Collecting tickets without a card

[EssexGonzo]

Hi all,

My son is at uni in Norwich and needs to come home this weekend. But he's lost his debit card.

I can obviously buy them online for him but understand that he needs the/any debit card as well as the reference to collect them. He doesn't have a card.

Is there another way I can do this (without spending £7.50 on next day delivery)? For example, could he pick them up from the ticket office with the reference and ID?

Thanks in advance....

 

[yorkie]

Does he have any sort of card that would be accepted in a ticket machine as a readable card? Or could he borrow one?
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Buy some gift e-vouchers from a participating Atos WebTIS site (e.g. TPE: https://tickets.tpexpress.co.uk/tpe/en/landing/purchasegiftvoucher), then redeem the voucher into your own account, and buy the tickets, selecting the e-vouchers as the method of payment.

Send him the TOD reference number, and he can insert ANY card (e.g. borrowing a friend's card will do it. Potentially something like a library card may work!) to collect the tickets.

 

[EssexGonzo]

At the time he will be collecting his ticket, I believe not. He'll basically be collecting it just before boarding and his mates will be elsewhere.

 

[yorkie]

Does he have any card with a magnetic strip?

If not, the method should still work, by presenting the booking confirmation email at the ticket office, if you register the account in his name, and if he has some ID to present.

 

[EssexGonzo]

He probably has other mag stripe cards - would they work?

 

[yorkie]

Probably.

I'd register an account on an Atos WebTIS site in his name, buy the e-voucher and tickets, and forward him the booking confirmation. He should then allow plenty of time to collect them; if he is unable to get any of the cards to work on the 'collection' option in the ticket machines, then presenting a printout of the booking confirmation, plus some ID, should work.

 

[EssexGonzo]

Thanks very much Yorkie, that sounds like the solution.

By the way, what's ATOS? And is TPE the recommended site of choice for this?

 

[bubieyehyeh]

A couple times I've asked the ticket office to print out some tickets I'm collecting, because the machine were broken. I showed them the booking reference from email on my phone, but they never asked for ID or the credit card. It was for tickets booked on virgin, collected from a southern ticket office.

 

[yorkie]

Thanks very much Yorkie, that sounds like the solution.

By the way, what's ATOS? And is TPE the recommended site of choice for this?

The following websites use the Atos WebTIS booking engine:

• TPE
• VTEC
• GWR
• Chiltern
• Scotrail
  (and probably more!)

Any of those which allow you to purchase e-vouchers would work. Without checking each, I know TPE and VTEC do.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---

A couple times I've asked the ticket office to print out some tickets I'm collecting, because the machine were broken. I showed them the booking reference from email on my phone, but they never asked for ID or the credit card. It was for tickets booked on virgin, collected from a southern ticket office.

GTR (or Southern before them) may not check for ID, but Greater Anglia might. So I would not risk booking for another person and being unable to present ID if challenged.

 

[Al_Smith]

Earlier this week I bought tickets through East Midlands Trains.
The website said I could collect the tickets using any card in my name, however the confirmation e-mail said I had to use the card used for the booking. As I used this card don't know if another card would work.
Also noted the web page said the tickets would be available within 15 minutes the e-mail said after 2 hours...

 

[paddington]

Earlier this week I bought tickets through East Midlands Trains.
The website said I could collect the tickets using any card in my name, however the confirmation e-mail said I had to use the card used for the booking. As I used this card don't know if another card would work.
Also noted the web page said the tickets would be available within 15 minutes the e-mail said after 2 hours...

I have been telling people (not on this forum) to book on the EMT website because they allow any card collection, but it appears that this is no longer the case.


Around the date of Al_Smith's post, I was able to use a different card to collect tickets booked with EMT.

I booked some tickets yesterday with EMT again, and this time I was not allowed to collect them with a different card.

Also, I had five alphanumeric codes to collect. I arrived at a station 60 minutes after booking. The first two references, i.e. the two tickets booked earliest, resulted in an error. Yet I was able to collect the other three tickets which had been booked a few minutes later.

I was a bit worried that perhaps the payment had been blocked for the earlier transaction (I am testing out a Wirecard-based product which frequently declines) although since a collection code was issued, this would probably never have been the case. I was able to get the outstanding tickets 150 minutes after booking.