countrysider
New Member
- Joined
- 5 Dec 2018
- Messages
- 2
Can anyone give any advice about something which happened about three months ago. Six of us (myself and five others) were travelling from St Albans to Millbrook (Bedfordshire) and back again on the same day. I was paying for everyone.
So we arrive at the station and i go to the ticket office and ask for six Adult Anytime Day Return tickets from St Albans to Millbrook which the ticket lady sells with no problems and no questions asked. Just a simple normal transaction. They cost £67.70 each (costing £406.20 total). I was travelling in the peak so needed "Anytime" tickets. So i get my tickets and we all get on the train and everything seem fine and normal.
Just after departing a ticket inspector comes along checking everyone's tickets. So we show him our tickets and this is where the problems start. He tells us that we have tickets to Millbrook in Hampshire and that they are not valid on this train and we are going in the wrong direction.
Now i had no idea there was another station called Millbrook. I just saw that my tickets said Millbrook so i thought we had the right tickets. I didn't know what the "(Hants)" part meant. The ticket office lady just sold us these tickets without any questions. She didn't ask if we were going to the Millbrook in Bedfordshire or the one in Hampshire
I explained to him that we were going to Millbrook in Bedfordshire and i had no idea that we were sold tickets to another station called Millbrook in Hampshire (which i didn't even know existed). I told him that the ticket office lady sold them without even asking which Millbrook we wanted. He told us it was our responsibility to ensure we were sold the correct ticket and told us he was going to fine us a Penalty Fare of £20.00 each (so £120.00 total). No matter how much arguing we did he wouldn't change his mind and threatened to report us for prosecution if we didn't pay the Penalty Fare.
So as we really had no other option i agreed to pay it and gave him £120.00 which he took and told us to get off at the next station at Luton and purchase another ticket if we want to continue our travels towards Millbrook in Bedfordshire.
He didn't take any of our details as we paid it on the spot. I asked him for a receipt but he said he couldn't give one as his receipt pad had run out. So i was very annoyed to have paid £120.00 and not even have any receipt or proof of it.
We then all get off the train at Luton and i go to the ticket office to buy the correct ticket. I purchased six Adult Anytime Day Return tickets from St Albans to Millbrook in Bedfordshire for £23.90 each (costing £143.40 total). So we then get back on another train to continue our journey. By time we get to Bedford we have now missed our connecting train and therefore have to wait almost an hour for the next one which turns out to be cancelled due to a train fault (the one we were suppose to catch was on time) so we have to get the one after. So we end up waiting in Bedford for almost two hours.
Finally we end up arriving at our final destination (Millbrook in Bedfordshire) a total of two hours and six minutes late.
I ended up spending £669.60 total on that day when all i should have spent was £143.40 total. Note that i hadn't been to Millbrook by train for years so i had no idea how much it was meant to cost which is why i didn't question the £67.70 each fares.
In total i spent:
• £120.00 (6 x £20.00) - Penalty Fare
• £143.40 (6 x £23.90) - St Albans to Millbrook (Bed)
• £406.20 (6 x £67.70) - St Albans to Millbrook (Ham)
= £669.60 total
I believe i should get a refund of all £669.60 that i spent. I should get the £406.20 refunded because it was the wrong ticket. I should get the £143.40 refunded because we were over two hours late. I should get the £120.00 refunded because we shouldn't have been fined a Penalty Fare. Surely it is the responsibility of the ticket office lady to tell me that there are two Millbrook stations and ask which one i want rather than just choosing one without asking? How am i meant to know there are two Millbrook stations?
The next day i emailed Thameslink customer service (who are known for being very slow at replying) exposing the whole situation. After a few weeks i get a reply saying that they have no record of these Penalty Fare being issued. They say that they checked their systems and can't see
I told them again about the whole situation and how he didn't give me a receipt because his receipt pad had run out. But all Thameslink have said is that they are unable to investigate this matter as they have no record of the Penalty Fare.
So if they have no record of it then what on earth did the ticket inspector do with my £120.00 that i gave him? Did he just pocket it himself thinking that because his receipt pad had run out he could get away with not recording it?
I asked them to check the on train CCTV (which will show the ticket inspector dealing with us) to identify the ticket inspector and speak to him. But i was told that they were unable to as CCTV footage can only be viewed when a crime has been committed. I have now sent eight emails back and fourth to Thameslink and nothing is getting sorted. Their customer service department is just useless and very unhelpful.
