Do Distance selling regulations apply to train tickets?

pinkteapot

ewan_husarmee wrote: »

Hi,

at no point in their sales process does it say the travel card is valid only on the day of travel. As I was arriving into London with through ticketing to my destination at 21:30, I had no need for a travel card on that day, but on the day after I will be in London on business and need a peak hours travel card.

Is there a contract issue here for me to action?

Firstly, you'll get more responses if you start a new thread rather than reply to an old thread. Go to the Motoring and Public Transport board and click on 'New Thread' at the top of the list of posts.

Secondly, Travelcards have a date on them and are valid on that day. I'm sure someone will be along soon to dig out the T&C for you. Did you think you could buy a Travelcard and just use it forever more? Just buy one for the correct day.

geordieracer

ewan_husarmee wrote: »

Hi,

at no point in their sales process does it say the travel card is valid only on the day of travel. As I was arriving into London with through ticketing to my destination at 21:30, I had no need for a travel card on that day, but on the day after I will be in London on business and need a peak hours travel card.

Is there a contract issue here for me to action?

Sorry i dont understand.. Did you buy a DAILY travelcard? Then quite obviously that is valid for a day and TFL are very nice as IIRC it is valid up to 0430 hours the next morning.

OR - was your through ticket including a transfer on the underground and you wanted to stop over and spend the night in london.

ewan_husarmee

Sorry for getting on an old thread, linked from google and saw July, thought I was in something current.

Thetrainline.com process gives you the option to buy a london travel card if you have booked a train ticket to London. It is obvious that it is going to be valid for only 1 day, but does not say which day. I assumed that it would be valid for the day on which it was first used. I had 2 reasons to think this.

1) They offered and I bought a peak hours ticket and I am not arriving in London until very late.

2) They offer bus tickets in the same section and these tickets are offered for specific dates.

After badgering their online customer services again I have got a full refund. I would still like to know whether they were legally obliged to give me this.

geordieracer

Dont use the trainline to ever buy your tickets. Use the TOC your travelling with - or redspottedhanky if your using clubcard points.

how have you bought a peak hours ticket for arriving into london so late?
Your travelcard wouldve been issued for the same day as your train ticket.

ewan_husarmee

I've never had a problem with them before. The journey is on virgin and I just checked their web site for the same journey and it is the same regarding london travel cards, but did not offer the ticket that I eventually bought. All other prices appear to be the same.

how have you bought a peak hours ticket for arriving into london so late?

I clicked on the ticket offered. I will need a travel card the next day.

Your travelcard wouldve been issued for the same day as your train ticket

It was, my question is why should I have reasonably assumed this given that no reference to date is featured on the web site? Especially given the 2 points I raised above.

geordieracer

ewan_husarmee wrote: »

I've never had a problem with them before. The journey is on virgin and I just checked their web site for the same journey and it is the same regarding london travel cards, but did not offer the ticket that I eventually bought. All other prices appear to be the same.
They charge you a booking fee and all sorts. They will also hold the ticket if the believe that it will be sold so it gets taken off the booking system for a while so even if you checked somewhere else it would not show as there may have been none left. You can normally find TOC only discounts with using a TOC website that the trainline cannot offer.

I clicked on the ticket offered. I will need a travel card the next day.
You need to be clearer about what time you are travelling then because an anytime ticket will be far more expensive then an off peak ticket - which if your arriving in london at that time will certainly be cheaper

It was, my question is why should I have reasonably assumed this given that no reference to date is featured on the web site? Especially given the 2 points I raised above.

Its how it works - you travel on one day and want a daily travelcard so the system will automatically assume it is for that day and the discounted travelcard is only valid on the day that the ticket to London is valid so for one the next day will be the full peak price.

I dont know where you travel from but if your using virgin then use this http://www.farefinder.virgintrains.co.uk/ and never use 3rd party (apart from RSH0 agents that use a booking fee and such like.

ewan_husarmee

1st. Tip noted, cost me a quid to book through trainline.

2nd
Trainline 1st Page. Entered my journey MAN > Suburban London Station (london underground transfer included), leaving 11/07 18:00, returning 18:00 12/07.

Trainline 2nd Page.
Selected trains and tickets. Off-Peak open return £73.10

Trainline 3rd Page
Booked a seat in quiet coach with a power point.
Bought a Peak hours London Travel Card. From this point given the information or lack of it on the page and subsequent pages and not having your knowledge of 'how it works', is the contract for me to buy the travel card valid? The thing that I purchased had conditions attached to it that they made no effort to make me aware of and which my other purchase rendered worthless to me.

Trainline 4th Page
Booking summary. No date on Travel card entry

Trainline 5th Page
Payment

geordieracer

ill try and simulate it myself BUT did your journey involve a cross london transfer from Euston? If so then you shouldnt need a TC for the return portion just the cross london transfer.

let me know what station it was for a better understanding.

EDIT: Just checked and you DONT have to buy the travelcard. Its worthless to you. But they show the option in case you were there earlier and wanted to ponce about london - but again its not needed but its set as default

ewan_husarmee

Please, please, please accept I knew what I was doing with the train tickets and that I bought the travel card because I really do need a travel card for the day on which I return.

Is the contract valid if they have not made me aware of the restriction on the date of the travel card.

PS. Edited the previous post about the same time you were replying for even greater clarity.

EDIT: As I said, I didn't need it I wanted it, but without the restriction that was not stated on the site

ewan_husarmee

Just checked and you DONT have to buy the travelcard. Its worthless to you. But they show the option in case you were there earlier and wanted to ponce about london - but again its not needed but its set as default

Did you see anything on there that told you it was going to be valid on the day of outward travel only? No. Didn't think so. I really don't see how I can be any clearer as to the question of law I would like answered, is the sale valid given that they have put a restriction on the travel card that they made no effort to make me aware of?