Lost/misplaced train ticket..Lost ticket.. full stop!

laiste_2

I hope someone can enlighten me about this matter as I can't understand how this is as it is. Anyway, I got a train ticket, in advance, and it came on the post, in three pieces as they do: the ticket, the reservation & the card receipt. The ticket & reservation, one is not accepted without the other. When I arrived at the station (1 1/2h before the journey) with the reservation & card receipt I realised I had, mistakenly, taken the receipt instead of the ticket! Well, guess what ..I had to buy a new ticket on the spot, despite having all the proof, on my Iphone, that I had booked & paid for the ticket. They don't accept any evidence you have already bought a ticket to re-issue a new ticket. What we lost our airline ticket and they would not let you travel. I'm afraid, I find it totally unacceptable !!!!
I did contact the train company and they say :

"Proof of purchase of your ticket does not entitle you to a replacement. This would be the same for any other item bought from a retail outlet. A shop would not replace goods that a customer has lost / had stolen on production of a receipt - and lost / stolen tickets cannot be either."

This, to me, is a total non-sense, when we buy a ticket we're buying the right to travel, a journey, not a physical object that we take home. Before the day & time of the journey we have not had yet had it. So why don't they acknowledge we have the right to have a new ticket issued?
Can anyone help me to make sense of this, please.
Keep your tickets in the bank safe is my advice :eek:
Thank you!

Tilt

I'm not 100% sure but I would imagine it is because someone else could use the ticket. Had you forgotten the reservation part instead of the actual ticket, i'm almost certain that it would of been accepted because neither the card receipt or reservation are valid for travel.

Mrs_Jojo

I agree with Tilt, if you have part of the documentation and persuade someone to let you travel with it, someone else might be persuading another ticket collector to let them travel with the other part of it!

I agree - keep your tickets safe!

wealdroam

laiste wrote: »

I did contact the train company and they say :

"Proof of purchase of your ticket does not entitle you to a replacement. This would be the same for any other item bought from a retail outlet. A shop would not replace goods that a customer has lost / had stolen on production of a receipt - and lost / stolen tickets cannot be either."

This, to me, is a total non-sense, when we buy a ticket we're buying the right to travel, a journey, not a physical object that we take home.

I am really struggling with your interpretation of their explanation.

You are right when you say "when we buy a ticket we're buying the right to travel".
The proof that you have purchased that right is the ticket.
You take home the ticket.
The ticket is a physical object.

As the train company say... if you go to Tesco and buy a tin of beans, then some days later cannot find that tin of beans, what do you think Tesco will say when you take your receipt back to the shop and ask for a replacement tin of beans?

With the train ticket or tin of beans, the seller has no obligation to replace the sold item just because you have lost it. As mentioned above, either the ticket or the beans could have been used by someone else.

If you still have the unused ticket, not lost but left at home, have you asked the train company if they might be able to help you?
Be prepared for a refusal though, as Advance Singles are non-refundable.

Just to add...

Your airline ticket analogy isn't very good.
Airline tickets allow a specific person, a named individual, to travel.
Therefore if you lose it, no-one else can use it. It is valueless.
Not so with a train ticket (or a tin of beans).

spiro

The same would have happened if you got to the station with the ticket, had ticket checked, boarded train and then lost the ticket. If a ticket inspector wanted to check your ticket they would have said you had not ticket and would have to pay the penalty fare which is normally more than the cost of a full price single.

As others have said, train tickets have no name on them so anyone could use it. If you take it to an extreme, 50 people buy tickets, give them to their mates and claim replacement tickets because they 'lost it'. You then have 100 people travelling for the cost of 50 tickets.

Thats why there used to be guys outside the mainline stations in London asking for used tickets which they would then reuse or sell. Thats why the new barriers dont return the ticket at the end of your journey.

The_Crunchy_Nutter

From the National Rail Conditions of Carriage:

24. Lost, stolen or mislaid tickets
A ticket is your evidence of your right to make a rail journey and it is your responsibility to keep it safe. If you lose or mislay a ticket or a Smartcard or it is stolen, it will not be replaced nor will any of the cost be refunded.

Full document available here (pdf).

Livingthedream

spiro wrote: »

As others have said, train tickets have no name on them

Not quite true, if you buy your tickets online, whether their an Anytime, Off peak or advance then your name now appears on the ticket. I don't know the reason behind this, maybe its to help stop fraud/fare evasion.

OP the only thing you could try is to write to the Train company again stating what happened and how you've used the train on numerous occasions and this is the first time it's happened, etc ,etc, etc, I'll leave you to finish the letter, hopefully you might get a 'goodwill gesture' you'll also need to enclosing both sets of tickets with the letter.

You might be lucky and get something back but all it will cost you in sending the letter is time, as most train Companies have a Freepost address.

As said before - look after those train tickets.

dzug1

Livingthedream wrote: »

Not quite true, if you buy your tickets online, whether their an Anytime, Off peak or advance then your name now appears on the ticket. I don't know the reason behind this, maybe its to help stop fraud/fare evasion.


.

I buy tickets online in advance. My name has never been on the ticket or the reservation.

Tilt

dzug1 wrote: »

I buy tickets online in advance. My name has never been on the ticket or the reservation.

So do I and my name is on the ticket (Virgin/Cross Country).

Livingthedream

dzug1 wrote: »

I buy tickets online in advance. My name has never been on the ticket or the reservation.

Strange, I buy mine through the East Coast Website and my name is always on the ticket, but I do use a railcard so that might have something to do with it?

moonrakerz

dzug1 wrote: »

I buy tickets online in advance. My name has never been on the ticket or the reservation.

Do you get your tickets posted to you ? Perhaps the "airline" style tickets don't have your name.
I always collect mine from the (FGW) machine and they have my name on them.