Railcard discount refused

kayaitch

I recently bought my son a 16-25 railcard as he has turned 16. He is away every other weekend travelling on South Western trains and the procedure is always that I accompany him to the station, arriving with at least 10 minutes to spare so I can purchase his return ticket from the machine. However we arrived at the station to find the machine had inexplicably GONE with no notice to indicate what had happened to it or whether it would be replaced eventually (the ticket office is only open for 2 hours in the morning, this was late afternoon) so I told him that he would have to buy his ticket on the train explaining to the collector about the lack of machine at the station.

When the ticket collector came round my son asked to buy his ticket (NB BEFORE he was asked to show it) and was treated in a very rude manner. Incidentally my son is a polite, well mannered and quiet young man - but was being treated like a yob. The ticket collector was in his words "grumpy" and said he should have gone to find him on the train. Bear in mind my son is not only young but also relatively new to travelling on his own, so could not be expected to know what to do in as he had never been in this situation before.

Whilst purchasing his ticket he showed his railcard but was told: "Not on the train" and made to pay the full adult fare without the discount. Is this legal?

It was not his fault that he was unable to purchase his ticket beforehand, we had got to the station in plenty of time with the intention of doing so only to find there was no provision for this. I think the implication was that he was suspected of intending not to pay. Surely the fact that he had his railcard with him showed that he was fully intending to buy a ticket.

My questions are these:

1. Why was he not allowed his railcard discount - he had the card and produced it when buying his ticket on the train.

2. Isn't it about time staff were taught to be polite to customers of all ages? I doubt if he would have been so rude and aggressive to an adult although it has to be said that in my experience some staff are habitually offhand with customers; although there are some lovely cheerful people these seem to be in the minority.

Hintza

Write to the company and ask them what they are going to do about it. Kick up a stink.

This guilty until proven innocent attitude is becoming all too common nowdays.

nunnygirl

It must depend on the train company then cause the last time I used my rail card I bought the ticket on the train with my railcard no problem.....and there was ample opportunity to buy the ticket at the station but it was easier to make sure I was on the train.

It does say on the railcard website that

Tickets for your journey should be purchased before boarding the train and when buying tickets you must show the Railcard

But I totally agree with Hintza, write to the train company and explain about the machine and ticket office at your local station

RichyRich

If there were no facilities to purchase tickets at the station then, afaik, they should allow you to use your YP Railcard on the train. The only circumstances under which you can't are where facilities are available.

Give me 5 I'll see if I can find a link.

RichyRich

It's ambiguous, but I think it's covered here

16-25_Railcard_Terms_and_Conditions wrote:

5. Tickets for your journey should be purchased before boarding the train and when buying tickets you must show the Railcard.
6. You must carry your Railcard with you on your journey and when asked by rail staff, you must show a valid ticket and valid Railcard. If you fail to do so, you will be required to pay the full price Standard Single fare for your journey as if no ticket was purchased before starting the journey and in some cases a Penalty Fare. This does not apply if there was no ticket office at the station at which you began your journey or if the ticket office was closed and there was no ticket machine from which you could buy a discounted ticket.

I would certainly argue that, provided the ticket office was closed and the ticket machine removed (or out of action), he should be allowed to avail of the Railcard discount on the train.


Write to SWT, include a copy of the tickets, and ask for a refund.

Customer Service Centre:

Customer Service Centre
South West Trains
Overline House
Blechynden Terrace
Southampton
SO15 1GW

Livingthedream

I would definetly complain and state what was said by Richyrich but add about how unexperienced your 16 yr old is with travelling on the train by himself, hence why he didn't find the train manager on first boarding the train. Then just wait and see, whatever happens you have evey right to complain about his treatment

rich_shot2003

kayaitch wrote: »

I recently bought my son a 16-25 railcard as he has turned 16. He is away every other weekend travelling on South Western trains and the procedure is always that I accompany him to the station, arriving with at least 10 minutes to spare so I can purchase his return ticket from the machine. However we arrived at the station to find the machine had inexplicably GONE with no notice to indicate what had happened to it or whether it would be replaced eventually (the ticket office is only open for 2 hours in the morning, this was late afternoon) so I told him that he would have to buy his ticket on the train explaining to the collector about the lack of machine at the station.

When the ticket collector came round my son asked to buy his ticket (NB BEFORE he was asked to show it) and was treated in a very rude manner. Incidentally my son is a polite, well mannered and quiet young man - but was being treated like a yob. The ticket collector was in his words "grumpy" and said he should have gone to find him on the train. Bear in mind my son is not only young but also relatively new to travelling on his own, so could not be expected to know what to do in as he had never been in this situation before.

Whilst purchasing his ticket he showed his railcard but was told: "Not on the train" and made to pay the full adult fare without the discount. Is this legal?

It was not his fault that he was unable to purchase his ticket beforehand, we had got to the station in plenty of time with the intention of doing so only to find there was no provision for this. I think the implication was that he was suspected of intending not to pay. Surely the fact that he had his railcard with him showed that he was fully intending to buy a ticket.

My questions are these:

1. Why was he not allowed his railcard discount - he had the card and produced it when buying his ticket on the train.

2. Isn't it about time staff were taught to be polite to customers of all ages? I doubt if he would have been so rude and aggressive to an adult although it has to be said that in my experience some staff are habitually offhand with customers; although there are some lovely cheerful people these seem to be in the minority.

Have to say this shocking and i would write into South West Trains if i was you also why not put a post on this rail forum as a lot of Rail staff use it and they may be able to help.

the website is

https://www.railforums.co.uk

I will look out for your post on there.

Voyager2002

I agree with the advice given above.

I am an experienced rail passenger, and in this situation I would wait for the train manager to come through my carriage, but (like your son) make myself obvious when he did appear to avoid any suggestion of attempted fare-dodging.

kayaitch

Thank you for your help everyone.

I had already complained as I was fuming with anger on Sunday when my son came home and reported what had happened and I immediately sent a complaint to South Western Trains via their website; according to the automated reply their charter states that they have 20 working days to respond so it could be a while!

Meanwhile, I shall post to the railforums site as suggested by rich-shot.

Thanks for looking up the T&Cs Richy-Rich. This guy was definitely out of order so hopefully at the very least we should get an apology and a refund of the discount we should have got. As you will understand I am really upset on behalf of my son when he has been brought up with good manners and is treated like this probably just because he is young, has longish hair and was wearing jeans and a hoody!

Again, thanks to all for taking the trouble to reply.

kayaitch

I had a nice letter from SWT apologising that the guard did not give my son his railcard discount, and enclosing £10 worth of vouchers being the difference in the fare.

rich_shot2003

kayaitch wrote: »

I had a nice letter from SWT apologising that the guard did not give my son his railcard discount, and enclosing £10 worth of vouchers being the difference in the fare.

Hiya Im glad you have got it all sorted out now.

Well done.