Jobsworth train staff

[john_p]

Update page 5 - National Express refunded in full

So I have to travel to Leeds today, and I thought I'd let the train take the strain.

Booked tickets on line and collected them from Kings Cross. Of course every time I buy train tickets, the machine prints out the outbound, return and then a card receipt. But not today. No, two more things get printed, "reservation tickets". Do I pick them up? No.

So, approaching Peterborough. "I can't accept this ticket as valid". Why? "You need the reservation ticket sir". You know the type, antiquated-ex-BR jobsworth. Despite having tickets, a printout of my reservation, that's not good enough because I don't have TWO stTY TICKETS TO FULFIL SOME STUPID POINTLESS BUREAUCRATIC NONSENSE

I ring the web helpdesk, as all the other customer service numbers are closed at weekends, and the lady is very helpful and even speaks to the guard, but still refuses to accept the tickets as valid.

So he threatens to have the police remove me off the train at Peterborough. As it's fast approaching, I have to pay the full fare. 150 quid. Web helpdesk woman reckons I'll get it refunded if I write in, yeah right.

I am never booking a long distance train journey again. sts

Edited by john_p on Tuesday 11th November 13:21

[Blue Meanie]

So the trick is to pick up the tickets it gives you at the machine... Why did you leave them?

[The Black Flash]

What a crock! You can book airline tickets online, and all you need at check in is your booking number...but for a train you need two bits of paper?

This is why giving organisations ever more power over our lives is a baaad, baaad thing.

[Blib]

john_p said:

So I have to travel to Leeds today, and I thought I'd let the train take the strain.

Schoolboy error.

BTW. Why didn't you pick up the other two voucher thingies?

[guru_1071]

saw a good con on the train from york to aberdean last weekend.

2 girls, one shows ticket to inspector, other shows seat reservation part, then tries to blag that she had left the ticket at home, when it was fairly obvious to most people in the carrage that she was winging it with her mates reservation ticket.

after a very spirited rant at the thick skinned inspector she provided her name and address, still it broke the journy up a bit.

i have to say that it was the first time i had used the train for a while and it was fine, clean, on time and far easier than driving. not to dear either - about 40 quid return (bought a few weeks ago)

[Blue Meanie]

The Black Flash said:

What a crock! You can book airline tickets online, and all you need at check in is your booking number...but for a train you need two bits of paper?

This is why giving organisations ever more power over our lives is a baaad, baaad thing.

probably because trains are not as high tech ticket wise as airports. Hence the tickets, especially as they are not name dependent. Should have taken the extra tickets, and all his trouble would have been sorted.

[okgo]

Time's are changing sir.

[john_p]

Blue Meanie said:

So the trick is to pick up the tickets it gives you at the machine... Why did you leave them?

It printed three tickets out, so I picked them up, seeing there were the outbound, the return and my payment receipt, I assumed that was all. I looked at the screen and it had gone back to the start. I didn't expect it to have then stted out TWO MORE tickets for some bureaucratic nonsense. I assumed the web booking was the proof of seating.

Anyway, another passenger has just blocked one of the toilets, and it no longer flushes. So while I was trying to find another toilet, I was glad to inform the guard of the situation

Edited by john_p on Saturday 16th August 13:48

[SS HSV]

Blue Meanie said:

.. probably because trains are not as high tech ticket wise as airports.

By comparison, the train network is living in the dark ages

[Hedders]

john_p said:

Blue Meanie said:

So the trick is to pick up the tickets it gives you at the machine... Why did you leave them?

It printed three tickets out, so I picked them up, seeing there were the outbound, the return and my payment receipt, I assumed that was all. I looked at the screen and it had gone back to the start. I didn't expect it to have then stted out TWO MORE tickets for some bureaucratic nonsense. I assumed the web booking was the proof of seating.

Anyway, another passenger has just blocked one of the toilets, and it no longer flushes. So while I was trying to find another toilet, I was glad to inform the guard of the situation

It won't bother him much. Won't he just lock it, if he even does that?

[Tom55]

john_p said:

Blue Meanie said:

So the trick is to pick up the tickets it gives you at the machine... Why did you leave them?

It printed three tickets out, so I picked them up, seeing there were the outbound, the return and my payment receipt, I assumed that was all. I looked at the screen and it had gone back to the start. I didn't expect it to have then stted out TWO MORE tickets for some bureaucratic nonsense. I assumed the web booking was the proof of seating.

Anyway, another passenger has just blocked one of the toilets, and it no longer flushes. So while I was trying to find another toilet, I was glad to inform the guard of the situation

Edited by john_p on Saturday 16th August 13:48

I use this system all the time, it tells you on the machine how many tickets its printing out and to ensure you collect them all, down to you old son I am afraid, but if you write in you should get a refund

[cs02rm0]

john_p said:

So I have to travel to Leeds today, and I thought I'd let the train take the strain.

There's your mistake. Expensive, stressful and woeful service.

[eldar]

Tom55 said:

john_p said:

Blue Meanie said:

So the trick is to pick up the tickets it gives you at the machine... Why did you leave them?

