Ticket collection when machines are broken

[phoenix1589]

Both the machines at my local station are out of action and have been for a couple of days.

I normally buy tickets online to collect from the machine; whilst they are broken will I be able to collect from the ticket office?

I know I can but from the ticket office but if I buy online, I can get 5% cashback via Amex.

The tickets include the tube, so e-ticket isn't an option.

 

[alistairlees]

Both the machines at my local station are out of action and have been for a couple of days.

I normally buy tickets online to collect from the machine; whilst they are broken will I be able to collect from the ticket office?

I know I can but from the ticket office but if I buy online, I can get 5% cashback via Amex.

The tickets include the tube, so e-ticket isn't an option.

Yes, you can collect from the ticket office.

 

[Bedpan]

But what would happen if it's closed, or if there isn't one at all?

 

[Yankee01]

But what would happen if it's closed, or if there isn't one at all?

In that case, you likely will need to start a thread in the Disputes & Prosecutions forum.

 

[1D54]

Ticket collection machines were all down at Leicester on Tuesday evening so i went to the office to get ticket only to be told the system was down so they would be unable to print them off. Fortunately i wasn't travelling immediately but had no proof of purchase so no idea what they would have done if i was.

EDIT :
I had the standard email sent from EMR with proof of purchase and collection code on phone so maybe that would be been okay.

 

[Class800]

What I'd feel about this would depend on the TOC. I asked SWR what to do in this situation the other year when my local station did had a TVM fault for several days. They said inform the guard and a back on track would be issued and you can collect the ticket at the first station opportunity. Sounds very positive, although the first opportunity would have been London Waterloo which would be my least favourite station to do this at, although with the back on track voucher it should be fine. In the end the fault was fixed on the morning I travelled so didn't get to test it. I contacted another TOC just to see what their approach would be and they said it's the passengers responsibility to leave enough time to collect the ticket. So they thought that leaving it all up to one TVM at an unstaffed station was the passenger not showing enough diligence.

 

[phoenix1589]

Good to know the ticket office can print. It's listed at open from 6am to 8pm every day - although I'm sure I've seen it closed a few times during these hours.

 

[Class800]

Good to know the ticket office can print. It's listed at open from 6am to 8pm every day - although I'm sure I've seen it closed a few times during these hours.

If the TVM is broken, it might be more likely the office is closed too. One reason could be the same systems being down that run both. Another reason might be trying to get more PFs or not wanting to take on the extra work.

 

[phoenix1589]

If the TVM is broken, it might be more likely the office is closed too. One reason could be the same systems being down that run both. Another reason might be trying to get more PFs or not wanting to take on the extra work.

For my local station, it looked like vandalism to both machines, rather than a technical issue.

 

[MrJeeves]

A few weeks back, there was a ToD outage on all (I think?) GTR TVMs. Both my local stations (Burgess Hill/Wivelsfield), and Three Bridges had ToD greyed out on the machines.

OBS came through the train offering to print any tickets from his machine that couldn't be collected, so I never had to find out what could happen.

 

[TUC]

I remember a couple of years ago when the Trainline's systems were down and so people were unable to collect from TVMs The gateline staff at Bradford Forster Square were quite disgracefully telling multiple passengers that they would need to buy a new ticket at the ticket office and make a claim from Trainline for the original

 

[island]

The legal position is that if there are ticketing facilities available to sell a ticket for immediate departure, but not collect previously purchased tickets, you would need to purchase a ticket to travel. You could then try and get a refund later. This is perhaps a case where the law has not kept up with the world.

In most cases I would expect staff to give permission to board and collect at a later stage (either onboard or at interchange/destination).

 

[yorkie]

I remember a couple of years ago when the Trainline's systems were down and so people were unable to collect from TVMs The gateline staff at Bradford Forster Square were quite disgracefully telling multiple passengers that they would need to buy a new ticket at the ticket office and make a claim from Trainline for the original

Totally incorrect; where they Northern employees or contract staff, do you know?

Either way, it is not unexpected behaviour, sadly; Northern and their contractors have a reputation for this sort of nonsense, and there is no effective regulator/watchdog/ombudsman who cares and is in a position to do anything about it.

 

[OscarH]

I remember a couple of years ago when the Trainline's systems were down and so people were unable to collect from TVMs

The idea that an outage on the trainline side would affect collecting tickets bought before the outage doesn't make much sense, sounds like an (unfortunately common) case of blaming the retailer for an upstream problem unless there was more to it.