Following a number of vendor errors on online websites a few years ago, there was a change/clarification on the law where obvious mistakes in pricing could be retracted before the goods were delivered. GWR are presumably asserting that position and a holder of such a ticket could find travel refused when presenting them. There's also the long established principle of offer and reward where irrespective of a price shown on goods, that offer can be withdrawn before the contract is completed. On the case of a railway ticket, that could be at any point up to the first inspection whilst travelling.
No, the goods are the travel, - nobody other than a collector would consider paying hundreds of pounds for a piece of card. But if you think the deal is for a ticket then congratulations, you are now the proud owner of a rare piece of railway memorabilia! You can't travel on it. I assume that it is an 'ITX' ticket which is only formally issued to registered travel companies for use as part of an inclusive tour. There was a similar thread to yours by @Aictos on 5/11/2010, but that one got sidetracked by the 'what can I do with my staff travel privilege pass to pay even less' type of discussion. I can't copy a link as I'm on a phone at the moment.
I think the legal position may be a bit wavy where a paper ticket is required. However, where there is an “obvious error”, companies like airlines can simply cancel the contract and refund you and not allow you travel.
We had a memo about this yesterday telling us to accept these tickets if presented to us.
I don’t think this argument holds any water. Tickets are not goods, they are evidence of payment for a service, which is delivered when the journey is made.
Is the correct analysis. The train company will be in a stronger position the faster it contacts ticket holders as passengers who make further arrangements dependent on the error tickets may well claim they have acted to their detriment on the basis of the contract they thought they had with the train company.
Prices are printed in rather smaller and less prominent text on the current ticket layout as compared to the APTIS-style ticket, so that probably contributes!
Probably because it was discussed publicly here?
Just as well. I don't think that anybody here really thinks it's a mistake that should be left uncorrected.
If a brief was issued to staff yesterday that is unlikely.
After I picked up my tickets (there was a lot!
) I tried again and it didn't work so it seems it was corrected very quickly. Probably by 3pm yesterday.
I doubt it, the brief came from the head of retail yesterday
