LondonJohn
Member
I recently travelled from Brighton to Wollston via Clapham Junction and one train from Clapham to Southampton was cancelled (xx12) meaning the next one was xx42. Boarding at Clapham is a nightmare anyway though eased a bit due to 8cars stopping there now as opposed to just 5 but it was still busy so I sat in First as there were no seats in standard and asked the guard for an excess to First Class. The ticket was discounted by my Annual Gold Card.
The difference in fare was £9.40. The on board staff member said it would be £10 weekend upgrade one way, I told him I wanted the excess and he said they couldn’t do it as it was a fare set by Southern and they were only permitted to sell certain fares on board and kept asking me if I would pay cash on card for the £10 upgrade, I protested and said surely if you have a ticket priced X and the fare was y you would pay z which is the difference and he said they could only excess off peak to peak tickets between certain stations. He told me to pay the fare and write in and claim it back.. and I asked him if he had a control room or ticketing support as I had excessed the fare before (usually in times of disruption to get a seat) and he said that such support wasn’t available at weekends.
You might have thought he could have said look ok your going to be an hour late I’ll let you off but I would have been quite willing to pay the excess and lo and behold 25 minutes later he managed to find a way to excess the ticket. I thanked him for his help but he clearly had the hump at being told how to do his job though I was polite and civil at all times.
Is this just a case of don’t know/cant be bothered to help, pay over the odds and write in claim the difference back,later or should he have known how to excess a point A to point B via C.
Is it worth complaining to South Western Railway and or passenger focus about not being initially able to sell me the correct ticket for my journey or should I have gone to the ticket office at Clapham in the 30min delay and excessed the ticket then. If it is the latter I would have only really wanted to do this to get a seat.
The difference in fare was £9.40. The on board staff member said it would be £10 weekend upgrade one way, I told him I wanted the excess and he said they couldn’t do it as it was a fare set by Southern and they were only permitted to sell certain fares on board and kept asking me if I would pay cash on card for the £10 upgrade, I protested and said surely if you have a ticket priced X and the fare was y you would pay z which is the difference and he said they could only excess off peak to peak tickets between certain stations. He told me to pay the fare and write in and claim it back.. and I asked him if he had a control room or ticketing support as I had excessed the fare before (usually in times of disruption to get a seat) and he said that such support wasn’t available at weekends.
You might have thought he could have said look ok your going to be an hour late I’ll let you off but I would have been quite willing to pay the excess and lo and behold 25 minutes later he managed to find a way to excess the ticket. I thanked him for his help but he clearly had the hump at being told how to do his job though I was polite and civil at all times.
Is this just a case of don’t know/cant be bothered to help, pay over the odds and write in claim the difference back,later or should he have known how to excess a point A to point B via C.
Is it worth complaining to South Western Railway and or passenger focus about not being initially able to sell me the correct ticket for my journey or should I have gone to the ticket office at Clapham in the 30min delay and excessed the ticket then. If it is the latter I would have only really wanted to do this to get a seat.
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