Do Distance selling regulations apply to train tickets?

geordieracer

They are trying to sell you one for EACH day. They only sell travelcards in one day,7 day and monthly or longer forms.

P.S - I believe they stopped the weekend TC some time back.

Going back and selecting one - It is only giving you the option to buy it for the return portion of your journey anyway - it must set as default if you are arriving into london after a certain time.. See complicated and another nail in the trainlines coffin..

ewan_husarmee

Again, again, again, was the contract that I entered into valid, given that they made no effort to make me aware that the one day travel card I was buying was restricted to a particular day?

geordieracer

ewan_husarmee wrote: »

Again, again, again, was the contract that I entered into valid, given that they made no effort to make me aware that the one day travel card I was buying was restricted to a particular day?

Yes it was. if you looked at the final price before you comitted to buy it shows quite clearly that the travelcard is for the day AFTER your outward journey and not before.

Note it says ALL DAY on it.



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ewan_husarmee

You are rather proving my point. Despite being told repeatedly that the travel card I am unhappy about is for the day of my outward leg, you think the ticket you would have bought here is for the day of the return leg. I assure you it is not. I would not have wasted a sizeable chunk of my day on this if it was. If you go to the help section on the site and search for Travel Card, you will see that the travel cards they sell are only for the day of the outward journey.

So to recap.

I thought from what I could see on the screen I was buying an open one day travel card.

You thought that because the travel card appeared under the return in the summary that you would be buying a one day travel card for the day of the return leg.

The web site was selling us a travel card for the day of the outward leg and obviously not telling you or me that it was.

Is the contract fair and valid?

ewan_husarmee

Lovey, the Help section states 'The Travelcard is only valid on the same day as your outbound train journey'. This seems pretty clear to me?

So you always check the help section for questions you don't know that you need to ask? I found it because the trainline pointed me to it when they were trying to refuse my request for a refund. I didn't accept that and they refunded me in the end.

ewan_husarmee

The help section is not a link found during the buying process.

geordieracer

ewan_husarmee wrote: »

You are rather proving my point. Despite being told repeatedly that the travel card I am unhappy about is for the day of my outward leg, you think the ticket you would have bought here is for the day of the return leg. I assure you it is not. I would not have wasted a sizeable chunk of my day on this if it was. If you go to the help section on the site and search for Travel Card, you will see that the travel cards they sell are only for the day of the outward journey.

So to recap.

I thought from what I could see on the screen I was buying an open one day travel card.

You thought that because the travel card appeared under the return in the summary that you would be buying a one day travel card for the day of the return leg.

The web site was selling us a travel card for the day of the outward leg and obviously not telling you or me that it was.

Is the contract fair and valid?

I could not physically get it to sell me the TC for the outward journey and the print above shows that it would only sell it for the return leg of your trip.

There is no 'OPEN TRAVELCARD' available whatsoever. Anywhere.

Can you show me the email confirmation you got when you purchased it from the trainline please - delete all personal info. If their site is showing one thing to me but the help says another then they have problems.

I dont use online systems except to help people out for finding tickets on here and i never use the TL to do so, so i cant fathom why they are showing it for the return yet giving you one for the outward journey instead and i dread to think how many other people may have been caught out by this.

And thus, another reason not to use the bloody trainline for anything.

pmm1981

I agree with the argument that it should clearly state that a travelcard is only valid for the day of outward travel. I too would have insisted on a full refund.

geordieracer

See its just clicked with me (I rarely buy tickets online and never a TC)

they have not segregated the return portion ends as a purchase and that the TC is a supplement for outward travel and thus to the average joe and even me who works in the industry - that the TC is valid for the return portion and cause confusion.

And yes your well within your rights to a refund as they have mislead you to think you have got what you want.

I know some other TOCs are powered by the same system as TL uses so wonder if theirs shows the same.

Phil_Jones

Just thought I'd share my experiences with regards to this.

I completely understand (and support) the terms and conditions regarding the advance tickets and the admin fee for changing the date or time of travel.

However, I think the merchants should have a little common sense with regards to genuine mistakes.

I booked 2 single train tickets to Manchester from Grantham a few weeks ago as I didn't know quite what day I would be coming back. That side of it was fine.

Then the other day I had found out how long I'd be staying in Manchester and went to book the return journey.

Unfortunately (and it was completely my fault, I'm not disputing that), I somehow managed to book Grantham to Manchester again, instead of the other way round. I realised my error when the confirmation email came through and only 10 minutes later I emailed them asking them to cancel the booking (I couldn't amend it because you can only amend times and dates, not direction of travel). I re-booked the correct way and they can see on my account that I have done this.

I explained all this in an email but was just met with the bog standard repsonse, and though I queried it they wouldn't budge.

I can understand that the rules are there to stop people booking up and then changing their mind at the last minute, but to punish people for a simple mistake which they alert you to 10 minutes later seems very poor service. I can't think of another industry that would do this.

So i'm out of pocket £28 because I entered the names of two places in boxes the wrong way round.