Sold Incorrect Fare at Ticket Office?

[sparky18]

Hello,

I recently (15/12) travelled from London Bridge to Brighton.

I checked the fare online (www.nationalrail.co.uk) and found that if I bought a return ticket restricted to First Capital Connect's trains ("FCC Only") the fare would be £10, or £6.60 after my Gold Card discount.

When I got to the ticket office, the lady said the cheapest fare was £10.25 after discount. I queried this (mentioning that I expected the fare to be £10 before discount) but would only sell me a ticket for £10.25 - still with the FCC restriction.

I have checked again online and it seems very clear that the price should have been £6.60 - this does seem to be a Saturday only deal but there's no mention that it is a web-only fare.

I was actually travelling with my wife (who also has a Gold Card) so we paid £20.50 rather than £13.20 so we'd rather like our £7.30 back.

Can anyone suggest:
- what the right fare should have been? (eg was it web only?)
- how best to get my £7.30 back (if indeed I'm eligible)

Thanks!
Sparky

 

[bb21]

The £10 fare (pre-discount) is a Super Off-Peak Day Return. It is not a web-only fare and should have been offered to you at the ticket office.

Write to the company that ran the booking office at London Bridge and you are perfectly entitled to your money back.

 

[sparky18]

Thanks for the quick reply - sounds fairly clear cut!

 

[LexyBoy]

I had a similar issue trying to buy a (different) Super Off Peak Day Return from a FGW station. Despite insisting on the existence of the ticket and telling the clerk the code (SCO I think) they simply could not find it. Refund promptly offered from customer support- not tried buying again yet to see if things have improved though.

 

[bicbasher]

Southeastern manage the ticket office at London Bridge, so best to contact their CS.

 

[33011]

I had a man turn up one day at my window and I told him the price of off peak ticket from Lymington Town to Waterloo .He told me he had seen that he could get a super off peak ticket going at the same time. When I checked he was right he could've had a super off peak ticket but he would have to changed trains a couple of times to arrive at Waterloo after 12pm and not return between 16.00 and 1900. I then gave him the option and he got the off peak ticket. I always check now and give them the option 99.9% of the time they will get the off peak but atleast they have the option. On super off peak tickets i alway right R/A on the tickets after explaining the rules to cover myself.

 

[LexyBoy]

The OP (and I in my situation) was travelling at the weekend when the ticket is valid at any time however, so it's less clear why the Super Off Peak Day ticket was not offered.

(as an aside, shouldn't ticket restrictions tell you when tickets are not valid, in line with being a restriction? According to FB for the LBG-BTN flow, there's no restrictions on weekday travel...)

 

[jon0844]

Even FCC went a good six months or so not selling the super off peak tickets from its own TVMs. Most annoying and, frankly, rather sneaky given I'd bet a travelcard is one of the top selling tickets sold from a machine!

 

[LexyBoy]

Even FCC went a good six months or so not selling the super off peak tickets from its own TVMs. Most annoying and, frankly, rather sneaky given I'd bet a travelcard is one of the top selling tickets sold from a machine!

Even FCC?

I think TVMs not selling the full range of tickets is reasonably widespread (though still bad), it's more suprising that ticket office staff can't/won't sell a ticket.

 

[island]

Try buying to Luton Airport (not Parkway) from a Southeastern TVM...

 

[sparky18]

I actually didn't buy this ticket at London Bridge - I bought the ticket at a Zone 4 Southeastern station and travelled to London Bridge using my Annual Travelcard.

I asked for a "London Bridge to Brighton" ticket, and the ticket I was sold says "London Terminals to Brighton"

Just wanted to check there's no requirement to have bought the ticket at London Bridge itself in order to benefit from the Super Off-Peak fare.

Thanks again!

 

[Starmill]

A similar thing has happened to me once, actually. As such, whenever I'm travelling FAM nowadays, I order Super Off-Peaks online and collect them before leaving. Never had a problem using them But once had a ticket clerk insist only an off-peak was available with the railcard...

 

[wintonian]

Just wanted to check there's no requirement to have bought the ticket at London Bridge itself in order to benefit from the Super Off-Peak fare.

You can buy exactly the same range of tickets at the same prices in Inverness, Newquay, Bangor, Peckham Rye or anywhere else in Great Britain with a ticket office.

The only exception I am aware of is Portsmouth Harbour will not sell tickets to the Isle of Wight destinations.

 

[maniacmartin]

Non-National Rail stations such as Heathrow sell a very limited range of tickets. Other than that, its as wintonian says, except TOC promotions such as Northern's recent £10 offer

 

[island]

I actually didn't buy this ticket at London Bridge - I bought the ticket at a Zone 4 Southeastern station and travelled to London Bridge using my Annual Travelcard.