It printed three tickets out, so I picked them up, seeing there were the outbound, the return and my payment receipt, I assumed that was all. I looked at the screen and it had gone back to the start. I didn't expect it to have then stted out TWO MORE tickets for some bureaucratic nonsense. I assumed the web booking was the proof of seating.

Anyway, another passenger has just blocked one of the toilets, and it no longer flushes. So while I was trying to find another toilet, I was glad to inform the guard of the situation

Edited by john_p on Saturday 16th August 13:48

I use this system all the time, it tells you on the machine how many tickets its printing out and to ensure you collect them all, down to you old son I am afraid, but if you write in you should get a refund

Which is fine, if you travel all the time and know the system.

Hardly intuitive to know that a ticket is actually 2, and even having a ticket, rather than a ticket and a reservation ticket (which in my experience means nothing, as there is usually a drunk in it). Why couldn't they save paper and print it on one ticket? Not hard in the 21st century...

[sleep envy]

eldar said:

Tom55 said:

john_p said:

Blue Meanie said:

So the trick is to pick up the tickets it gives you at the machine... Why did you leave them?

It printed three tickets out, so I picked them up, seeing there were the outbound, the return and my payment receipt, I assumed that was all. I looked at the screen and it had gone back to the start. I didn't expect it to have then stted out TWO MORE tickets for some bureaucratic nonsense. I assumed the web booking was the proof of seating.

Anyway, another passenger has just blocked one of the toilets, and it no longer flushes. So while I was trying to find another toilet, I was glad to inform the guard of the situation

Edited by john_p on Saturday 16th August 13:48

I use this system all the time, it tells you on the machine how many tickets its printing out and to ensure you collect them all, down to you old son I am afraid, but if you write in you should get a refund

Which is fine, if you travel all the time and know the system.

Hardly intuitive to know that a ticket is actually 2, and even having a ticket, rather than a ticket and a reservation ticket (which in my experience means nothing, as there is usually a drunk in it). Why couldn't they save paper and print it on one ticket? Not hard in the 21st century...

user error

[john_p]

I will accept it's my fault for not picking up the tickets

However I didn't keeep watching the screen, I put in my booking number, then look down to watch the tickets get printed. See three, grab them, look back up and it's reset to the start. Over the noise of KX I didn't hear it continue to print.
It's a nonsense that the guard refused to accept them as valid when I had proof of purchase from the printout, from the first two tickets and from the train company's customer services.

Edited by john_p on Saturday 16th August 14:17

[Blue Meanie]

So nothing to do with jobsworth staff... He's just doing his job.

[sniff petrol]

SS HSV said:

Blue Meanie said:

.. probably because trains are not as high tech ticket wise as airports.

By comparison, the train network is living in the dark ages

I disagree: do you have to get there hours before your journey, take your shoes and belt off, have your bottled drink taken off you, pay £xx per kilo of luggage more than prescribed etc.

Agree about the high and increasing costs but remember the trains run on diesel or electricity which you may have noticed have gone up a tad recently.

[King Herald]

The Black Flash said:

What a crock! You can book airline tickets online, and all you need at check in is your booking number...but for a train you need two bits of paper?

This is why giving organisations ever more power over our lives is a baaad, baaad thing.

Why do some STILL airlines ask you for your paper ticket when you board the plane?

Why do I STILL have to explain to those 'tards that I have an electronic ticket, and don't actually NEED to show a number, just relate it from memory and show ID?

Are e-tickets a new invention this year????

Why did the dickwad at Manchester insist I go through my bag to produce a printed page of the airline booking, that I just happen to have, AFTER I had already given him the on-line boarding passes that I had printed out the day before?

Why did he say they can find no record of my booking when I HAVE the boarding passes, with the seats I had selected a week before?????

Why can I print out my own boarding pass to fly the USA when I CAN'T actually USE the boarding pass, but have to go to the check-in and answer stupid fvckin' questions about whether or not I have had my mobile repaired recently and if it belongs to me??

And they then print out another boarding pass, and insist I RIP UP the self made one I already have, for 'security reasons'?

Are they so stupid that they don't think I could have printed TWO of them ???? That I might sneak onto the plane with my dangerous home made boarding pass??

The world is full of jobsworths, and I shall undoubtedly meet a couple more when I fly back to work next week. [/rant]

[Dracoro]

Blue Meanie said:

So nothing to do with jobsworth staff... He's just doing his job.

I think that's rubbish.

Customer CLEARLY purchased the tickets, had proof (and tickets) and had seat reservation on web printout.

We all make mistakes (not picking up extra 2 tickets) but any guard with any ounce of common sense would appreciate ticket is paid for. The whole point of the guards ensuring everyone has tickets is to stop NON-PAYERS, which cleary the OP is NOT.

The guard is cleary the definition of jobsworth. If nothing else, should at least let the OP know the process for getting one of the tickets refunded.

[crossle]

Let me get this straight....

The machine prints tickets, which you don't pick up, and somehow it's all somebody else's fault?

What a nob.