOC going for the cheapest but its the same with TOC apps all being slighty different too. Though can you buy car parking on a TOC app? If not then its something they should look at because that would probably reduce costs too.
 
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BanburyBlue

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I have never paid any extra to use Ringo. I am not keen on technology for the sake of it having seen so many problems with people trying to show tickets or railcard. However Ringo, and similar systems work fine, as you pay before you leave the house, using a computer or portable device, and get an e-mail as proof. You can look at the app on your phone at any time to see how long you have left. One thing they do charge for is if you ask for text reminders. It means no more queuing up in all weathers at machines and has never caused me any issues.
Hi. Just been to the station, and it says they charge a ‘convenience’ fee. Don’t how much it is though.
 

BanburyBlue

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[QUOTE="BanburyBlue, post: 4276481, member: 30001]

It used to be useful when buying tickets in advance to be able to get a car park ticket at the same time. Now they insist you go to the machine in the booking hall, or use Ringo. This can be quite inconvenient.

I don't use Ringo (I believe you have to pay to use it?), so in my case I now have to use the machine. Meaning that if you buy a train ticket at the window, you then have to queue again at the machine to buy your car park ticket.

So if travelling on a Monday, I now have to make a special trip down on the Sunday to collect my ticket.
So out of curiosity, how much at a sensible mileage rate does it cost you to make the special trip down, just to avoid using Ringo? And how does that compare with any service fee imposed by Ringo? (I’d have thought you would least have done some research and found out what the fee is before complaining on here about the new arrangements.)

The other advantage of Ringo or similar services is that if you find yourself short of time and have the details of the location to hand (which tends to happen anyway if you’re only using the one location) is that you can jump on the train and then immediately pay. So no fee if you’re in time and a small convenience charge (maybe?) if you’re not. I can’t see what’s not to like.[/QUOTE]

To be honest, i’ve haven’t done any checking. From my perspective there was a good efficient system and now there’s not. The other issue with Ringo, is that I need tickets to claim back on expenses.
 

BanburyBlue

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I doubt that - at Leamington Spa (managed by Chiltern) the other month I paid for a ticket and car parking at the booking office counter and the member of staff asked me for my car's registration and entered that on the computer, so there is clearly no problem whatever in staff making sure the ANPR system knows which cars are supposed to be there and for how long.

I suppose there may be some new edict about selling car park tickets across Chiltern or just some local policy applied at Banbury to 'save time' by not having to type in the registrations or something - or just inconvenience passengers. Other TOCs seem to have varied approaches as well. On GWR, Gloucester wouldn't sell me a car park ticket the last time I was over there, but other stations will.

Apps are all very well if you use the same car parks regularly, but depending on where I am going I can find myself using GWR, Chiltern and WMR stations, which all require a different app, as the three companies have different parking contractors - so much for tech making life simpler. And I really can't be bothered having a bunch of apps on the phone that I only ever use on an occasional basis.

Until a few weeks ago it was the same at Banbury. You’d go to the window and they’d make a note of your reg. number. Be interesting to know if they’ve applied the same policy across all stations?
 

jimm

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I may attempt a 'test purchase' next time I'm at Leamington then, but not sure when that will be.

Ok, clearly that’s a personal view, and I respect that. Though if I were regularly using 3 different stations I’d probably feel that the benefit of being able to pay for parking by mobile phone, albeit using three different apps, was still worth it. It only goes to show how, as a provider of services, it’s difficult to please everybody all of the time.

I clearly said I use these assorted stations occasionally - it all depends where I am trying to get to as to when I find myself at the different stations.

My view is that mobile apps should be just another option available, not, as increasingly seems to be the case in some circumstances, presented as pretty much the only way that a company is willing to do business with its customers.

Especially when mobile phones are not actually infallible wonder devices. Today is the second Saturday running I have been stuck at a supermarket till behind someone who had come along with no way to pay other than using a mobile, which would not talk to the till - resulting in much faffing around while transactions were cancelled and taken to another till instead.
 
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Brissle Girl

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I don’t think the OP said that Ringo was the only option, only that they had to go to the machine or use Ringo. So that’s two options, neither of which seemed to be acceptable to them, and they appeared to have a completely closed mind to using Ringo, even if they hadn’t researched any additional cost.

I absolutely agree that any payment system which solely relies on a mobile phone is unacceptable, but don’t think that’s the case here.

As to the supermarket example, that appears to have been the customer’s choice to only have a phone as payment, and I agree that’s very unwise, and I would have been very irritated too!
 

BanburyBlue

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I don’t think the OP said that Ringo was the only option, only that they had to go to the machine or use Ringo. So that’s two options, neither of which seemed to be acceptable to them, and they appeared to have a completely closed mind to using Ringo, even if they hadn’t researched any additional cost.

I absolutely agree that any payment system which solely relies on a mobile phone is unacceptable, but don’t think that’s the case here.

As to the supermarket example, that appears to have been the customer’s choice to only have a phone as payment, and I agree that’s very unwise, and I would have been very irritated too!

The Op’s Gripe is it’s now Ringo or the machine. There was a system in place that worked well and now it doesn’t. I now have to either queue twice (and possibly make a special trip), or use Ringo. Ringo costs me money, and is no use if I need a receipt.
 

Brissle Girl

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The Op’s Gripe is it’s now Ringo or the machine. There was a system in place that worked well and now it doesn’t. I now have to either queue twice (and possibly make a special trip), or use Ringo. Ringo costs me money, and is no use if I need a receipt.

