londonbridge
Established Member
- Joined
- 30 Jun 2010
- Messages
- 1,487
I held the return portion of a Brighton-Southampton Central super offpeak return routed not via London. I had been down to Mums for the weekend last month, travelling East Croydon-Clapham-Eastleigh. The return half was valid till April 24th so I still had an unused portion between Croydon and Brighton.
Decided to use the remaining validity as a single to Brighton to do one of the local parkruns and buy a single back home, so I planned to catch this mornings 07:34 Southern to Littlehampton and visit Preston Park. The ticket wouldn’t work the barrier so I showed it to the gateline attendant, explained the validity, said I was resuming travel after breaking my journey, and asked to be let through. He said he wasn’t sure and told me to check at the ticket office, where I explained everything again and then spent ten minutes arguing at the window as the staff member refused to accept my explanation. First he argued that the ticket was only valid on the coastal route, so I asked him to check the routing guide. He refused to do so, insisting that the ticket wasn’t valid. I asked him to check again and again he refused, so I asked for a manager, whereupon he replied with “I’m done with this conversation”. I repeated my request for a manager four times before he backed down and called someone over. The second staff member scanned the ticket, then said I could tell the gateline attendant it was valid.
By this time it had been announced that the train had been delayed due to this mornings landslip at Burgess Hill. It was subsequently announced that Littlehampton trains were diverting via Horsham, so I jumped on the 07:49 Brighton Thameslink train and got as far as Haywards Heath where we sat for twenty minutes before I bailed out and went to Clair parkrun instead, since by that point I would have missed the run start if I’d continued to Preston Park.
Obviously I don’t expect staff to have a mental encyclopaedic knowledge of the routing guide but is there any point in complaining to Southern as I’ll probably just receive a bog standard reply and nothing will change. It was his attitude and refusal to listen to my argument that was most irritating. Also the fact I now know the ticket won’t work the barrier leaves the prospect of similar arguments if I do the same on my next visit to Mums later in the year.
Having done the run at Clair I returned to Haywards Heath station where I saved money on the cost of a single to Croydon by buying a single to Gatwick and then using contactless back to Croydon.
As an aside, and tongue in cheek, did I actually need to buy the single or could I have travelled home on my original ticket and then claimed a refund on the Croydon-Brighton portion on the basis of abandoning my journey due to disruption? Using the argument that my intention was to travel to Preston Park and I only got as far as Haywards Heath before returning to my origin.
Decided to use the remaining validity as a single to Brighton to do one of the local parkruns and buy a single back home, so I planned to catch this mornings 07:34 Southern to Littlehampton and visit Preston Park. The ticket wouldn’t work the barrier so I showed it to the gateline attendant, explained the validity, said I was resuming travel after breaking my journey, and asked to be let through. He said he wasn’t sure and told me to check at the ticket office, where I explained everything again and then spent ten minutes arguing at the window as the staff member refused to accept my explanation. First he argued that the ticket was only valid on the coastal route, so I asked him to check the routing guide. He refused to do so, insisting that the ticket wasn’t valid. I asked him to check again and again he refused, so I asked for a manager, whereupon he replied with “I’m done with this conversation”. I repeated my request for a manager four times before he backed down and called someone over. The second staff member scanned the ticket, then said I could tell the gateline attendant it was valid.
By this time it had been announced that the train had been delayed due to this mornings landslip at Burgess Hill. It was subsequently announced that Littlehampton trains were diverting via Horsham, so I jumped on the 07:49 Brighton Thameslink train and got as far as Haywards Heath where we sat for twenty minutes before I bailed out and went to Clair parkrun instead, since by that point I would have missed the run start if I’d continued to Preston Park.
Obviously I don’t expect staff to have a mental encyclopaedic knowledge of the routing guide but is there any point in complaining to Southern as I’ll probably just receive a bog standard reply and nothing will change. It was his attitude and refusal to listen to my argument that was most irritating. Also the fact I now know the ticket won’t work the barrier leaves the prospect of similar arguments if I do the same on my next visit to Mums later in the year.
Having done the run at Clair I returned to Haywards Heath station where I saved money on the cost of a single to Croydon by buying a single to Gatwick and then using contactless back to Croydon.
As an aside, and tongue in cheek, did I actually need to buy the single or could I have travelled home on my original ticket and then claimed a refund on the Croydon-Brighton portion on the basis of abandoning my journey due to disruption? Using the argument that my intention was to travel to Preston Park and I only got as far as Haywards Heath before returning to my origin.
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