Third Party Ticket dealers - RSH, trainline etc....

yangptangkipperbang

In "Rail" magazine Issue 746 Barry Doe ( well known commentator on rail fares) has an article headed:-
"Steer clear of third party firms when booking tickets"

This follows problems with Red Spotted Hanky, who just seem to be ignoring customer's complaints to them. He has already advised against using trainline.com and has now issued a general warning.

He also points out that more of the Train Operating Companies are offering ticket deals that the third party sellers do not have access to.

apt

I have only ever had good service from Redspottedhanky. Yes, there are some discounts from booking direct with the toc websites, but Redspottedhanky has frequent free e-voucher offers, Tesco clubcard exchange at the rate of £10 for £5, 1.5% cashback on topcashback, and free postal delivery. Regardless of what someone says in Rail magazine RSH is often a good option.

monkeyspanner

I usually use RSH and have had good deals and pretty good service including various free vouchers and money back deals including 1.5% from Quidco and tesco £10 for £5 vouchers. I will take a look at the train operators thanks for the tip.

Quentin

yangptangkipperbang wrote: »

In "Rail" magazine Issue 746 Barry Doe ( well known commentator on rail fares) has an article headed:-
"Steer clear of third party firms when booking tickets"....

Rail magazine do say about Barry that he is a freelancer, and his comments are his own (not Rail magazines)

Voyager2002

apt wrote: »

I have only ever had good service from Redspottedhanky. Yes, there are some discounts from booking direct with the toc websites, but Redspottedhanky has frequent free e-voucher offers, Tesco clubcard exchange at the rate of £10 for £5, 1.5% cashback on topcashback, and free postal delivery. Regardless of what someone says in Rail magazine RSH is often a good option.

Indeed.

I usually price up my rail journeys both on RSH and on the website of whichever TOC runs the trains I will use, and most of the time RSH offers the best deal.

Popppet

I'm in agreement that redspottedhanky is usually good because of free tickets through tesco points. Do stay away from anytime tickets though.

On my most recent journey I bought an anytime ticket (paid accordingly, and it says "anytime" on the ticket) but at the station in the morning had to pay a massive excess because the ticket was actually off-peak. The station staff said I should contact redspottedhanky to complain. I did, but they replied promptly to say it was all my fault for buying an anytime ticket but not saying what time of day I was travelling.

I think I'll stick to off-peak tickets if I end up using the company again (the fantasy sport games are still on, hopefully those will give me enough points for a free ticket..).

Hope this helps.

wealdroam

Popppet wrote: »

On my most recent journey I bought an anytime ticket (paid accordingly, and it says "anytime" on the ticket) but at the station in the morning had to pay a massive excess because the ticket was actually off-peak. The station staff said I should contact redspottedhanky to complain. I did, but they replied promptly to say it was all my fault for buying an anytime ticket but not saying what time of day I was travelling.

That is really strange.

The National Rail Enquiries website says:

Which ticket suits you best?

The names of tickets describe when you can buy or use your ticket, making it easy for you to buy the best value ticket for your journey. Click on the ticket types below for more information.
Advance - Buy in advance, sold in limited numbers and subject to availability. These tickets are only valid on the date/train specified.
Off-Peak - Buy any time, travel off-peak.
Anytime - Buy any time, travel any time.
...

And if you were to click on Anytime, you would see:

Anytime Tickets

Buy any time, travel any time.

What are Anytime tickets?

Anytime fares are fully flexible tickets, with no time restrictions on when you can travel. Perfect for people who need complete flexibility.
...

Can you possibly post a picture of the ticket you bought?

Popppet

wealdroam wrote: »

Can you possibly post a picture of the ticket you bought?

I'm afraid the ticket's now gone, however the underlying issue here was that I have a rail card and that seems to have messed up the redspottedhanky.com booking system.

On the National Rail website, the price for anytime tickets is the same with or without a rail card: an off-peak return is £50 with a rail card, £75 without; an anytime should be £90 regardless.

