Forgot railcard - had to purchase new ticket

[handsomelife]

Hi,
Today I stupidly forgot my railcard and travelled on a train with my railcard discount, the guard rightly sold me a SDS on the train with no discount but ensured me I could go to the ticket office and claim a refund on my discounted ticket......

As far as I was aware this is not the case, I can't claim a refund, obviously I'd like to be wrong but I'm not 100% sure what the deal is.

Thanks

 

[transportphoto]

Yes, you can claim a refund on your unused railcard discounted ticket minus an admin fee not exceeding £10. Just take your SDS and explain what happened.

TP

 

[mumrar]

You neglected to say which service and TOC you travelled with, as XC offer a full refund of the new ticket upon production of a valid railcard for you within 28 days of your brand new ticket being purchased. This has to be done via customer comment forms as CrossCountry don't have any booking offices of course.

 

[yorkie]

Impossible to say as there's insufficient information. To answer this query we'd need to know:

- Ticket type originally held, and if it was a return were you on your outward or return portion?
- TOC travelled with
- Whether the ticket sold fully covered the journey made.

For example if someone did Bournemouth to York, on the return portion of a York - Bournemouth SVR ticket, and was pulled up on East Coast, and charged a London - York ticket, their ticket would remain valid for the unused portion, but no refund would be due on the ticket because 1) it had been partially used and 2) even if it hadn't been used, the refund would have been £1, which is greater than the £10 admin fee.

That said, some TOCs may, at their discretion, waive the admin fee.

 

[handsomelife]

Sorry for the lack of details. My original purchase was a super off peak ticket from Guildford to London Terminals at £8.80 with my YP discount, I was fortunate enough to get up to London without even realising I didn't have my railcard, ticket wasn't checked and then on my return this afternoon I was charged £10.80 for a SDS from Waterloo to Guildford.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

You won't get a refund, the admin fee would be much larger than any amount due back to you (although I don't think they would send you a bill), but, as stated, in theory you could get the return part of your discounted ticket refunded (minus an admin fee of course).

 

[AlterEgo]

In these cases where the rules seem to close in and contrive against you, it is usually best to write to Customer Relations/Services, with a short letter that starts "I know it was my mistake but..." or along those lines.

But as Yorkie says, we need more info first.

 

[MarkyMarkD]

Southeastern refunded me some full price tickets purchased in similar circumstances to these (had railcard discounted tickets; mislaid railcard; bought full price tickets at station before departure; then found railcard - doh!).

My approach was an "I know it was our fault" letter to Customer Services who were most reasonable in the circumstances. (Although the ticket office staff should, by rights, have simply sold me a railcard as that was cheaper than the tickets they did sell me).

 

[Flamingo]

Southeastern refunded me some full price tickets purchased in similar circumstances to these (had railcard discounted tickets; mislaid railcard; bought full price tickets at station before departure; then found railcard - doh!).

My approach was an "I know it was our fault" letter to Customer Services who were most reasonable in the circumstances. (Although the ticket office staff should, by rights, have simply sold me a railcard as that was cheaper than the tickets they did sell me).

I would suspect they would be more sympathetic of someone who bought new tickets before travelling, than someone who was already on board and only owned up to the "mistake" when caught.

 

[MarkyMarkD]

Yes, I am sure that you are right. We got to the platform - because the barrier accepted our tickets - before realising that we couldn't find the Railcard. My wife reckoned she'd left it at home so I went to buy replacement tickets.

Then half-way through our journey my wife found the Railcard.