I asked for a "London Bridge to Brighton" ticket, and the ticket I was sold says "London Terminals to Brighton"

Just wanted to check there's no requirement to have bought the ticket at London Bridge itself in order to benefit from the Super Off-Peak fare.

Thanks again!

You don't have to buy the ticket from London Bridge, but it does have to be sold with an origin of London Bridge. I had a similar issue at a local station once. The clerk must enter LBG or London Bridge or 5148 into the system to get the particular fare. This is a special case for certain fares, mostly on the Brighton mainline.

 

[156402]

This could be an issue with the Southeastern TIS (whichever one they use) as I was told at Rochester when purchasing a Super Off Peak Return from Stratford to Manningtree (with Network Card discount) that it was not valid, this was on a Saturday!

However, mine was a different outcome, as once I said it was valid and used it each week (albeit bought from Stratford), the ticket was duly issued.

 

[crosscity]

(as an aside, shouldn't ticket restrictions tell you when tickets are not valid, in line with being a restriction? According to FB for the LBG-BTN flow, there's no restrictions on weekday travel...)

According to brfares.com the restriction for code FB for both outward and return journeys is 'Travel is permitted on any train at any time on Saturday, Sunday & Bank Holidays', ie not valid on weekdays at all, which is what the OP had an inkling of from the start.

 

[beeza1]

Whist on the subject of being sold an incorrect ticket,
A few weeks ago my friend was visiting me, she normally travels on an "Off Peak Return" ticket from "A to B", but on this occasion she was "Starting Late" and "Stopping Short", as "Break Of Journey" is not permitted on the outbound part of that route with an "Off Peak" ticket I told her she would need an "Anytime Return", and told her the price. When she arrived she told me I was wrong about the price, she had got her ticket a couple of days earlier, told the ticket office clerk exactly what she was doing, and was told as she was travelling at the weekend an "Off Peak Return" was what she needed, and was duly sold one, luckily her journey passed without incident. Then the following day I returned with her, asked the guard for an "Anytime Return" , he said you only need an "Off Peak" sir as it is Sunday, I replied we were breaking our journey and that is not allowed on the outbound part of this route, he checked and this confirmed what I had said, I duly purchased an "Anytime Return".
How could we have explained we had been sold the wrong ticket and, more to the point would our "story" been believed?

 

[DaveNewcastle]

Whist on the subject of being sold an incorrect ticket,
A few weeks ago . . . .

. . . .
How could we have explained we had been sold the wrong ticket and, more to the point would our "story" been believed?

It's clear that you are asking a general question of process, and that you have only mentioned the details of a specific journey in order to illustrate the background to your question.
However, it would be very helpful if you could please expand that question by indentifying the origin and destination station ("A" and "B") on the tickets, and the origin and destination of the actual journey. The details can be crucially significant in correctly answering a generalised question.

 

[beeza1]

It's clear that you are asking a general question of process, and that you have only mentioned the details of a specific journey in order to illustrate the background to your question.
However, it would be very helpful if you could please expand that question by indentifying the origin and destination station ("A" and "B") on the tickets, and the origin and destination of the actual journey. The details can be crucially significant in correctly answering a generalised question.

Thanks for the reply, sorry if I appear evasive, but I don't think the actual route is relevant, the question is a general one and could apply to any number of routes. The original journey from "A to B" is subject to an 8A restriction code on "Off Peak" tickets which, as you know prevents "Break Of Journey" on the outward leg, (I would have thought it sensible to print said code on the ticket, but that's another topic), my friend was sold an "Off Peak Return" in error by the ticket clerk, a genuine mistake, and as I said in my original post, the same thing almost happened to me the day after when I purchased "On Board".
If confronted by RPI's etc, would we have had any problems with our explanation? and if so how could we have proved we had been sold the wrong ticket?

 

[34D]

I actually didn't buy this ticket at London Bridge - I bought the ticket at a Zone 4 Southeastern station and travelled to London Bridge using my Annual Travelcard.

I asked for a "London Bridge to Brighton" ticket, and the ticket I was sold says "London Terminals to Brighton"

Just wanted to check there's no requirement to have bought the ticket at London Bridge itself in order to benefit from the Super Off-Peak fare.

Thanks again!

This may excuse your not being offered the cheapest fare, if the clerk didn't know of its existance.

Presumably you showed your season (zones 1-4 I guess?) and gold card?

Contact SouthEastern as requested and I am sure they will resolve the matter for you?