Problems with American Express on Northern Ticket Machines

[35B]

I don't ignore it, as I said above - it the machine said it takes Amex then it should take Amex for any purpose. However, if it doesn't accept it for purchases then there's no reason it should accept it for TOD. As with any TOD it's incumbent on the passenger to ensure that they can collect their ticket.

Which I do by selecting a station from which to collect my ticket from the list provided on a TOC operated website. Minor stations like Woking, London Waterloo, Edinburgh Waverley, London Kings Cross. And where I have then only been able to collect my ticket by queuing at the ticket office rather than using the machine at which I am told by that selfsame website I must collect my ticket from.

I come back to the basics of good retail. If you have a willing customer, make it easy for them to spend their money. Otherwise, they’ll go somewhere else. And, for goodness sake, don’t then blame the customer if their experience isn’t quite right.

If you say you accept Amex, then make damn sure you accept it everywhere that you accept cards. Don’t create whole classes of machine and expect the customer to fathom it out.

 

[A Challenge]

It seems clear enough, Northern TVMs find AmEx distasteful. It's not an uncommon view among retailers as the commission and procedures differ from other cards to the point that smaller transactions may cost more to process than they bring in.

To illustrate what happens I tried to purchase a ticket this evening. Of course, as expected it rejected, but I'd been allowed to go through the entire procedure as normal without a hitch and quickly received what a new user might expect to be a ticket. Apart from showing the amount paid as £0.00C the piece of card looked like any normal credit card voucher. PIN verified. Authorised, Sale confirmed. But no ticket/s to travel. If the card isn't going to be accepted it would save time if it said so earlier.
View attachment 52699

The thing that confuses me about this was that I thought it should come up as a card (X): - not £0.00C?

If I walk up with cash to a Card only machine (excluding AmEx), that doesn't count as an opportunity to pay and I can pay on the train, yet it does if I walk up with an AmEx card?

 

[Haywain]

The thing that confuses me about this was that I thought it should come up as a card (X): - not £0.00C?

I believe that letter C indicates a credit transaction, rather than the method of payment. After all, you only get that document for a card payment.

 

[Haywain]

Which I do by selecting a station from which to collect my ticket from the list provided on a TOC operated website. Minor stations like Woking, London Waterloo, Edinburgh Waverley, London Kings Cross. And where I have then only been able to collect my ticket by queuing at the ticket office rather than using the machine at which I am told by that selfsame website I must collect my ticket from.

There could be some other problem at play here, as the LNER TVMs at Edinburgh and King's Cross do accept AmEx cards for both purchases and ToD.

 

[35B]

There could be some other problem at play here, as the LNER TVMs at Edinburgh and King's Cross do accept AmEx cards for both purchases and ToD.

They do now, but there was a problem, which I believe was supplier related as it affected similar machines on other TOCs. VTEC (as they then were) dealt with it rather more smartly than SWT at about the same time. I used the LNER machine at Waverley last week when the Scotrail machine wouldn’t take my Amex card.

 

[Haywain]

They do now, but there was a problem, which I believe was supplier related as it affected similar machines on other TOCs. VTEC (as they then were) dealt with it rather more smartly than SWT at about the same time. I used the LNER machine at Waverley last week when the Scotrail machine wouldn’t take my Amex card.

As I recall, there were a couple of short lived problems with AmEx acceptance but I can't remember what the cause was. The problem at the time was that the volume of AmEx transactions is so small that it is difficult to identify that there is a problem, and then to get enough detail to understand what the problem is.

 

[35B]

As I recall, there were a couple of short lived problems with AmEx acceptance but I can't remember what the cause was. The problem at the time was tat the volume of AmEx transactions is so small that it is difficult to identify that there is a problem, and then to get enough detail to understand what the problem is.

Fair comment, and I am aware how difficult it can be to reproduce issues. None of which addressed my frustration at the time and hassle this issue caused, or the way that it caused and causes certain TOCs to go down in my opinion.

 

[John @ home]

I believe that letter C indicates a credit transaction

As far as I remember, C=card, M=money, W=warrant, Q=cheque.

 

[Bletchleyite]

As far as I remember, C=card, M=money, W=warrant, Q=cheque.

Card is X.

 

[Haywain]

As far as I remember, C=card, M=money, W=warrant, Q=cheque.

Card is X

These apply to tickets, not to card sales vouchers on which C = credit and D = debit.

 

[Bletchleyite]

These apply to tickets, not to card sales vouchers on which C = credit and D = debit.

Ah, I see.

 

[A Challenge]

These apply to tickets, not to card sales vouchers on which C = credit and D = debit.

Thank you, that's what I meant, and explains it well.

 

[gsnedders]

The ScotRail TVMs generally don't take Amex, IME, too, though the ticket offices do with no problem.