Do Distance selling regulations apply to train tickets?

rev_henry

Phil_Jones wrote: »

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.

I can, it involves an Irishman and vehicles with wings...

Phil_Jones

update: after posting that I sent an email to the CEO of the parent company and he replied immediately saying he would ask one of his colleagues to look into it. the colleague then replied within 15 minutes agreeing that it had been handled wrongly and I could have a full refund as well as a £5 voucher as a gesture of goodwill. very pleased with the outcome here