Instead, redspottedhanky sold me an "anytime after 10am" ticket for £60. Peak ends at 9.30am at my station and there is no evening peak so the ticket was only valid off-peak. Luckily I had an extra £30 and 10 minutes to spare queueing up to the ticket booth to upgrade my ticket before setting off towards the airport at 7am.

Having now looked into this further, I'm not able to work out why the ticket booth person said I had been overcharged and that the cheapest option would have been £70 instead of £90, so perhaps that was a mistake on her part. Or some kind of ticket buying trickery beyond my skills.

Apparently, if I had selected a specific train for my return journey, also during peak hours, redspottedhanky would have understood why I wanted an anytime ticket. (The first part of an anytime return is valid for five days from the day specified, anytime).

(I've rounded the amounts up/down to the nearest £5)

wealdroam

Popppet wrote: »

I'm afraid the ticket's now gone, however the underlying issue here was that I have a rail card and that seems to have messed up the redspottedhanky.com booking system.

On the National Rail website, the price for anytime tickets is the same with or without a rail card: an off-peak return is £50 with a rail card, £75 without; an anytime should be £90 regardless.

Instead, redspottedhanky sold me an "anytime after 10am" ticket for £60. Peak ends at 9.30am at my station and there is no evening peak so the ticket was only valid off-peak. Luckily I had an extra £30 and 10 minutes to spare queueing up to the ticket booth to upgrade my ticket before setting off towards the airport at 7am.

Having now looked into this further, I'm not able to work out why the ticket booth person said I had been overcharged and that the cheapest option would have been £70 instead of £90, so perhaps that was a mistake on her part. Or some kind of ticket buying trickery beyond my skills.

Apparently, if I had selected a specific train for my return journey, also during peak hours, redspottedhanky would have understood why I wanted an anytime ticket. (The first part of an anytime return is valid for five days from the day specified, anytime).

(I've rounded the amounts up/down to the nearest £5)

So which ticket did you buy originally?
An Anytime ticket, an Off Peak ticket or an Advance ticket?

Actually there really is no point in answering that unless you tell us where you were travelling from and to, and on what day of the week.

There is no such thing as an anytime after 10am ticket ticket, neither is there such a concept as peak travel ending at any particular time at any station.

I hope you got a refund for the unused Anytime ticket.

Popppet

Thanks for your reply. I bought an anytime ticket, not off-peak or advance. I made sure to choose the anytime ticket because I was going to be travelling during peak hours (i.e. weekday mornings). However, I received an "anytime" ticket with a railcard discount, i.e. an "anytime" ticket which was only valid from 10am (as per railcard rules).

This was my first time travelling during peak hours, but I understand from the internet that the earliest off-peak train is the first train to arrive in London after 10am; therefore the off-peak time would be different on each station where the train stops. Again, not my speciality and perhaps this varies by train company (and not all trains go to London), and not really the point except for that to travel after 10am an off-peak ticket would be sufficient. Anyway I digress.

The contribution to this thread is that when I bought tickets through redspottedhanky, their system gave me the wrong price, and I had to pay £30 more when I got to the station. Unfortunately, redspottedhanky maintain their position that I should have known my anytime ticket was only valid from 10am and that the ticket validity information included in my confirmation email did not apply.

wealdroam

Ah, yes.

Depending on the railcard, and to some extent where you are travelling and which company's trains you are using, a railcard discounted ticket may not be valid before 10am.

I really don't think that you can blame RSH.
You bought a railcard discounted Anytime ticket (which remember, can be used at Anytime*), how were RSH to know that you were going to try to use it outside the railcard's conditions?

In the context of this thread, RSH have done exactly what any other ticket seller, third party or not, would've done.
They sold you what you asked for.

After all, we know railway ticketing is simple... National Rail Enquiries have told us so:

Customer feedback suggested that it isn’t always easy to find the best value ticket to match their needs because of the range of ticket names and different fares available.
The new fare names simplify the choice, allowing you to choose your rail ticket with confidence.

*subject to the terms of the railcard.