Refund on unused ticket

jamesjenkinsyates

I was at Euston station saturday, very ill, so I wasn't paying attention and I accidentally purchased a London Midland only "Super" Off Peak, when I meant to purchase a virgin ticket, with exactly the same name. I took this ticket to the virgin train and I was told it was for London Midlands trains only. So I went back and purchased an Off Peak ticket that would work on Virgin trains.

Is it possible for me to get a refund on the London Midland ticket that I purchased and did not use?

Thanks guys!

wealdroam

You may well have a problem because there is no way of telling that the LM ticket you have has not been used.
Yes, the mag stripe may well indicate it hasn't been through a gate, but that's not the same.

You will need to write a convincing story to whoever sold the ticket to you.

Good luck.

Kite2010

And normally the TOC will deduct a £10 admin fee.

angelil

You can write and try. But normally you should fix these things on the day. It would have been quite clear on Saturday that you hadn't used the ticket, but less clear now...

DieselDragon

What was the difference in fare between the two?
What you could have done (And might want to remember for the future) would be to present the incorrectly purchased ticket at the ticket office and ask to "Excess" it to the appropriate fare.

As a fag-packet example: If your desired Virgin ticket was £25.00 and the LM ticket you'd purchased was £21.00, the excess would've turned it into the Virgin ticket on payment of the £4.00 difference in fares. It's a handy thing to keep in mind for minor ticketing mistakes.

In the meantime though - As Kite said above - LM will most likely levy a £10 admin fee for processing your refund (As will any TOC in the same case, sadly) although you could always ask them if they can make a discretionary refund of it sans charge.
If you bought the LM ticket with a credit card, you could also investigate the possibility of handing the ticket to your card provider (It was paid with their cash and thus is in their title until ye pay it off) and asking them to deal with it - They have a lot more clout than us consumers, and they could always execute a chargeback if LM decide not to play ball.

Cycrow

DieselDragon wrote: »

What was the difference in fare between the two?
What you could have done (And might want to remember for the future) would be to present the incorrectly purchased ticket at the ticket office and ask to "Excess" it to the appropriate fare.

i had something simlar once, i bought a single ticket but meant to by the return, it worked out at about £1 difference.

i just went straight to the ticket office to get it sorted, they refunded the first then issued the new one.

and had to no additional admin charge to worry about either.

as long as you sort it out straight away, they will usually fix it for you

yorkie2

DieselDragon wrote: »

What was the difference in fare between the two?
What you could have done (And might want to remember for the future) would be to present the incorrectly purchased ticket at the ticket office and ask to "Excess" it to the appropriate fare.

As a fag-packet example: If your desired Virgin ticket was £25.00 and the LM ticket you'd purchased was £21.00, the excess would've turned it into the Virgin ticket on payment of the £4.00 difference in fares. It's a handy thing to keep in mind for minor ticketing mistakes.

Officially, you (or should I say "ye" ) are not meant to be able to obtain an excess from a TOC specific ticket, to a ticket valid on any operator.

Even if you were to find someone who is prepared to issue it, the ticket might not then be accepted on the train.

maniacmartin

You can't excess away a restriction to a certain Train Operating Company. You may have been able to get a full refund if you went to the ticket office immediately, but now it's mot likely to be minus a £10 admin fee. Contact the company you purchased the ticket from

Axial

Tickets can be Non-Issued within 60 minutes of purchase for no charge, and either be changed for correct ticket or refunded entirely

Dave_the_Ginger_Cat

DieselDragon wrote: »

If you bought the LM ticket with a credit card, you could also investigate the possibility of handing the ticket to your card provider (It was paid with their cash and thus is in their title until ye pay it off) and asking them to deal with it - They have a lot more clout than us consumers, and they could always execute a chargeback if LM decide not to play ball.

Sorry, this is not true. The title to the goods changes to the consumer at the point of sale - at no point is in the lenders title. S75 is designed to protect consumers against goods which cannot be used or are not supplied due to a supplier issue. It is not designed for purchasing mistakes.