Fare evader on Trip Advisor

[bnm]

If they reply with words to the effect of "tough luck" I might just consider reusing the ticket.

Do let us or EMT know when you plan to commit this fraud. :roll:

You were provided with 1st Class accommodation. EMT have fulfilled their contractual obligation to you. The lack of notification regarding there being no comps or host is a customer service issue and not justification to re-use your ticket. A well written complaint (as opposed to the 'sense of entitlement' coming across here) would be my advice.

Poor customer service does not give anyone the right to break the law.

 

[jon0844]

Well, I'm glad they got some compensation, as the lack of a till does not stop comps being handed out, they don't go through the till.

This was a few years ago, but I got the impression (as did my parents, and other people on the train) that the lady wasn't sure what to do and simply refused to serve anything at all.

The logical reason for her thinking might have been keeping track of stock, presumably to avoid being accused of having sold it and not banked the money.

 

[Failed Unit]

Do let us or EMT know when you plan to commit this fraud. :roll:

You were provided with 1st Class accommodation. EMT have fulfilled their contractual obligation to you. The lack of notification regarding there being no comps or host is a customer service issue and not justification to re-use your ticket. A well written complaint (as opposed to the 'sense of entitlement' coming across here) would be my advice.

Poor customer service does not give anyone the right to break the law.

Even if they say, what could EMT do? They have no evidence the ticket has bieng used. Not saying it is right, but to an RPI it is just an open return, unmarked and not gone through any barriers.

 

[Flamingo]

This was a few years ago, but I got the impression (as did my parents, and other people on the train) that the lady wasn't sure what to do and simply refused to serve anything at all.

The logical reason for her thinking might have been keeping track of stock, presumably to avoid being accused of having sold it and not banked the money.

They might not have been a customer host, but somebody else in uniform who didn't know how it should work.

 

[ralphchadkirk]

Do let us or EMT know when you plan to commit this fraud. :roll:

You were provided with 1st Class accommodation. EMT have fulfilled their contractual obligation to you. The lack of notification regarding there being no comps or host is a customer service issue and not justification to re-use your ticket. A well written complaint (as opposed to the 'sense of entitlement' coming across here) would be my advice.

Poor customer service does not give anyone the right to break the law.

This. I can't believe the person who admits to have carried out fare evasion tries to claim the moral high ground over a lack of food in first class.


Sent from my iPhone 4 using Tapatalk

 

[Flamingo]

This. I can't believe the person who admits to have carried out fare evasion tries to claim the moral high ground over a lack of food in first class.

Don't you know, the customer is always right :roll:

 

[londonbridge]

Another thread on fare evasion here:

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1666406&highlight=

 

[jon0844]

Another thread on fare evasion here:

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1666406&highlight=

Ah, Digital Spy... I can't even be bothered this time!

 

[extendedpaul]

A person has to travel to nearby town to visit their solicitor and sign some forms.

Buys a return ticket costing say £5. Barrier open. Walks through, puts tickets safely in wallet/purse.

No ticket check on train. Barrier open at destination station.

Same on return journey. Tickets remains untouched.

Gets home. Solicitor phones, very apologetic, forgot one of the forms that has to be signed, need to return today. Sets off on same journey.

I wonder how many people would buy another ticket. I consider myself a very honest person but must confess I'd be sorely tempted not to in those circumstances.

 

[cuccir]

Another thread on fare evasion here:

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1666406&highlight=

Unfortunately the poster doesn't state how long they waited at the ticket office ie they popped their head in, couldn't see anyone, so got on the train; or they waited for 20 minutes and nobody was about...

 

[dzug2]

Well Trip Advisor has pulled most of the offending posts......

 

[RJ]

LOL!

And on my very next trip, all barriers at St Pancras were open, the train manager didn't check tickets, and all barriers at Nottingham were open. So now I have a return portion of a FOR which I've used for travel but which I COULD use again should I want to, with virtually no chance of being caught out. And seeing as EMT didn't provide ANY first class service whatsoever on the train tonight (with no real explanation as to why not either) I'd not be surprised if some travellers felt like reusing their tickets would be appropriate "compensation" for that lack of service...

Honesly, the railway really doesn't help itself sometimes! :roll:

Andy

Let me guess - you travelled on one of the last trains of the day on a service stopping every few minutes?

I travelled on the 15:25 ex St Pancras today. Ticket checked at STP, guard checked tickets on board. At the first stop of Leicester, two RPIs boarded and checked everyone's ticket, then at my destination, again my tickets were checked.

