Overcharged on Change of Route Excess?

[Jona26]

Please can someone confirm that my thinking is correct before I fire off a complaint to Virgin WC as operator of the ticket office at Birmingham New Street...

I bought a Chester to Birmingham Stations Off-Peak Day Return (Route via Shrewsbury) and travelled out on this route.

Wanting to get home earlier than originally planned, (before starting my return journey) I asked at New Street booking office if I could purchase a Change of Route Excess for the return journey so I could travel via Stafford.

The clerk sold me an Excess to an Off-Peak Return for £12.90.

As the full price for this ticket is £33.80 and I had already used the Outward portion of my original ticket should I have only been charged £6.45?

I've checked through the Fares and Ticketing Guide and believe I'm right but happy to be corrected.

Thanks in advance

 

[Bletchleyite]

Correct. I have had to report this sort of error more than once. Write in and claim your 6 quid.

 

[185143]

My advice would be to complain saying that you were expecting it to be less and you'll get a letter back apologising for booked assistance not being provided and a £25 RTV or something similar

 

[Jona26]

Correct. I have had to report this sort of error more than once. Write in and claim your 6 quid.

Thanks - I didn't notice the price until I got home otherwise I would have queried it on the spot
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

My advice would be to complain saying that you were expecting it to be less and you'll get a letter back apologising for booked assistance not being provided and a £25 RTV or something similar

The thought had crossed my mind as to what the content of the response letter would be! :roll:

 

[GadgetMan]

Going back 13 years so I may well be wrong, I'm sure I was taught that you can't do a simple change of route excess between different ticket types like this for one direction on a Return ticket.

In the above example there is no CDR route any permitted. So you would first have to excess the CDR route via Shrewsbury to a SVR via Shrewsbury, then apply the change of route excess using the SVR route any permitted which in the above example would actually work out to be £20.70. The change of ticket type would be £20.70 and the change of route would be zero fare.

However it works out cheaper just to excess the whole ticket to SVR (Any Permitted) at a cost of £12.90 as per OP, assuming the Any Permitted is valid via Shrewsbury.

Happy to be corrected though if my memory/methodology is incorrect.

CDR = Off Peak Day Return
SVR = Off Peak Return.

 

[bb21]

No longer the case, especially considering that equivalent fare types these days (eg. the SVR fares in this case) are now used very differently by different TOCs.

Such excesses are always to the appropriate fare these days.

It is not an isolated incident of New Street selling this type of excess incorrectly at full price. I think it is more a cultural issue possibly pointing to the trainer or the local ticket office manager who may be the root cause but obviously this is just an educated guess. Customer Service will acknowledge the mistake and refund the difference. They promised me last time that the team will be briefed on it, but either it was not done or really taking its time to get through to all staff.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Missed the point on SVR vs CDR sorry. I had the understanding GadgetMan did in that situation, though bb21 seems to have corrected it.

My usual issue is a simpler one - excessing route Kensington Olympia SVRs to route Any Permitted SVRs, and it's got wrong almost every time. There have even been cases where I have pointed out it was wrong and the staff have refused to do it correctly, and I have had to reclaim the cost afterwards. The TOC has always refunded it, though.

 

[Aeion]

I would hazard a guess that the clerk put it through as a change of ticket type which would be the full cost of the different tickets as apposed to a change of route. I believe it would be classed as a ticket type change as they are different and not a like for like, going from a day return to an open return. Not quite sure which one takes priority in this instance.

 

[Jona26]

Well I finally had a response today after chasing it on 6th January. The reply was on topic (not about toilets or suchlike!) and a £45 RTV.

Better late than never!

 

[Bletchleyite]

£45 seems to be the standard "we haven't really got time to work this out properly" response. You've done quite well there then!