Does a rail travel voucher need the letter in order to be redeemed?

[bakerstreet]

I have a rail travel voucher which is imminently expiring. I just took it to my local Thameslink station in order for it to be exchanged for cash (something that Thameslink and other GTR stations offer)

The ticket office clerk said “where’s the letter?” I said what letter he said “the letter that came with the voucher I need the letter to verify the voucher”

I do not have the letter any longer or at least I don’t know where it is.

I have never experienced this requirement before

Is he making this up?

 

[Watershed]

I've never heard of any such requirement. Sounds like the clerk was, to be generous, misinformed.

 

[Bletchleyite]

The voucher is verified by scanning it. This is nonsense by the clerk.

 

[bakerstreet]

Update – called customer services.

Very very helpful.

They saught advice.

Confirmed no letter is required.

Asked me to reiterate this to the clerk.

I did.

I also showed him my original email stating I would receive these vouchers.

Neither action succeeded.

So I handed the phone through the glass to the clerk so that customer services could speak directly to him.

They must’ve had a five minute conversation.

The answer still was no I’m not doing it.

They said they really don’t understand why he’s refusing to do this.

They have now given me a reference number in case I can’t get it done before the expiry date.

Remarkable.

Do we have any GTR senior team who read this forum?

 

[AlterEgo]

Idiot clerk who is doubling down on their laziness and/or ignorance.

 

[WesternLancer]

try

Update – called customer services.

Very very helpful.

They saught advice.

Confirmed no letter is required.

Asked me to reiterate this to the clerk.

I did.

I also showed him my original email stating I would receive these vouchers.

Neither action succeeded.

So I handed the phone through the glass to the clerk so that customer services could speak directly to him.

They must’ve had a five minute conversation.

The answer still was no I’m not doing it.

They said they really don’t understand why he’s refusing to do this.

They have now given me a reference number in case I can’t get it done before the expiry date.

Remarkable.

Do we have any GTR senior team who read this forum?

try another station ticket office? (obviously if you can do that without incurring un reasonable expense to get to a different station)

I wonder what would happen if you went on a different day when a different clerk was on duty.

I've never been asked for the letter (I used a RTV issued by LNER about 4 weeks ago with EMR at an EMR ticket office to buy a ticket for travel), although funnily enough I usually keep the letter with the voucher 'just in case' as I think RTVs are becoming increasingly uncommon so I have encountered staff who have not seen them before or not seen them for a considerable length of time.

However, I've never tried to exchange one for cash at a station - and I think only some operators offer this - and it has to be with a voucher issued by the same train operator as operate the ticket office you are trying to exchange it for cash at - which I assume in your case was the situation.

 

[bcarmicle]

Worth sending in a formal complaint about the ticket clerk especially since they spoke to customer services and still refused to redeem the voucher

 

[Bletchleyite]

Worth sending in a formal complaint about the ticket clerk especially since they spoke to customer services and still refused to redeem the voucher

I sent in a formal complaint about a ticket clerk on GTR who refused to sell an Off Peak ticket at a valid time (because in his view the evening was always peak on all tickets) and GTR ignored it, so not sure I'd bother.

 

[185]

Wonder why they wanted to see what the original matter was about... trying to work out if the voucher was issued for a matter / complaint related to them?

Need to show a letter. What nonsense

 

[bcarmicle]

I sent in a formal complaint about a ticket clerk on GTR who refused to sell an Off Peak ticket at a valid time (because in his view the evening was always peak on all tickets) and GTR ignored it, so not sure I'd bother.

If no complaint is sent in, then there’s little chance that anything will change. Whereas a complaint at least might cause the clerk to be rebriefed.

 

[bakerstreet]

try

try another station ticket office? (obviously if you can do that without incurring un reasonable expense to get to a different station)

I wonder what would happen if you went on a different day when a different clerk was on duty.

