Forced to buy second ticket because eticket not printed

big-saver_2

I bought an e-ticket online for a coach from Heathrow - Gatwick return from this website: http://www.oxfordbus.co.uk/main.php?page_id=68

The booking process required me to print a ticket after purchase.

After purchase I printed a PDF of my e-ticket. I showed this PDF to the driver on my laptop and iPhone. The ticket had my name and address and unique reference number. I also showed him my passport. The driver would not accept it saying it must be printed on paper. I was forced to buy another ticket for £27.

1. Are they legally allowed to decline an e-ticket that is presented on screen instead of on paper?

2. Is it discriminatory against people who do not have access to a printer?

3. Are there other legal approaches I can use to force this company to change their policy on insisting on paper-printed tickets? (I have never come across such a policy before - no airline requires e-tickets to be printed on paper).

Thanks for your help!

bluenoseam

number 2 is quite easilly worked around, most places have these marvelous inventions "LIBRARY" and they have "computers" (well, electronic devices capable of internet capability), i could be wrong, but i believe it actually tells you to print it out - if it does, no case.

Tilt

Clearly states on their web site; "You will need to print out your travel ticket at the end of the booking process, please make sure you have this facility available".

Expensive lesson you have just learned.

Woody._2

Tilt wrote: »

Clearly states on their web site; "You will need to print out your travel ticket at the end of the booking process, please make sure you have this facility available".

Expensive lesson you have just learned.

5 easy steps to book your ticket, and reserve your seat.
1. Select route
2. Select date/time of travel
3. How many passengers and how much
4. Enter personal and payment details
5. Print out your ticket

It also clearly states the above on the home page given by the OP.

forgotmyname

Can buy a printer cheaper than £27.

Discrimination??? OH my..... LOL


Is my BIL's mate discriminated against because the police keep stopping him whilst driving? I always
thought it was the fact he did not have a licence. Nothing stopping him from getting one (except the fact
he has just been banned again of course).

No discimination because you CAN go and buy a printer or use someone elses.

Ive printed tickets for national express coaches before and vouchers that needed stamping or collecting.

Legal approaches to get a company to changes its rules to suit you?

Can I bring a new law into force that anyone who does not have a printer should be jailed until they have built themselves a printer?

I think NOT!!!

getmore4less

Why not just write to the company and ask for a refund of the duplicate ticket?

pinkteapot

http://www.oxfordbus.co.uk/main.php?page_id=68

Bookings can be made up to 4pm the day before travel, or the first journey if booking a return. Sorry, we can not accept bookings on the day of travel. You will need to print out your travel ticket at the end of the booking process, please make sure you have this facility available.
5 easy steps to book your ticket, and reserve your seat.
1. Select route
2. Select date/time of travel
3. How many passengers and how much
4. Enter personal and payment details
5. Print out your ticket

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/printout

pendulum

Technically he did print it, but to another file instead of on paper. I know printing is generally accepted to mean printing something to paper, but not always. If they wanted a ticket on paper they should have said so. If he could show the ticket on-screen, it would look the same on-screen as it would on paper, so why didn't they accept it? They could have jotted down any important details for the purposes of keeping a record if they wanted.

benjus

Without the hard copy the driver would just be letting someone on the bus without properly checking their ticket. You could have just put that PDF together in photoshop to get a free ride - how is the driver supposed to know? If you print it out and give it to them, they can at least check it later against their records if they suspect something is amiss.

I had a similar problem with a hotel booking once - I had to pay to use the hotel's computer and printer before they would let me check in.

pendulum

benjus wrote: »

Without the hard copy the driver would just be letting someone on the bus without properly checking their ticket. You could have just put that PDF together in photoshop to get a free ride

I knew this one would come up. If he can create it in Photoshop to show the driver, then he's perfectly capable of printing a paper copy...

benjus wrote: »

If you print it out and give it to them, they can at least check it later against their records if they suspect something is amiss.

If someone's used a doctored ticket there's not much they can do afterwards... whether the ticket was in paper or electronic form. I'm not convinced that's a good reason. The only thing I can think of is they have a system whereby they scan a barcode on the ticket into a computer and that checks against a database that the ticket is valid. Even then, you would think they'd have a backup method of validating the ticket for when customers forget their tickets, the scanning machine breaks down, or where tickets are hard to read by the machine (e.g. affected by rain and creases).

King_Nothing

pendulum wrote: »

Technically he did print it, but to another file instead of on paper.

Saving a file directly onto your hard drive or transferring it onto your iPhone is not called printing.