Unable to Collect Ticket

[themeone]

If anyone can shed any light on this I'd be interested.

Yesterday I purchased a ticket on the c2c app. I paid using ApplePay, all seemed to go through fine and I got my collection code. Yet when I tried to collect it, using the same card I'd paid with on ApplePay, the machine said I was unable to use this card to collect the ticket.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Apple Pay uses a different card number. That should mean the booking is set to any card, but the Trenitalia booking system (C2C and Avanti) is full of bugs, of which it seems this is one.

You may find you can collect it at a TVM that allows collection with contactless, there are some now. Alternatively you'd have to contact their customer services and ask for it to be changed to any card or for it to be refunded so you can try again using a physical card.

 

[themeone]

Thank you. I had a feeling Apple Pay might have had something to do with it.

It was a low value ticket for immediate use and as I was in a hurry I just bought another from the machine. I've put in a refund request to c2c on the grounds of "ticket no longer required" which hopefully will be OK.

 

[Bungle965]

Apple Pay uses a different card number. That should mean the booking is set to any card, but the Trenitalia booking system (C2C and Avanti) is full of bugs, of which it seems this is one.

You may find you can collect it at a TVM that allows collection with contactless, there are some now. Alternatively you'd have to contact their customer services and ask for it to be changed to any card or for it to be refunded so you can try again using a physical card.

If you have booked through Avanti then it is set up to “Any Card“ collection anyway so this wouldn’t be a problem. I can’t speak for C2C

 

[Bletchleyite]

I have also had it recently where on inserting the card the TVM claimed it wasn't possible to collect ANY tickets with that card. On trying again it worked, so I guess that was a misread. Another possibility?

 

[OscarH]

The old S&B machines in particular are bad for failing to read the card properly, but instead of bailing out they ask for the booking reference anyway, then give you an error that looks like it could be about card mismatches when it's actually just a crap design.

Especially given what Bungle said about Avanti who use the same system setting Any Card Collection, I'd bet on it being that.

 

[MrJeeves]

I have also had it recently where on inserting the card the TVM claimed it wasn't possible to collect ANY tickets with that card. On trying again it worked, so I guess that was a misread. Another possibility?

Indeed! I had to collect a ticket a week or so ago, and as Oscar says it happened to be an S&B machine, which spat out this error with the first card:

...then this error with the second card:

But the third attempt with a third card worked fine!

 

[Mike395]

Hopefully this problem won't exist for too much longer - the older S&B machines seem to (very slowly) be being upgraded to collect tickets using a Contactless card/Apple Pay. Greater Anglia's machines have recently started offering this.

 

[mangyiscute]

Yeah I find with the GWR machines you often have to reinsert the card many times and ensure you force the card in quite hard since it will claim "this card is not valid for collection" when the ticket is set to any card collection - thankfully you can tell when it will do this since it immediately jumps to asking for the booking reference so clearly hasn't read the card.
I would also add I've never had an issue collecting tickets from a ticket office when TVM collection has for whatever reason not worked (only ever required to show the booking reference, not even any card), but I know others have had issues with it.

 

[themeone]

As I recall I was prompted to input the booking reference after putting the card in, and then told the ticket could not be collected with that card. It did then suggest using another card, but it seemed illogical to me that it might accept some other random card after rejecting the one I'd used for the booking (although I acknowledge the additional complication of it being via Apple Pay), so I didn't try it.

This was at Oxted station, and it was just the standard type of machine you find at Southern stations - the large machine, not the smaller model.

From the comments I guess I'm lucky this hasn't happened before, but at least now I have some ideas of how to resolve it, rather than just buying a new ticket.

 

[mangyiscute]

Have you booked with apple pay before on the c2c app and been able to collect the tickets, or was this the first time you tried this?
If it was me, I would take a picture of the machine saying "you cannot collect the ticket with this card", then if anyone questions you you show them the picture for evidence that you tried to collect the ticket but there was a fault on the industry's side, and then collect the ticket at the earliest available opportunity (when changing trains or at the destination)

 

[redreni]

Have you booked with apple pay before on the c2c app and been able to collect the tickets, or was this the first time you tried this?
If it was me, I would take a picture of the machine saying "you cannot collect the ticket with this card", then if anyone questions you you show them the picture for evidence that you tried to collect the ticket but there was a fault on the industry's side, and then collect the ticket at the earliest available opportunity (when changing trains or at the destination)

Always being mindful of the danger of the rail industry saying "ahh, but if that was an industry failing it was a failing of our right hand and you're now dealing with our left hand, so it's your problem".

 

[themeone]

Have you booked with apple pay before on the c2c app and been able to collect the tickets, or was this the first time you tried this?

I think I've only used Apple Pay on c2c before for e-tickets, but this one was to Boundary Zone 6, hence there was no option but to collect.

 

[redreni]

I think I've only used Apple Pay on c2c before for e-tickets, but this one was to Boundary Zone 6, hence there was no option but to collect.

If it can be bought from the machine, though, maybe that's the better option since if the machine doesn't work, you've paid nothing. You just take a photo or video of the machine not working and then use whatever other means may be available to you to get your ticket at the earliest opportunity.

I don't think you're necessarily in any better a position if you're saying "I've ordered a ticket but haven't been able to collect it" than if you don't have a ticket but can show that there were no facilities to buy it at the station where you started your journey.

In fact, penalty fares schemes and the NRCoT specifically exempt the latter scenario from the requirement to pay before boarding, whereas I'm not at all sure there's similar protection in case of ticket collection issues?

You may find the guard can and will just print out your tickets if you have the TOD reference and they're uncollected, but that's not guaranteed. I doubt RPIs would do that.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Do they allow contactless collection? Use Applepay if they do.