I've never been asked for the letter (I used a RTV issued by LNER about 4 weeks ago with EMR at an EMR ticket office to buy a ticket for travel), although funnily enough I usually keep the letter with the voucher 'just in case' as I think RTVs are becoming increasingly uncommon so I have encountered staff who have not seen them before or not seen them for a considerable length of time.

However, I've never tried to exchange one for cash at a station - and I think only some operators offer this - and it has to be with a voucher issued by the same train operator as operate the ticket office you are trying to exchange it for cash at - which I assume in your case was the situation.

Yes, unfortunately, my station is of the type where it is part time opening hours for the ticket office and one clerk tends to cover all those hours unless they are unwell or on leave. I will think about another Thameslink station if possible.

Yes, my voucher was generated by GTR, and this was a Thameslink ticket office.

The clerk appeared to have no issue about the cash element, just wished to see the letter

Wonder why they wanted to see what the original matter was about... trying to work out if the voucher was issued for a matter / complaint related to them?

Need to show a letter. What nonsense

It wasn’t so much this, he wanted to confirm (he said) that he could match the voucher number in the letter with the voucher number that I provided him with.
The voucher has a barcode, and one would hope that that barcode links to my original case in some way or at least confirmed that the voucher was genuine.
But he did not appear to think that this was sufficient.

He may well just be inquisitive. But unfortunately, that does not help the customer.

 

[yorksrob]

I've never heard of such nonsense. That the clerk feels so unempowered that he can't even act on the advice of his customer services team, suggests a management problem somewhere along the chain of command.

 

[Class800]

Update – called customer services.

Very very helpful.

They saught advice.

Confirmed no letter is required.

Asked me to reiterate this to the clerk.

I did.

I also showed him my original email stating I would receive these vouchers.

Neither action succeeded.

So I handed the phone through the glass to the clerk so that customer services could speak directly to him.

They must’ve had a five minute conversation.

The answer still was no I’m not doing it.

They said they really don’t understand why he’s refusing to do this.

They have now given me a reference number in case I can’t get it done before the expiry date.

Remarkable.

Do we have any GTR senior team who read this forum?

So the clerk is disobeying orders from his own company? Or is the ticket office staffed by a different TOC? Either way very unsatisfactory.

 

[MrJeeves]

At both of my two local stations, staff have happily exchanged RTVs for cash (or paid out to debit card, which I learned more recently is now an option). Definitely sounds like an issue with your local ticket office clerk.

I would send an email complaint to GTR, and ask if they'd consider either rebriefing the ticket office staff, or funding a ticket to another station to redeem it there if that isn't possible for whatever reason. Knowing my experiences with GTR, maybe they'll even send you another RTV in the post as an apology!

 

[185]

.... suggests a management problem somewhere along the chain of command.

Devils advocate... You'd be surprised, management may be the problem.

With some of the nonsense observed from toc management, he could be acting on instructions sent out in the latest holy memo, containing this week's retail shenanigans often looking like someone's poorly thought out GCSE project... but unlikely.

 

[bakerstreet]

So the clerk is disobeying orders from his own company? Or is the ticket office staffed by a different TOC? Either way very unsatisfactory.

A Thameslink station, served only by Thameslink trains, managed and staffed by Thameslink.

 

[Islineclear3_1]

I've redeemed rail travel vouchers from South Western Railway and South Eastern Railway on numerous occasions without a letter - never had a problem

Sounds like an obstinate ticket clerk with some axe to grind

 

[Haywain]

I've redeemed rail travel vouchers from South Western Railway and South Eastern Railway on numerous occasions without a letter - never had a problem

Redeemed them for cash? I'm guessing that it was the cash that the clerk found problematic.

 

[Wolfie]

I guess that the response is to never take RTVs, always cash, to purchase tickets online and to make said individual unemployed.

 

[yorksrob]

I've never heard of such nonsense. That the clerk feels so unempowered that he can't even act on the advice of his customer services team, suggests a management problem somewhere along the chain of command.

I must confess, I miss-read the original OP and had assumed it was to buy a ticket. I had no idea you could exchange an RTV for cash and have no idea what the correct procedure should be.