It has all calmed down with me ever since their staff were specifically told not to bother issuing me with any more notices

 

[AlexS]

I'd suggest if Mr Skymonster travelled on 25/05/12, the MML was a bit of a state due to the wires being down in the Harpenden area, as well as heat related emergency speed restrictions, with ticketing restrictions removed, and other issues like crews being out of place due to heavily delayed and cancelled trains - unfortunately I doubt catering crews are a priority in terms of keeping trains moving if you have a driver and guard available to take a train. Again if revenue restrictions are removed, it's unlikely that the train manager is going to concentrate on revenue duties. It's entirely possible that gateline staff had been deployed to other duties that are more important than revenue protection during severe disruption particularly at St Pancras, where FCC Thameslink services would also have been well disrupted for the whole evening peak as well as the afternoon and evening - I believe it kicked off fairly early on.

From what I've seen, revenue protection at St Pancras is normally very good with a well staffed gateline, I haven't seen much of Nottingham to comment.

With the various issues that were going on and the number of delays, cancellations, set swaps, crew swaps etc that were occurring, I very much doubt that First Class complimentary snacks were going to be anywhere near the top of the controller's priority lists - they'd be more thinking about the basics to provide a train to get you home on.

Overall Friday was not a good day for the MML it seems so I don't think it's fair to judge the service on it, particularly as Skymonster says himself it's normally pretty good.

 

[Skymonster]

I'd suggest if Mr Skymonster travelled on 25/05/12, the MML was a bit of a state due to the wires being down in the Harpenden area, as well as heat related emergency speed restrictions, with ticketing restrictions removed, and other issues like crews being out of place due to heavily delayed and cancelled trains - unfortunately I doubt catering crews are a priority in terms of keeping trains moving if you have a driver and guard available to take a train. Again if revenue restrictions are removed, it's unlikely that the train manager is going to concentrate on revenue duties. It's entirely possible that gateline staff had been deployed to other duties that are more important than revenue protection during severe disruption particularly at St Pancras, where FCC Thameslink services would also have been well disrupted for the whole evening peak as well as the afternoon and evening - I believe it kicked off fairly early on.

From what I've seen, revenue protection at St Pancras is normally very good with a well staffed gateline, I haven't seen much of Nottingham to comment.

With the various issues that were going on and the number of delays, cancellations, set swaps, crew swaps etc that were occurring, I very much doubt that First Class complimentary snacks were going to be anywhere near the top of the controller's priority lists - they'd be more thinking about the basics to provide a train to get you home on.

Overall Friday was not a good day for the MML it seems so I don't think it's fair to judge the service on it, particularly as Skymonster says himself it's normally pretty good.

No need to try to make excuses for poor service from EMT... The lack of first class onboard service isn't the biggest issue - the way it was dealt with was. They managed to announce the train was boarding at St.Pancras - why not at the same time announce there'd be no onboard service (they've done that before - I've heard them do it)? The train manager managed to announce the details of the train's calling points and point out that off peak and super off peak tickets weren't valid twice before departure, once about one minute before the doors were shut - why not at the same time announce there'd be no onboard service (giving passengers the option to transfer to the train ten minutes later)? Why wait to announce there's no onboard service until after the train had departed? And the train ran non-stop from St.Pancras to Wellingborough - plenty of time for a ticket check if the train manager / guard / RPI could have been bothered to do it.

Anyway - another glitch in this story... I travelled up to London again today on EMT and I mentioned last week's lack of ticket checks / barriers to an on-train RPI who knows me by sight as a regular... "Glad to see you've reinstated ticket checks - last week there were no checks and no barriers - it'd be fairly easy for some folks to reuse open tickets in those circumstances". The RPI laughed, said it happens sometimes, and then actually said "If you've still got the unmarked ticket, I'd use it again if I were you..."

Now, where's that thread about taking what staff say at face value! :roll:

Andy

 

[jon0844]

I wonder if not mentioning it was deliberate, to stop loads of people getting off, which would a) delay the service and b) now cause problems on the later one.

From an operational point of view, that would make the most sense.

As for that last comment; is that permission from an authorised person?

 

[EM2]

They managed to announce the train was boarding at St.Pancras - why not at the same time announce there'd be no onboard service (they've done that before - I've heard them do it)?

Baecause annoucements for EMT services at STP are done by NR staff, not EMT staff. And if they're not told, they can't announce it.

 

[Deerfold]

Baecause annoucements for EMT services at STP are done by NR staff, not EMT staff. And if they're not told, they can't announce it.

Though Skymonster did also refer to the on-board announcements. Presumably these are done by EMT staff.

I have noticed the same on EC - I can be on a train 15-20 minutes before it leave but only find out there's no trolley service/erduced 1st clas service 5 minutes into the journey. Whilst it wouldn't make much difference to me, there are people who may prefer to wait for the next service.

 

[AlexS]

If the situation re: catering isn't being announced and ticketing time related instructions are, then yeah, I do agree that's feedback that could be useful to EMT.

However the point regarding your grumble on the original post regarding poor service provided through the lack of first class additional service does stand in so far as it is not a top priority (and rightly so in my opinion) to maintain it during periods of severe disruption.

There's also no guarantee that the following service had any catering provision either and you'd have probably been even more annoyed had you jumped off for that reason and found that one had it missing as well, just to get later in to the bargain.