So what should i do? How do i get my £669.60 back? Should i take legal action against Thameslink? Should i email their CEO directly?
Sorry for the long post and thank you for any information and help that you can give me.
So we arrive at the station and i go to the ticket office and ask for six Adult Anytime Day Return tickets from St Albans to Millbrook which the ticket lady sells with no problems and no questions asked. Just a simple normal transaction. They cost £67.70 each (costing £406.20 total). I was travelling in the peak so needed "Anytime" tickets. So i get my tickets and we all get on the train and everything seem fine and normal.
Just after departing a ticket inspector comes along checking everyone's tickets. So we show him our tickets and this is where the problems start. He tells us that we have tickets to Millbrook in Hampshire and that they are not valid on this train and we are going in the wrong direction.
Now i had no idea there was another station called Millbrook. I just saw that my tickets said Millbrook so i thought we had the right tickets. I didn't know what the "(Hants)" part meant. The ticket office lady just sold us these tickets without any questions. She didn't ask if we were going to the Millbrook in Bedfordshire or the one in Hampshire
I explained to him that we were going to Millbrook in Bedfordshire and i had no idea that we were sold tickets to another station called Millbrook in Hampshire (which i didn't even know existed). I told him that the ticket office lady sold them without even asking which Millbrook we wanted. He told us it was our responsibility to ensure we were sold the correct ticket and told us he was going to fine us a Penalty Fare of £20.00 each (so £120.00 total). No matter how much arguing we did he wouldn't change his mind and threatened to report us for prosecution if we didn't pay the Penalty Fare.
So as we really had no other option i agreed to pay it and gave him £120.00 which he took and told us to get off at the next station at Luton and purchase another ticket if we want to continue our travels towards Millbrook in Bedfordshire.
He didn't take any of our details as we paid it on the spot. I asked him for a receipt but he said he couldn't give one as his receipt pad had run out. So i was very annoyed to have paid £120.00 and not even have any receipt or proof of it.
We then all get off the train at Luton and i go to the ticket office to buy the correct ticket. I purchased six Adult Anytime Day Return tickets from St Albans to Millbrook in Bedfordshire for £23.90 each (costing £143.40 total). So we then get back on another train to continue our journey. By time we get to Bedford we have now missed our connecting train and therefore have to wait almost an hour for the next one which turns out to be cancelled due to a train fault (the one we were suppose to catch was on time) so we have to get the one after. So we end up waiting in Bedford for almost two hours.
Finally we end up arriving at our final destination (Millbrook in Bedfordshire) a total of two hours and six minutes late.
I ended up spending £669.60 total on that day when all i should have spent was £143.40 total. Note that i hadn't been to Millbrook by train for years so i had no idea how much it was meant to cost which is why i didn't question the £67.70 each fares.
In total i spent:
• £120.00 (6 x £20.00) - Penalty Fare
• £143.40 (6 x £23.90) - St Albans to Millbrook (Bed)
• £406.20 (6 x £67.70) - St Albans to Millbrook (Ham)
= £669.60 total
I believe i should get a refund of all £669.60 that i spent. I should get the £406.20 refunded because it was the wrong ticket. I should get the £143.40 refunded because we were over two hours late. I should get the £120.00 refunded because we shouldn't have been fined a Penalty Fare. Surely it is the responsibility of the ticket office lady to tell me that there are two Millbrook stations and ask which one i want rather than just choosing one without asking? How am i meant to know there are two Millbrook stations?
The next day i emailed Thameslink customer service (who are known for being very slow at replying) exposing the whole situation. After a few weeks i get a reply saying that they have no record of these Penalty Fare being issued. They say that they checked their systems and can't see
I told them again about the whole situation and how he didn't give me a receipt because his receipt pad had run out. But all Thameslink have said is that they are unable to investigate this matter as they have no record of the Penalty Fare.
So if they have no record of it then what on earth did the ticket inspector do with my £120.00 that i gave him? Did he just pocket it himself thinking that because his receipt pad had run out he could get away with not recording it?
I asked them to check the on train CCTV (which will show the ticket inspector dealing with us) to identify the ticket inspector and speak to him. But i was told that they were unable to as CCTV footage can only be viewed when a crime has been committed. I have now sent eight emails back and fourth to Thameslink and nothing is getting sorted. Their customer service department is just useless and very unhelpful.
So what should i do? How do i get my £669.60 back? Should i take legal action against Thameslink? Should i email their CEO directly?
Sorry for the long post and thank you for any information and help that you can give me.