When attempting to buy a ticket at the TVM at Halifax station this morning I discovered that it was not accepting cards as payment so had to use cash. It was only after inserting £3.00 in coins and having them returned twice that I realised that when the machine was asking for £2.95, it really was only £2.95 it was going to accept and would not allow a minor overpayment.
I have no idea whether the TVM is usually able to give change but had run out of it, or whether it always insists on the exact payment. Either way, whilst I can see that it would be right for the machine to warn passengers that it cannot give change, I did find it odd and frustrating that it would not even allow someone to choose to overpay, especially when the overpayment was 5p!
Do TVMs generally refuse overpayments? (I usually pay by card so have never come across the issue before.)
As an aside, I noticed that the option for collecting pre-booked tickets was also greyed out, presumably because of the same problem with the card reader. It did leave me wondering, if the problem was also present last night when the ticket office was closed, what the position would have been in such circumstances for passengers unable to collect pre-booked tickets?
I have no idea whether the TVM is usually able to give change but had run out of it, or whether it always insists on the exact payment. Either way, whilst I can see that it would be right for the machine to warn passengers that it cannot give change, I did find it odd and frustrating that it would not even allow someone to choose to overpay, especially when the overpayment was 5p!
Do TVMs generally refuse overpayments? (I usually pay by card so have never come across the issue before.)
As an aside, I noticed that the option for collecting pre-booked tickets was also greyed out, presumably because of the same problem with the card reader. It did leave me wondering, if the problem was also present last night when the ticket office was closed, what the position would have been in such circumstances for passengers unable to collect pre-booked tickets?
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