 

[MrJeeves]

I had no idea you could exchange an RTV for cash

I believe it's a TOC-specific arrangement. GTR and Southeastern will allow you to redeem RTVs issued by them as cash or onto a debit card at their ticket offices, but I don't know if any other TOCs do the same. Most likely just issue cheques instead.

 

[yorksrob]

I believe it's a TOC-specific arrangement. GTR will allow you to redeem RTVs issued by them as cash or onto a debit card, but I don't know if any other TOCs do the same. Most likely just issue cheques instead.

Thanks. i must admit, I'm a bit sceptical about the whole cash for delay repay idea as it seems like an incentive for not giving it out in the first place, but plenty of passengers seem to like it.

 

[bakerstreet]

Redeemed them for cash? I'm guessing that it was the cash that the clerk found problematic.

The clerk made no mention of cash being a problem he simply wanted to see the letter which I didn’t have.

The RTV’s have a printed message stating clearly they are redeemable for cash from a GTR ticket office.

Cash was not the issue.

It was clear that he would not have redeemed it in any form without the letter.

 

[SuspectUsual]

So the clerk is disobeying orders from his own company?

His argument might be that he's not being told what to do by somebody who's probably a junior grade in a different department. "I take orders from my boss, and my boss only"

Obviously his stance is absolutely wrong, but the refusal to listen to someone from customer services is - to e at least - less surprising than him getting it so horribly wrong in the first place

 

[James H]

I have had trouble at a small GTR station in London simply because they hadn’t taken any/enough cash that day to have any in the till to give me.

In the end I went to Victoria where I exchanged the voucher for cash without quibble.

 

[island]

I believe it's a TOC-specific arrangement. GTR and Southeastern will allow you to redeem RTVs issued by them as cash or onto a debit card at their ticket offices, but I don't know if any other TOCs do the same. Most likely just issue cheques instead.

Yes, that's correct. Those TOCs issue cashable RTVs as the "cash option" that they're required to give for compensation. In my experience, the expiry date for purchasing a ticket is longer than the expiry date for cashing it.

 

[MrJeeves]

Yes, that's correct. Those TOCs issue cashable RTVs as the "cash option" that they're required to give for compensation. In my experience, the expiry date for purchasing a ticket is longer than the expiry date for cashing it.

Mine have only ever had a single expiry date (or timeframe + issue date, rather).

 

[Hadders]

Update – called customer services.

Very very helpful.

They saught advice.

Confirmed no letter is required.

Asked me to reiterate this to the clerk.

I did.

I also showed him my original email stating I would receive these vouchers.

Neither action succeeded.

So I handed the phone through the glass to the clerk so that customer services could speak directly to him.

They must’ve had a five minute conversation.

The answer still was no I’m not doing it.

They said they really don’t understand why he’s refusing to do this.

They have now given me a reference number in case I can’t get it done before the expiry date.

Remarkable.

Do we have any GTR senior team who read this forum?

Which station is this? GTR has some great staff but sadly this sort of behaviour is not uncommon with GTR ticket offices. I've had very similar situations - with staff refusing to sell tickets that customer services have told them they should sell.

The clerk is talking nonsense. Please do escalate the complaint with GTR. I echo the thoughts to try an alternative station.

 

[bakerstreet]

Which station is this? GTR has some great staff but sadly this sort of behaviour is not uncommon with GTR ticket offices. I've had very similar situations - with staff refusing to sell tickets that customer services have told them they should sell.

The clerk is talking nonsense. Please do escalate the complaint with GTR. I echo the thoughts to try an alternative station.

Thanks, yes it is a shame when ticket office staff act in this way. It does a disservice to the railway, to the reputation of good ticket office staff and to the customer.
I won’t state this particular station here because it might unintentionally also identify the particular staff member due to how the station is staffed, but I will raise it again with the company.

 

[James H]

unfortunately I don’t hold out much hope of you receiving anything from GTR customer services that even indicates they have comprehended what you have raised with them