If you have a Ringo Account, which takes all of 10 seconds to set up, you can get a VAT receipt.

There's no mention of a service fee on the Ringo page for the car park - only that if you want an SMS confirmation it is all of 10p, which again presumably is unnecessary if you have an account as it will be logged there.

So I hardly think this is a massive inconvenience or additional cost. Turn up in plenty of time and pay in cash at the machine. Or turn up late, use Ringo, and pay 10p if you want the comfort of a text message to prove you've paid. The system of buying at the ticket office hardly works if you're pushed for time as you have to walk back to the car, and you also run the risk of a queue. With Ringo you can jump on the train and then pay. What's not to like?

The only downside seems to be that "it's not how it used to be, and what I'm used to". But there are still two perfectly acceptable ways of paying.
 

pieguyrob

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Just going on a whim here, but, Ringo isn't going to be much use to someone who doesn't have a smart phone. There are people out there that do not have them. Just a thought.....
 

CyrusWuff

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It's worth noting that a smartphone isn't required to use RingGo. You can also pay by phoning +442030460010, visiting their mobile site, from their main website before leaving home or by text message.

Charges appear to be the same for using RingGo as they would be through a TVM or Ticket Office, at least for daily tickets, with no "convenience fee" being charged. SMS reminders cost 10p each, however.

One thing I would suggest is that the OP contacts Chiltern's Customer Relations team regarding the situation. The form to do so can be found here.

Whilst it may not resolve the problem, it will at least ensure your feelings on the matter are made known to relevant parties.
 

jimm

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If you have a Ringo Account, which takes all of 10 seconds to set up, you can get a VAT receipt.

There's no mention of a service fee on the Ringo page for the car park - only that if you want an SMS confirmation it is all of 10p, which again presumably is unnecessary if you have an account as it will be logged there.

So I hardly think this is a massive inconvenience or additional cost. Turn up in plenty of time and pay in cash at the machine. Or turn up late, use Ringo, and pay 10p if you want the comfort of a text message to prove you've paid. The system of buying at the ticket office hardly works if you're pushed for time as you have to walk back to the car, and you also run the risk of a queue. With Ringo you can jump on the train and then pay. What's not to like?

The only downside seems to be that "it's not how it used to be, and what I'm used to". But there are still two perfectly acceptable ways of paying.

You clearly don't use Chiltern stations that have ANPR if you think this is what is going on.

There are no ticket machines in the car parks - so they've saved a few quid on those and collecting cash from them - and you do not need to display a ticket in the car, as the registration has been logged in the computer one way or another. At Leamington the options are (or were if staff have since had orders not to process car park ticket requests, as appears to be the case at Banbury) pay at the ticket office, at one of the big screen ticket machines, or use the app.

But on the day of my last visit, the ticket machines were being affected by a network error, so all froze repeatedly mid-transaction (though no notices had been put on them to say so), which was why I ended up at the ticket counter, in a big queue. Should a jobsworth be on duty in that situation, and refuse to sell a car park ticket even though they clearly have the means to do so, then what is someone without the app meant to do?

It's worth noting that a smartphone isn't required to use RingGo. You can also pay by phoning +442030460010, visiting their mobile site, from their main website before leaving home or by text message.

Charges appear to be the same for using RingGo as they would be through a TVM or Ticket Office, at least for daily tickets, with no "convenience fee" being charged. SMS reminders cost 10p each, however.

Thing is that other parking contractors, such as APCOA, don't offer the possibility of paying via their website for a day's parking at stations. APCOA only sell season tickets for GWR's car parks this way. And if you park at Oxford for the day, there is a four-digit code on a screen on platform 3 that has to be entered to pay using the app, to keep non-rail users out of the car park (as it is far cheaper than the city council car parks for a day's parking). And if you don't have a note of the code, you get to pay more...

Car parking is yet another example of the industry seemingly being unable to agree on a common standard for how to do things, resulting in a great big inconsistent mess, with multiple contractors with their own apps and policies on selling car park tickets that aren't even the same at different stations run by the same TOC.
 

hermit

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One advantage of Ringo that has not been mentioned, as far as I can see, is that the system also operates for parking in many local authority areas, which makes life simpler if you are parking there. Although I must say it’s a bit spooky, when phoning to park in, say, Westminster or Swanage, to be asked by the familiar voice if I want to park at Ryde St Johns Road, which is my normal car park.

Another advantage of phone systems, not just Ringo, is that you can park the car and only phone or use the app to start the payment when the hours of charging start - though if you’re miles away at the time it’s very easy to forget to do so, as I know to my cost.
 

Beebman

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APCOA Connect does have a smartphone app which I use for my occasional day parking at Twyford station. I also have the Ringo one which I've used at places as varied as High Wycombe station and Hayling Island beach!
 

Andyjs247

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I can use RingGo for parking at Bicester North / Bicester Village however rarely do so. The RingGo app is convenient but annoyingly insists on charging an extra 40p - for 2 x SMS messages @ 10p plus a 20p convenience fee. The latter is I think a bit of a cheek. You get 1 text as a confirmation on payment and a second one as a reminder near to expiry.

I also use RingGo for parking at work, depending on where I park. Here I also get charged an extra 20p for 2 x SMS (which I don’t particularly mind) but as I can pay for a weeks parking in one go it means only paying one 20p for 2 SMS over the course of a week. No convenience fee!

In both cases I get an email receipt as well which can be used for expenses.
 
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