Great Western - invalid return?

Neil_B

This for 10 friends who went on a trip to Minehead last weekend.

Pre-booked return tickets (on-line I think) for £22-
asked for 13.30ish return train on 9/5/11.
Return portion of ticket says 15.23 train but they got on 13.30 anyway.

All charged additional fare of £37 each which presumably is a standard single.

---

Ok, obviously they were on the wrong train but I've been asked to seek opinions.
Not my area of any knowledge so any clues on how I can check if challengable?

robt_2

To be honest, I wouldn't waste your time. They know they were in the wrong, and you know they were in the wrong.

The bottom line is that they booked tickets for a specific train and then got on another.

Empty_pockets

Agreed.

If the ticket was incorrect it should have been amended before they traveled.

adouglasmhor

I did make that mistake once and asked the train ticket collector to do me a favour and refund me the unused portion so I could afford the unpaid section, he just amended my ticket instead, I was probably lucky though.

Livingthedream

I assume these were Advance Single tickets, if they were then unfortunately the T&C's of the ticket dictate that you have to travel on the booked trains only. If they weren't Advance tickets then please post back.

Anyway could you challenge this? well not really as First Great Western were correct it what they did, however, you could try for a 'goodwill gesture', enclose all your tickets both sets (10x orginals and ones purchased on the train) and a covering letter, I will leave you to your own artistic design to what you put in the letter, but remember you asking FGW for help so don't slate them!

I'm sure if you go to their website you will find a freepost address, so this won't cost you anything but time and you might be lucky and get some rail vouchers back in the post.

dzug1

They could have saved themselves a little bit by sorting it out before they got on the train - their £22 less a £10 admin fee would have been creditted to the new ticket.

yorkie2

Neil_B wrote: »

This for 10 friends who went on a trip to Minehead last weekend.

Pre-booked return tickets (on-line I think) for £22-
asked for 13.30ish return train on 9/5/11.
Return portion of ticket says 15.23 train but they got on 13.30 anyway.

All charged additional fare of £37 each which presumably is a standard single.

Impossible to advise without the following information:
- Ticket type
- Origin
- Destination

I will rule out Minehead as the origin as it is on a preserved railway!

Yes, it was on the Great Western Railway but is not served by First Great Western.

If they selected a train at 15:23 and the T&Cs said it was only valid on that specific train and they agreed to that, and got the 13:30 anyway they do not have a leg to stand on.

£37 is, I presume, the standard single from unknown origin to unknown destination but your guess is as good as mine!

spiro

With some tickets its even worse because you book the train (time) and the seat, if you are not on that train in that seat they can charge you a full price single not even the option of moving to the correct seat.

Norfolk_Jim

spiro wrote: »

With some tickets its even worse because you book the train (time) and the seat, if you are not on that train in that seat they can charge you a full price single not even the option of moving to the correct seat.

You surprise me. GW must be a pain compared to NXEA where I've never had a problem from being in the wrong seat. Maybe it's just between Norwich & london as when I go elsewhere I usually am in the right seat because the trains are so overcrowded - Norwich to London tends to be quite empty so I do sometimes pick a seat I prefer but in the correct carriage - never queried yet, travelled the route hundreds of times.

geordieracer

yorkie2 wrote: »

Impossible to advise without the following information:
- Ticket type
- Origin
- Destination

I will rule out Minehead as the origin as it is on a preserved railway!

Yes, it was on the Great Western Railway but is not served by First Great Western.

If they selected a train at 15:23 and the T&Cs said it was only valid on that specific train and they agreed to that, and got the 13:30 anyway they do not have a leg to stand on.

£37 is, I presume, the standard single from unknown origin to unknown destination but your guess is as good as mine!

It was to Taunton - I can tell you that much as i went too - and probably from Paddington as loads on the train i was on all had Advance singles for the journey there and all for the different train to which they were on.

all got stung - though IIRC it was only £24 each to upgrade their tickets so maybe it wasnt Pad after all.


Thats the problem with weekenders - people get wrecked then just want to get home ASAP on the monday

moonrakerz

spiro wrote: »

With some tickets its even worse because you book the train (time) and the seat, if you are not on that train in that seat they can charge you a full price single not even the option of moving to the correct seat.

A gross exaggeration, all they want to know is if you are on the right train.