New charges when booking train tickets online

misscomickat

I booked a ticket to Oxford on qjump.co.uk this morning. I was quite surprised to see that there are now charges for any method of receiving your ticket.

To collect it from a quick ticket machine in the train station costs 50p, and to have it delivered by post is £1. Previously there was no charge.

I think this is a bit of a rip off and in future it will encourage me to go to the train station and book. Which is a joke, as at my local station the queues are really long.

Just thought I would warn others.

BritishNinja

Is it just on qjump, or on other rail booking sites such as TheTrainLine? I need to book a 200 mile journey to Swansea soon :-p

misscomickat

I don't know. But it didn't tell me about it until AFTER I had booked the tickets, which is a bit of a cheek.

redmike123

Shame about that, What a damn cheek they have, not sending you the tickets for free. You will just have to join the long long queue at your station in future then, that will teach them a lesson.

Trainline charge as well, but personally I think its well worth it.

bonzer

Just used this National Express East Coast site to buy a train ticket recommended on this other thread.

No hidden extras. No postage charges, no collection charges and no credit card surcharges. Quite a nice site too.

Cheers

Bonzer

3plus1

If you use TheTrainLine.com, they try to add on extra fees of about a fiver for insurance, first class post and using a credit card.

If you use a debit card, say no to insurance (I can't see the point of getting insured for a train journey going wrong, when if it does, the station staff will sort it out there and then for you anyway) and pick up tickets from a fastticket machine, there are no additional fees to pay.

I'm damned if I'm paying any extra when train prices are such a bloody rip off in the first place! I think living in France has completely spoiled me - the trains over there are so much more efficient ("Ladies, gentleman, SNCF are so sorry to announce that your train will be one minute late, please do forgive us, we are so sorry") and so much cheaper.

misscomickat

I am picking the tickets up from a fastcard machine, and I STILL had to pay 50p.

3plus1

misscomickat wrote: »

I am picking the tickets up from a fastcard machine, and I STILL had to pay 50p.

I booked mine fairly recently - it may be that Qjump is levying this 50p charge and TheTrainLine isn't? They're not the same site - Qjump is powered by TheTrainLine.

firespire

Checkout the website of the Train company you are using or find their ticket sales number as these are usually best when wanting to avoid surcharges.

Wings_of_Ambition

bonzer wrote: »

Just used this National Express East Coast site to buy a train ticket recommended on this other thread.

No hidden extras. No postage charges, no collection charges and no credit card surcharges. Quite a nice site too.

Cheers

Bonzer

Have to agree with this. Was about to buy tickets on thetrainline, but really glad I saw this thread. These guys sell exactly the same tickets, the insurance is opt-out rather than opt-in, first-class postage of tickets is free as is collection from a station, and there is no charge for using a credit card! Top notch find, Bonzer!

Wings

Blacksheep1979

well after my experiences of a bus replacement service yesterday/today and what I expect my journey to be like tomorrow I'm now looking for a car...