Obtaining a reprinted ticket

[trebor79]

Collected some tickets for a journey I'm doing to Edinburgh in March. Managed to bag a bargain first class fare outward, but I digress.
The TVM I collected them from has a fault at the moment in that some of the letters, digits and spaces are squashed up, as though the mechanism is slipping.
So I have a ticket where the 4 in the ticket number looks like a 1. If an eagle eyed guard spotted the ticket number appeared to be slightly different to the one specified on the seat reservation coupon, I might have a bit of bother.
Also concerned about how it might affect delay repay should that become necessary - put in the apparent ticket number and it won't match the electronic records, put in the real ticket number and it won't match what is apparently printed on the ticket.

Is it possible to get tickets mangled in this way reprinted? I bought them on the LNER site but collected them from a GA TVM.

I guess I need to go to a ticket office, would it need to be an LNER office or would any TOC be able to do it?

 

[Kilopylae]

I think your best course of action would be to secure a written comment or endorsement noting these irregularities from a ticket office.

 

[Belperpete]

Best to go to the booking office at the station where you collected the tickets. If that station doesn't have a booking office, then another GA station as it is their faulty TVM that has caused the problem.
If you have problems getting a reprinted ticket, I would suggest you take a copy of the booking details email with you when you travel.

 

[gray1404]

It is going to be a lot of bother getting the tickets reprinted and you might put a lot of effort into it and not get the outcome you want. Personally in this situation I would just travel with the tickets as printed along with a printed copy of the booking confirmation.

If you happen to be passing the booking office at the same station the tickets were printed at then you can ask, but I wouldn't hold my hopes up or put too much (wasted) energy into it.

 

[Starmill]

A copy of the booking confirmation along with your slightly misprinted ticket is highly convincing evidence that you have paid the correct fare for your journey. I would describe it as proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

But then again I thought that about this recent case too, and there were lots of voices of concern there. I agree with them to the point that the train companies might make a big mistake and get it wrong, even in the face of such convincing evidence.

The chances of successfully getting a ticket that isn't a Season reprinted are very low.

 

[Joe Paxton]

I would not waste your time and effort worrying about this in the slightest.

 

[trebor79]

Thanks for the advice.
I'm not sure the booking confirmation proves much does it? If I'd lost my tickets it wouldn't be accepted, and nor would it be accepted if I held some advance ticket which didn't match the seat reservation details.
There's no ticket office at the place I collected them from, but I'm traveling from Diss next week so will go early and speak to them there about it. The staff there are usually quite knowledgeable and friendly. If I get nowhere I will indeed take the reservation confirmation and simply refuse to pay any additional fare if someone gets pernikity.
Here are the tickets, taken at face value the outward could certainly be construed as dodgy.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I've had tickets misprinted like that before and they were accepted without question.

 

[gray1404]

I don't know what you're worrying about. I've had tickets printed much worse then that. If my tickets had printed like that (in the images you've posted) it would not even have entered my mind that there was a problem with them. I would simply use them as normal and I would not expect any problems. I also don't think it's even worth going to any booking office about these. I say all this not to put down your feelings but rather to put your mind at ease.

 

[trebor79]

Ok, thanks guys. I do tend to worry about things a bit too much sometimes (but my wife says I don't worry about enough!).
Thing is I know that machine is a bit dodgy, so I don't know what possessed me to use it when I am hardly pressed for time to collect them!

More generally then, is it difficult to get reprints? I imagined it would be a simple matter at a booking office to hand in the ones I have and for them to print a fresh set for me. Is that not the case?

 

[gray1404]

It is exceptionally difficult for customers to get reprints when the TVM has failed to print at all or not printed all the tickets. In fact, customer's are often fobbed off, given incorrect information and left to it. That is when there is a serious problem. So the chances of getting a reprint when the tickets have in fact printed is zero I'd say.

 

[Intermodal]

I would not be in the slightest concerned about this. Rail staff see misprints like this all day long and will not even bat an eyelid at it.

To be perfectly honest if a customer had gone to the trouble of obtaining an invalid reservation with a ticket number only one different from a total unrelated ticket I would be inclined to let them travel anyway as that is some real undertaking just to get a different service! It probably would've cost them more in time than the value of the ticket!

 

[Belperpete]

If I get nowhere I will indeed take the reservation confirmation and simply refuse to pay any additional fare if someone gets pernikity.

As others have said, it is extremely unlikely that you will be questioned, but carrying a copy of the itinerary with you (either printed or electronic) is useful anyway, e.g. if you get delayed as proof that you had a valid connection.

Refusing to pay if a guard or RPI claims that your ticket is invalid (for whatever reason), however, is not a good idea: try and convince them that it is valid by all means, but if it comes to the crunch, pay up and get it refunded later is far better than going down the route of having to deal with BTP or an unpaid fare summons.