Southern Rail unfair fine? Help?

benv

Hi,

On the 6th of August i was in Brighton and needed to return to my home in Haywards Heath, when i went to buy a ticket i realised i only had £4 so rather then walk home i bought a ticket to Burgess Hill which was a pound less then the £5 ticket i should of bought to get all the way to haywards heath.

When i got to the station (H.H) there were ticket inspectors at the gates of the station, i explained my situation to them and they filled out a slip stating that i had made every effort to pay and i would probably be billed for the cost of the fare between burgess hill and haywards heath...

And nothing more. Today I got a letter for £35 which is a lot of money to me right now, i spoke to them on the phone and the southern presuctioner was very far from helpful and it was a fairly unpleasant conversation.

It states byelaw 18.

What can i do, please help?

markelock

did they send a copy of the slip that was written out on the day of travel?

write them a letter, acknowledging you are prepared to pay the extra pound, plus say the cost of postage for them to send the letter, so £2 in total. see what they say.

if you mitigate, and they do threaten legal action, the court will look more favourably on you.

benv

No they didn't include the slip, the slip also included my ticket for what i had paid.

If i send such a letter, is it possible they would move straight to legal action? If such a thing did happen and i went to court would i end up having to pay legal costs? or might it be ruled that i only need pay the £2 or £35?

Thank you

Hintza

I ghad a similar thing and took it the ombudsman over an underground fare from Kings Cross ti Waterloo, there was no ticket machine between train paltform and underground platform. I fought it for months but ended up having to pay.

You really should have got off at Burgess Hill and as far as they are concerned you were chancing your arm. You are not entitled to travel on the train without a valid ticket. So you will probably lose.

Having said all that the £35 sounds a bit steep so my only suggestion is you take it to the ombudsman and argue that the fine is too much. The question at the end of the day is how much time and effort and possibly money you want to throw at this when in all probability you will lose.

Have you read the byelaws yet? If not better get yourself a copy.

LinasPilibaitisisbatman

Please explain how the charge is unfair

You knowingly travelled without the correct ticket and chanced it because you where too lazy too walk

You got caught

Tough !!!! pay up and stop being a !!!!

robt_2

LinasPilibaitisisbatman wrote: »

Please explain how the charge is unfair

You knowingly travelled without the correct ticket and chanced it because you where too lazy too walk

You got caught

Tough !!!! pay up and stop being a !!!!

I agree, but it is NOT what the poster is complaining about. So why not get down off your high horse and read it again, then offer some constructive advice rather than trying to boost your post count by insulting a new member.

benv

i would of paid the £1 extra if i could, i spent every penny i had to pay as far as i could, if i'd had got off at burgess hill i've no idea how to walk to haywards heath since there are no streets that lead there.. i would of had to walk across country on a route i do not know.

if it had been the case that i bunked the fare then i wouldn't have bothered posting here, also it was agreed with the ticket people at the station that i had done everything i could of to pay the fare and recieving a penalty was out of the question.. they catogorically stated at the station that it would only be the trip between burgess hill and haywards heath that i would be asked to pay.

benv

I know this might derail my thread slightly but i was curious why my post warranted such a blunt unhelpful reply so I did a quick search on other threads you'd posted in LinasPilibaitisisbatman. It seems you frequent/troll this message board purely to offer rude unhelpful advice. I quoted a few choice lines to highlight what an asset to this community you have become.

"What is it with idiots who think garages can work miracles and stop cars becoming faulty indefinitly"

"Give us your post code and I bet a job office search finds hundreds, they just dont suit you because your workshy and want everything whilst giving nothing"

"
You got something for nothing

Stop moaning like a !!!!"

"What is it with idiots who think garages can work miracles and stop cars becoming faulty indefinitly"

"did one of these diddy 17YO executives get sacked for being useless and end up working in McD's where they should have been all along"

"Either the charge is justified and your colleague is just a !!!!! using nationality for the issue to try and deflect blame or he needs to call back and stop being so ignorant and explain the problem and why it needs resolved"

Constant_Change

LinasPilibaitisisbatman wrote: »

Please explain how the charge is unfair

You knowingly travelled without the correct ticket and chanced it because you where too lazy too walk

You got caught

Tough !!!! pay up and stop being a !!!!

I've not been here long either. Are there many people as nasty as this on the forum?

robt_2

Constant_Change wrote: »

I've not been here long either. Are there many people as nasty as this on the forum?

No, just ignore them - they don't last very long

hewhoisnotintheknow

the thing is with things like this is , if the fine was reasonable (i.e the amount of difference here, £1) everyone would chance it, as they would only end up having to pay a small fine when the risks of getting caught are slim

This would then put the costs up as they would be collecting less money