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Off-Peak Return - overnight BoJ

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telstarbox

telstarbox

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I'm travelling on the return portion of a SVR having made an overnight BoJ on the return portion. An ATW guard has just said only a same-day BoJ is allowed (up to 0429), not overnight but has 'let me off'. Is he right or wrong?
 
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thelongestroad

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The return portion is valid for a month and you're allowed to break your journey as many times as you please.. obviously sticking to the time restrictions etc.

So this seems like an odd comment.
 
sarahj

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He is wrong. As long as you complete your journey by about 5am on the day after the ticket runs out, you can stop as many times as you want.

So say on a SVR, Brighton to Victoria. You could on eg the 1st. Go Brighton to Victoria (after the 8.45 has left), then on the same day go Victoria to Gatwick. Fly away on holiday, then on the 1st of the next month catch the 04.42 from Gatwick (04.00 from Victoria) and get back to Brighton, and your ticket would still be valid for that service.


Only thing of note would be to keep your ticket safe, and if it gets marked by the guard on your return from Gatwick, dont look miffed off. Handing over a scrunched up, worn out ticket and trying to avoid getting the guard to mark it sets off alarm bells.
 
telstarbox

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I thought he was wrong but as he allowed me to travel I didn't get into a debate.

Yesterday on the first part of my return journey, a LM guard said I couldn't have a BoJ at all without using an Anytime Return but she did offer to look it up on the Avantix so we both went away happy. However, having spent a good five minutes checking my ticket, she then allowed the two passengers behind me to travel on an Advance booked for a train 2 hours earlier!
 
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He is wrong but please write to LM/ATW about it and ask for a date by which their staff will be adequately trained.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
telstarbox said:
Yesterday on the first part of my return journey, a LM guard said I couldn't have a BoJ at all without using an Anytime Return but she did offer to look it up on the Avantix so we both went away happy. However, having spent a good five minutes checking my ticket, she then allowed the two passengers behind me to travel on an Advance booked for a train 2 hours earlier!
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That's called making up rules as you go along. This is usually a result of poor training, and is surprisingly more common than you might think. It is fortunate that you were assertive, as if this happened to someone else, it may have been the invalid person were charged a new ticketwhile the invalid ones were accepted.
 
telstarbox

telstarbox

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The LM guard accepted the validity once she'd looked on Avantix.

The ATW guard said it wasn't valid but stamped the ticket anyway and moved on. I've sent ATW an email as in other circumstances a passenger could have been charged for another ticket which they didn't need.
 
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yorkie

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If she looked it up without you having to say anything then that's no issue, but if you had to contest it then I would say there's still an issue with LM because some people are not so assertive and would have just paid up.

I'd be interested to hear what ATW have to say, they have always been good at customer service in my experience.

In both cases, with ATW and LM, I have 'contacts' (forum members) at their respective HQs, so if a good answer isn't received, I could ask them to look into it (it's always best to resolve matters through proper channels if possible, but sometimes that isn't possible).
 
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jb

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yorkie said:
If she looked it up without you having to say anything then that's no issue
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Personally I think you're being generous towards the TOC here :o

Obviously this is much preferable to getting into an argument, but these sort of things really are kindergarten-basic and there shouldn't be a guard in the country (that has been working more than 5 minutes) that should have to look them up.

Do some people do any training (on revenue) at all? (I know revenue is not the only or even nearly the most important part of the job)
 
telstarbox

telstarbox

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As I said, she wasn't going to ching me for anything anyway, but she offered to look it up on the Avantix which I accepted - and now the guard know for the future. Same guard was very helpful in general, giving times and platforms for connections at all the stations from Euston to Crewe.

As the BoJ validity depends on the restriction code for Off-Peak Returns, I can see why guards might be confused over the issue.
 
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