Is it possible that a ticket barrier is erasing my paper season ticket?

[Wallsendmag]

They can't issue a second replacement but this isn't a replacement it's an encode exchange.

 

[John @ home]

I thought it was tickets marked "Duplicate" where it's difficult to get more than one issued, but as many tickets marked "Replacement" as necessary may be issued. To obtain a ticket marked "Replacement", the previous ticket is surrendered.

 

[swt_passenger]

The left hand ticket in post 30 is wrong as well, it shouldn't have been printed on travelcard stock....

You are having some bad luck.

 

[ronmanager]

I thought it was tickets marked "Duplicate" where it's difficult to get more than one issued, but as many tickets marked "Replacement" as necessary may be issued. To obtain a ticket marked "Replacement", the previous ticket is surrendered.

I hope you are correct. I have not lost any tickets in this saga. They always had the previous one to void.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

The left hand ticket in post 30 is wrong as well, it shouldn't have been printed on travelcard stock....

You are having some bad luck.

Shepherds Bush - what can I say?

 

[jon0844]

Hang on to those tickets and they might be worth something one day, like an upside down stamp! Perhaps you can keep seeing what ticket you get if you keep asking for replacements and become rich!

Maybe next time see if you can get then to accidentally issue an annual all line rover...

 

[ronmanager]

Hang on to those tickets and they might be worth something one day, like an upside down stamp! Perhaps you can keep seeing what ticket you get if you keep asking for replacements and become rich!

Maybe next time see if you can get then to accidentally issue an annual all line rover...

Nice idea but they keep taking the previous one off me. I don't seek riches, I seek a smooth journey into work and nothing more!

 

[gray1404]

Do get the names of the people at the station who have been rude to you or refused to help you or made stuff up so when you let the TOC or TfL know you can give them a detailed account. It is important that they are corrected and retrained etc... I certainly would NOT switch over to Oyster in your case. As you said, it will cost you more and I would stick with what you currently have despite the current issues. You say your happy with what your currently paying so do stay with that!

 

[Darandio]

Do get the names of the people at the station who have been rude to you or refused to help you so when you let the TOC or TfL know you can give them a detailed account.

Not one post in this thread mentions rudeness, only yours.

Crusade time again?

 

[furlong]

The left hand ticket in post 30 is wrong as well, it shouldn't have been printed on travelcard stock....

You should send the unredacted version of that first photo to TfL and suggest that they might want to investigate and take action.

 

[kieron]

I also have a problem with my Annual Haywards Heath to Zones 2-6 AAA Crawley ticket.
It works the barriers fine at Twickenham, Richmond, Clapham Junction, East Croydon, Redhill, Gatwick, Three Bridges and Haywards Heath, but everytime I go to Crawley I get a 116 error code

Do you know if a Crawley to Zone 2-6 AAA Haywards Heath ticket works any better?

 

[ronmanager]

Confirmed that the ticket works through the barriers off peak in the afternoon but not peak in the morning. Now off to SPB again where the 1st thing they'll say is 'we can't issue more than one replacement' followed by 'it's not possible to have an off peak annual season ticket'

These are my cynical predictions. Hope I'm pleasantly wrong!

EDIT:
Been in. They couldn't do it as their system wouldn't allow them to do anything - she showed me and it said 'replacement already issued' or similar. They admitted that the 108 code shouldn't be coming up but didn't know what to do. I said can I change the destination to Kensington Olympia to facilitate issuing a completely new ticket (Olympia is just as easy as SPB for me and the season ticket price is the same) but they didn't know how to do that either. Advised me to contact TFL customer services who would then instruct them what to do. Tried that and EVERYONE there and all the phone menus are set up for Oyster or contactless payment card enquiries only. Spoke to a helpful chap who went through it with me and tried to ask someone else but admitted he doesn't really know about paper tickets and the other person couldn't help either. Now have a case number and a promise that I will be called back.

Frankly I do not know what to do next. I have 8 months to run on this ticket and I cannot be queuing up at the barrier every morning. If anyone has ticketing knowledge or can suggest anything I'm all ears. This should be so simple but 'computer says no' is the reality. None of it is my fault and I've been in 4 times now and spent approx. 2hrs waiting for a solution.

 

[fairysdad]

Would it be worth trying a non-TfL station/ticket office to see if there's anybody there who might know what they're doing (as to me, and I know I'm no expert on this by any means, you appear to have a NR ticket rather than a TfL one)?

 

[PermitToTravel]

Really worryingly, it sounds like a previous clerk might have used up your one chance at a duplicate (rather than a replacement), and this one is attempting to do the same.

If you'd like to try another ticket office, Marylebone is generally very well commended. London Overground's ticket training appears to be worse than that of any other train company in the country, and the problem is exacerbated by the staff never really getting enough chances to practice, as they only deal with Oyster cards.

