Thanks
It was the Mrs not me. I hadn't got the reply by the time she had to go so I told her to go and ask at the booking office. She called me that the booking office was closed, it should have been open at that time, in my experience it is closed 90% of the time it should be open, with no explanation or apology.
One of the machines was busted, and apparently the touch screen was really poor on the remaining, but I told her just to buy the return from Chiswick to Staines, and she used it back to Richmond without issue, luckily !
Thats what you get for de-staffing the network so much, people just don't know where to go for advice or help with tickets then potentially get into trouble with fines, court etc...