So, had a very long conversation with GTR (TSGN) customer services this morning, and am none the wiser.
I now commute by train irregularly, and don't necessarily know when until the night before. Given the massive queues and barely-functioning machines at my local station, buying Anytime Single/Return tickets for my Key smartcard the night before seems like an ideal solution, no?
Well, I tried it for a one-way and it worked a treat. Well, apart from a ticket inspector on the train who insisted it could only be used for season tickets, I needed to carry the season receipt and he had no reader to verify... But the barriers opened, and I touched out OK.
Booked a return a week later. But then I ended up having to work from home. Looked to see if I could get a refund, but the "refund guarantee" seems to apply to paper tickets only. There is an offline refund process that involves form-printing and sending off, but it "may have a fee of £10". So I just shrugged and thought, well, that's £5 sunk, who cares.
Big mistake.
Bought a single this morning. Tried to touch in, but I got a "ticket expired" error. Asked station staff, they told me they can't do anything with the Key, but I managed to get a paper ticket in time and got on the train.
Phoned customer services. Turns out the unused ticket was "blocking" the new ticket from being uploaded, and that I should have applied for a refund (not that the form would have reached them in time). But it gets more confusing.
In order to get a ticket removed/refunded, it has to be uploaded to the smartcard. So if you're not travelling, you have to go to the departure station and touch in in order for it to be uploaded and cancelled. If you've got two in a queue, you have to hold it over for 10 seconds or something. And you can't use any new tickets until you've done this, then got the refund processed.
But then they're insisting that, to process the refund, they have a copy of the paper ticket because "barrier staff have been letting people through with the confirmation email". Being a one-way, though, it was retained in the barriers. So now I have a bunch of unused tickets, and an unusable smartcard.
Quite apart from the awful, convoluted design on this, does this advice sound right to you? I need to return to the departure station to touch in on a ticket I'm not going to use, given them a paper ticket that's been swallowed by the barriers, and send them a bunch of offline forms before I can use the card again? Seriously?
I now commute by train irregularly, and don't necessarily know when until the night before. Given the massive queues and barely-functioning machines at my local station, buying Anytime Single/Return tickets for my Key smartcard the night before seems like an ideal solution, no?
Well, I tried it for a one-way and it worked a treat. Well, apart from a ticket inspector on the train who insisted it could only be used for season tickets, I needed to carry the season receipt and he had no reader to verify... But the barriers opened, and I touched out OK.
Booked a return a week later. But then I ended up having to work from home. Looked to see if I could get a refund, but the "refund guarantee" seems to apply to paper tickets only. There is an offline refund process that involves form-printing and sending off, but it "may have a fee of £10". So I just shrugged and thought, well, that's £5 sunk, who cares.
Big mistake.
Bought a single this morning. Tried to touch in, but I got a "ticket expired" error. Asked station staff, they told me they can't do anything with the Key, but I managed to get a paper ticket in time and got on the train.
Phoned customer services. Turns out the unused ticket was "blocking" the new ticket from being uploaded, and that I should have applied for a refund (not that the form would have reached them in time). But it gets more confusing.
In order to get a ticket removed/refunded, it has to be uploaded to the smartcard. So if you're not travelling, you have to go to the departure station and touch in in order for it to be uploaded and cancelled. If you've got two in a queue, you have to hold it over for 10 seconds or something. And you can't use any new tickets until you've done this, then got the refund processed.
But then they're insisting that, to process the refund, they have a copy of the paper ticket because "barrier staff have been letting people through with the confirmation email". Being a one-way, though, it was retained in the barriers. So now I have a bunch of unused tickets, and an unusable smartcard.
Quite apart from the awful, convoluted design on this, does this advice sound right to you? I need to return to the departure station to touch in on a ticket I'm not going to use, given them a paper ticket that's been swallowed by the barriers, and send them a bunch of offline forms before I can use the card again? Seriously?