 

[ronmanager]

Everything I've read says it has to be the station who issued the ticket. I don't know what's true and what's not because I keep being lied to by ticket office people who don't know the answer but throw out guesses with gay abandon. I got a call back and my case has been passed to the fares squad now or something similar to that. The saga continues.

 

[hassaanhc]

Would it be worth trying a non-TfL station/ticket office to see if there's anybody there who might know what they're doing (as to me, and I know I'm no expert on this by any means, you appear to have a NR ticket rather than a TfL one)?

London Overground IS a National Rail TOC, even if it is run by TfL :roll:

But yes, it is a good idea to try another station.

 

[PermitToTravel]

Any station can do encode exchanges for you; I won't comment on whether they will

 

[TEW]

Generally the advice seems to be that you can get an encode exchange at any ticket office ran by the same company as you originally bought your ticket from. It takes about 30 seconds to do one, and I'm amazed they aren't asked to do them regularly at a ticket office in London, and therefore competent in doing so.

 

[fairysdad]

London Overground IS a National Rail TOC, even if it is run by TfL :roll:

But yes, it is a good idea to try another station.

That's why I said 'a non-TfL station' not a 'National Rail station'.

(Admittedly, I then muddied the waters somewhat by talking about a TfL ticket vice a NR one...)

 

[talldave]

Surely there's a fault with the issuing equipment if it's allocating a GOLDC discount to a season ticket?

 

[Wallsendmag]

Everything I've read says it has to be the station who issued the ticket. I don't know what's true and what's not because I keep being lied to by ticket office people who don't know the answer but throw out guesses with gay abandon. I got a call back and my case has been passed to the fares squad now or something similar to that. The saga continues.

No encode exchanges can be done anywhere that can sell the same type of ticket

 

[jon0844]

Surely there's a fault with the issuing equipment if it's allocating a GOLDC discount to a season ticket?

You'd think there would be some checks in the software to stop mistakes like this being possible.

And what happens if they issue the wrong ticket as a replacement? When I combined two seasons, namely a Z1-3 Oyster and Hatfield to Z456 paper ticket, one time when I got a replacement they issued me with a Hatfield to Z1-6 ticket. Clearly the replacement (despite being marked £0) was worth a lot more. I also ended up with two overlapping tickets.

And if they can issue a replacement that differs from what was originally sold, isn't there scope for fraud by potentially bribing staff to issue a replacement that covers a larger area? What safeguards are there in place? If it's down as £0, how is it detected?

 

[cool110]

And if they can issue a replacement that differs from what was originally sold, isn't there scope for fraud by potentially bribing staff to issue a replacement that covers a larger area? What safeguards are there in place? If it's down as £0, how is it detected?

The fact that the original ticket is retained, assuming that the details of what was re-issued are recorded it's a simple case of comparing them.

 

[Ianigsy]

Up until a couple of years ago I used to have a West Yorkshire MetroCard, and with a railway station-issued one it would never last for more than a week of going through the barriers at Leeds without being rejected, following which it would prove to have been permanently damaged and rendered unreadable; more often than not there would be roller marks on the surface of the card as if the barrier had been set too tightly or not been maintained. In the end I gave up and kept renewing it at the bus station instead.

 

[ronmanager]

No encode exchanges can be done anywhere that can sell the same type of ticket

Does encode exchange mean reprogramming the ticket without reprinting it?

 

[Bletchleyite]

Does encode exchange mean reprogramming the ticket without reprinting it?

No, it means getting a new ticket in exchange for the old one for the reason that the magstripe was not reading correctly.

 

[work-traveller]

Related to this whole topic, I had an incident with a ticket barrier this morning where the barrier wouldn't let me through when it read my season ticket. For information the ticket is in good condition, text is completely legible and it's not stored near a phone/magnet etc.
I was in a rush as my train had arrived, but I missed it by seconds because the barrier had to have the ticket presented 3 times (and then had a long think about it) before letting me through.
I question/thought is - is it a contravention of conditions of carriage or any law if you jump a barrier but do have a valid ticket you can present? This assumes you don't damage the barrier and do present your ticket if requested by a member of staff.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I *think* it's a Byelaw offence to pass through a ticket barrier in a manner for which it was not intended.

 

[cool110]

Yes it is, byelaw 9(2)

Where the entrance to or exit from any platform or station on the railway is via a manned or automatic ticket barrier no person shall enter or leave the station, except with permission from an authorised person, without passing through the barrier in the correct manner.

 

[James Wake]

Do you know if a Crawley to Zone 2-6 AAA Haywards Heath ticket works any better?

Would that lose the validity down to East Grinstead and Uckfield, as mentioned in the interavailability document?

 

[bb21]

I think if any small hiccup can cause you to miss your train then you have quite clearly arrived too late to catch your train comfortably. Better arrive a couple of minutes earlier next time.