It has been brought to my attention that a number of operator's are telling passengers that certain procedures need to be done at a ticket office. This includes refunds for tickets purchased there, the common ticket type here is of course season tickets.
Whilst i appreciate that the standard process for refunding a ticket purchased from a ticket office is to revisit that same ticket office (some operators will allow you to visit another ticket office run by them instead), in the current situation this isn't permitted to do this as this is not essential travel.
Despite the message from the PM yesterday evening, it seems the message hasn't been understood by several operators and they are actively encouraging passengers to leave their homes, travel (possibly by train) to the ticket office where they purchased their tickets to apply for a refund. They are also reminding passengers that if the refund is based around COVID-19 (not a cancelled service) then they MUST obtain the refund BEFORE the departure time of the train or they will no longer be eligible for refund.
There should be methods in place to allow tickets to be refunded over the telephone, online by email or as a last resort by mail but importantly, encouraging your customers to break the law needs to the stopped.
Whilst i appreciate that the standard process for refunding a ticket purchased from a ticket office is to revisit that same ticket office (some operators will allow you to visit another ticket office run by them instead), in the current situation this isn't permitted to do this as this is not essential travel.
Despite the message from the PM yesterday evening, it seems the message hasn't been understood by several operators and they are actively encouraging passengers to leave their homes, travel (possibly by train) to the ticket office where they purchased their tickets to apply for a refund. They are also reminding passengers that if the refund is based around COVID-19 (not a cancelled service) then they MUST obtain the refund BEFORE the departure time of the train or they will no longer be eligible for refund.
There should be methods in place to allow tickets to be refunded over the telephone, online by email or as a last resort by mail but importantly, encouraging your customers to break the law needs to the stopped.