Here's what I've written to Northern:
Today I had an SOR from Shipley to Manchester via Hebden Bridge. On the return journey I intended to break overnight at Hebden Bridge, but the G4S barrier attendant at Manchester Victoria wrote today's date on the return portion of the ticket. When I challenged him that he had made it difficult for me to resume my journey he told me that it was not permitted to resume the return portion of an SOR (*ANYTIME RETURN*) on a later date. This is quite simply wrong. I told him he was wrong and his colleague insisted that he was right and brought me to consult the revenue protection people at a nearby desk. There were three of these and one of them thought I may be right but the other two were adamant that if I broke at Hebden Bridge I must resume that day or the ticket would be invalid. I continued to point out that this is totally incorrect, and one of them rang 'the gaffer', who backed up his staff. So 4 out of 5 G4S staff on the barrier have no idea about one of the clearest and most basic ticketing rules, and neither did their 'gaffer'. I told them they were all wrong, including the 'gaffer', and I asked for my ticket back, knowing I was right and that I would just take my chances, pointing out to the guard the next day that the validity states 'one month' should I be challenged. The man who had phoned 'the gaffer' refused to hand it back saying "I can't let you travel until I've checked this out". This was totally beyond his remit, especially given that even he with his limited knowledge of ticketing was prepared to admit that the ticket I had was valid on the train I was trying to catch.
It is bad enough defacing tickets with confusing marks, but then when challenged to give *totally factually incorrect* information, and even to go as far as attempting to prevent me from travelling. Please communicate to G4S that their staff are unaware of even the simplest ticketing rules, and that they are rude, unhelpful and bordering on aggressive. Many passengers are intimidated by what they perceive as complex rules, but this case it is not complex and I believe most passengers being told the nonsense I was told would have believed it and bought another ticket the following day.