Edinburgh LNER non-impartial ticketing

[embers25]

Asked for Birmingham to Shrewsbury Off Peak Period return at the LNER ticket office in Edinburgh and I was only offered advance fares or the TFW only tickets. When I showed her BRFares.com she said that I should buy them online as she was in Scotland and ticket offices in Scotland couldn't sell tickets for the rest of the UK. When I pointed out that only offering TFW tickets was not impartial retailing she said that was tough and I should buy online. When I protested further she called over a supervisor who realised she'd put in Birmingham New Street not Birmingham Stations and lo and behold the fares appeared and she begrudgingly agreed to sell it. The supervisor said it was a "small error" under his breath and she offered no apology only saying that she didn't have to deal with attitude like mine. All I did was protest that she was breaking impartial ticketing rules by only offering operator specific tickets and claiming that she couldn't sell period returns between English stations! It's no wonder ticket offices are closing with staff this awful. When I said I would complain several staff yelled across the ticket office for her not to worry as I was wrong.

 

[sheff1]

Well, if it is a "small error" to put forward the blatant untruth that ticket offices in Scotland can't sell tickets for the rest of the UK when she had already offered you two different ones, I wonder what a big error would entail.

I think, but am not 100% certain, you can buy tickets from other stations (even if they are not in Scotland ) from the TVMs at Edinburgh. If you can, you might want to do that next time.

 

[gray1404]

Stick in a formal complaint to the company about the whole thing, the incorrect information, the way you were treated both by her and the other staff members. Give a fulll discription of them and any names and see what they say back.

 

[embers25]

Well, if it is a "small error" to put forward the blatant untruth that ticket offices in Scotland can't sell tickets for the rest of the UK when she had already offered you two different ones, I wonder what a big error would entail.

I think, but am not 100% certain, you can buy tickets from other stations (even if they are not in Scotland ) from the TVMs at Edinburgh. If you can, you might want to do that next time.

I tried to buy from the ticket machines but it didn't have the option on the ones I looked at . I usually buy online but as there was no queue I figured it was easier to buy at the office...little did I know.

 

[Wallsendmag]

Strange none of the Shift Leaders in Edinburgh are male. To be honest the error is fairly small but quite significant. Not pricing from a group station and pricing point to point makes life very difficult.

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

To be honest the error is fairly small but quite significant.

Surely you can see that you are contradicting yourself here

What I think you may have meant is that it is an easy to make error, but with significant effects. Indeed it may be easy to make, but that does not excuse the rail industry for defining fares in a silly way like that, nor does it excuse LNER for providing inadequate software that doesn't show (like BR Fares) tickets from origins that are effectively the same (e.g. Birmingham New Street is a member of Birmingham Stations), nor does it excuse the eminently poor training of the clerk by LNER with respect to the tickets the ticket office sells, nor does it excuse the attitude we have been told was shown!

It is understandable that the clerk might have been frustrated by the customer asking for a seemingly inexistent ticket, but the railways have a long way to go if they want to match the customer service offered by most industries.

 

[rg177]

Disappointing to hear LNER don't seem to be consistent across the network, as that sounds very reminiscent of Newcastle Travel Centre under DOR and early Virgin. A firm unwillingness to sell anything they weren't familiar with and it usually taking an argument to get it sold, even down to silly things like Edinburgh to Glasgow day returns.

Nowadays their wealth of knowledge shines through and even things like CIV tickets, Travelcards, Interrail reservations, and rovers are issued with a smile and little hesitation. If only it could be like that everywhere!