Beware of Last-Minute FastTicket Collections

tux900

Like many here I book my rail tickets online in advance and collect them from a FastTicket machine at the station, often immediately prior to travel. This week I happened to be passing the station and so popped in to collect the tickets for a trip next week... and lucky I did!

You know what it's like... the machine spits out the craftily similar tickets, reservations and a receipt and you then file through them matching them all up, putting them in order and so on. In this case I had nine to go through - two outbound single tickets plus reservations, two return single tickets plus reservations and a receipt - and so it took a while, particularly as things didn't quite add up right....

It turns out that one of my outbound bookings was missing and one of the return journeys was duplicated! I got the guy at the counter to give a fresh pair of eyes but sure enough he confirmed that something was seriously amiss, not least given that the duplicated return journey had two reservations for the same seat!

My only course of action was to raise it with the booking agent, TakeTheTrain, via e-mail (no phone-based customer service) and they have been looking into it. We have now agreed a resolution to replace the tickets so all should be well but it does raise the question as to what I would have done had I discovered the problem immediately prior to travel. I would not have been confident in necessarily getting a ticket inspector's discretionary consideration for my story as to why
I didn't have a valid ticket for travel - and certainly the barriers at the stations would not have given in! I think the only option would have been to buy a new full-price ticket and argue for a refund from TakeTheTrain afterwards.

So... be careful when collecting booked tickets... particularly if you are leaving it until the day of travel!

dampsquib

I always worry that if I leave it to the last day, I'll be late, or there'll be a queue, or the machine will be out of order, etc.
I wonder what caused the glitch in your purchase, and whose fault it was.
I tend to order my tickets through Virgin and collect them from a London Midland Station - even when I'm not using either V or LM. What a crazy system we now have!
I'd not heard of TakeTheTrain. Just had a play with their website .... and got a very strange result?
I already have a ticket for the 14:43 EUS to WVH Virgin train on 23/11/15. First Class Advance with a Senior Railcard £41.25.
TTT is quoting two fares for this ticket: £41.25 and £43.25.
Blowed if I can see a difference which accounts for the two fares - it's the same advance ticket, same restrictions, same train, etc, etc. Puzzling!

tux900

I have asked TTT for more info as to how/why it happened so will report back if they reveal anything.

You are right about making allowances for other risks (queues etc) and I do tend to always take a 'be prepared' approach.... One risk I hadn't anticipated though was the wrong tickets being printed! :eek:

I do like TTT's interface, although it did take a little getting used to. I also like the lack of booking fees. Interesting about the ticketing discrepancy you discovered - I'm pretty sure I may well have seen similar before where prices have differed by only a few pounds for no obvious reason.

Teapot55

Thanks for posting this post Tux!

I'm normally sent the tickets in the post by the organisation whose meeting I'm travelling to but occasionally have to order them myself & claim the money back. Last time I had to do this I was seconds away from missing my train due to the first machine I used not responding to my touch on the screen. I resolved then & there never to use the outdoor one again, and but after reading your post I'll always pick up in advance if in that situation again.

notakid

I would like to add that working at the train station it is amazing how many people leave it to the last min before picking up their tickets. The system is confusing enough. The receipt tells you how many tickets have been printed but doesn't include itself it the counting!

We have realms of left tickets which makes the journeys invalid. Also the machines are prone to stop printing halfway thru, even tho tht is an easy matter to sort extra time is needed!

I think its a great tip to collect at least a day before travel so there is time to resolve issues. And always raise the issue at the station you printed your tickets at, not travel to another station thinking they will be able to sort out the problem due to privatization you will be probably talking to a different company.

Voyager2002

notakid wrote: »

I would like to add that working at the train station it is amazing how many people leave it to the last min before picking up their tickets. The system is confusing enough. The receipt tells you how many tickets have been printed but doesn't include itself it the counting!

We have realms of left tickets which makes the journeys invalid. Also the machines are prone to stop printing halfway thru, even tho tht is an easy matter to sort extra time is needed!

I think its a great tip to collect at least a day before travel so there is time to resolve issues. And always raise the issue at the station you printed your tickets at, not travel to another station thinking they will be able to sort out the problem due to privatization you will be probably talking to a different company.

Interesting, and thanks for the experience from a different perspective.

Personally I have been using this method regularly for at least ten years. I can only recall one issue: the machine failed to recognise my payment card, and so I collected my tickets from the booking office, adding perhaps thirty seconds to the time needed. Even when there I have had to queue for the collection machine the whole process has taken less than three minutes. However, it is good to be warned that things can sometimes go wrong.

giraffe69

I've only had one occasion in several years where the machine was broken and it was no problem to collect from the ticket office but, of course, in rural areas particularly the ticket office can be closed for much or perhaps all of the day. If that happened to me then I would take a photo of the machine and stoically refuse to pay a single penny extra. I'd make sure I had the email with the ticket reference with me as well.

chuckley

I still collect on the day of travel anyway.
I had a mishap once where it didn't print the return ticket as the machine had run out, but the system showed I had them all. I did have to buy a new ticket but Virgin instantly refunded.

the only thing it made me change was 'where' I pick up the ticket. now virgin only, instead of my local.

jfdi

It costs me nearly £8 return to even get to the station, so I always leave it to the day of travel, albeit giving plenty of time.
You've got me worried now!