Non collection of ticket

[Ticket123]

Hi, I was hoping someone might be able to give me some advice.
When travelling from west ruslip to high wycombe I often get the tickets on trainline but I haven't always collected the physical ticket, but as there are no barriers at either station I often just don't collect the ticket. This has resulted in trainline automatically issuing a part refund for the ticket. Yesterday a fraud officer asked for my ticket and because I hadn't collected it he wrote a report saying that I didn't have a valid ticket and I would be contacted. Given that they will probably look at my trainline history and see that about 8 refunds have been issued I believe they will try and charge me in court. Should I get a solicitor to contact them and pay a fine, admin fees and costs for all of the refunded journeys or wait for the letter and respond admitting that although it was not my intention to not pay for the ticket I did consciously not always get the ticket and accepted the refund?
I know this has been wrong and sometimes the refunds have been genuine reasons when I haven't travelled, but not always and I get that it is really bad of me to have done this and I am genuinely sorry and will 100% be collecting my tickets in the future!

 

[Hadders]

Welcome to the forum.

There are a couple of separate issues here:

1. Failure to collect your ticket - failure to be possession of the physical ticket is actually a criminal offence. Chiltern Railways (or Transport Investigations Limitioed which is a company that handle many of Chiltern's cases) will be in contect with you about this. In most cases I'd expect you to be able to negotiate an out of court settlement with Chiltern over this.

2. High level of refunds - this is something that Trainline might flag up, they're getting very hot on this sort of thing at the moment. To be blunt why, on a regular basis, would someone buy tickets, not collect them and then get refunded? That is going to look suspicous.

The issue you have now is that it will be easy for Chiltern/TIL and Trainline to join the dots and work out what you've been up to. The key thing here is going to be what you say in the response to the initial letter you'll be sent by Chiltern/TIL. If it only talks about the single incident where you were stopped then I would only talk about this single incident in your reply - you are not required to incriminate yourself. On the other hand, if the letter indicates that they are researching your online accounts, or mentions the possibility of other incidents then it would be best to come clean.

I don't think there's any point in engaging a solicitor at this stage. Wait for the letter to arrive and see what it says first. On balance I suspect it will still be possible to negotiate a settlement but it may be a bit harder. Feel free to post a copy of the letter when it arrives in this thread (with personal details removed), along with your draft reply and forum member will be happy to proof read ot for you.

 

[Ticket123]

Thank you, I feel so silly bout this and I am genuinely sorry. Im assuming they just automatically investigate your trainline accounts so I am suspecting they will try and charge for all of the offences. There are a load of other tickets on there for GWR that have not been refunded and are legit payments although not sure that will help my case. I'm so anxious and I can see that it takes months for the letter to come so I am scared that I'll endure months of anxiety and wondering if I should be proactive and try to contact them first on this incident as I'm worried my mental state will suffer as I wait for the letter

 

[Haywain]

When travelling from west ruslip to high wycombe I often get the tickets on trainline but I haven't always collected the physical ticket, but as there are no barriers at either station I often just don't collect the ticket

I could have sworn that High Wycombe has ticket barriers. Does this mean you are travelling at a time of day when they are left open?

 

[Ticket123]

It does but whenever I have been they have been open. This has been at various times of the day and week. Often the person stood will let you through without checking the ticket. I don't travel regularly this has been 8 times in the last year or so

 

[Hadders]

I'm so anxious and I can see that it takes months for the letter to come so I am scared that I'll endure months of anxiety and wondering if I should be proactive and try to contact them first on this incident as I'm worried my mental state will suffer as I wait for the letter

The initial letter norally takes a few weeks to arrive rather than months, it should not take longe rthan six months.

There's no point contacting them before the letter arrives, it could actually be counter-productive. While it's important for you to get it resolved as quickly as possible the train companoes deal with hundreds of these sort of cases at any one time and you simply have to wait your turn for your case to be dealt with.

It's easy to say, but try and put the matter to the back of your mind and get on with your life. Once the letter does arrive come back here and we will be able to assist.

 

[CyrusWuff]

I could have sworn that High Wycombe has ticket barriers. Does this mean you are travelling at a time of day when they are left open?

As does West Ruislip unless you enter via the car park, which you'd need to do to use the Chiltern TVM to collect tickets.

As an aside, e-tickets aren't an option for the journey in question as West Ruislip's managed by London Underground.

 

[swt_passenger]

Hi, I was hoping someone might be able to give me some advice.
When travelling from west ruslip to high wycombe I often get the tickets on trainline but I haven't always collected the physical ticket, but as there are no barriers at either station I often just don't collect the ticket. This has resulted in trainline automatically issuing a part refund for the ticket.

Here you have written “part refund”, but if you haven’t collected the physical ticket at all, wouldn't Trainline have done a full refund?

Have you been ordering separate singles for the two legs of a return journey, and only printing one ticket if you expected to need it to get through the gates?

 

[Hadders]

Here you have written “part refund”, but if you haven’t collected the physical ticket at all, wouldn't Trainline have done a full refund?

Have you been ordering separate singles for the two legs of a return journey, and only printing one ticket if you expected to need it to get through the gates?

I suspect a partial refund could be a full refund less a £10 admin fee.

 

[swt_passenger]

I suspect a partial refund could be a full refund less a £10 admin fee.

Oh yes of course, although aren’t they variable on trainline, on some sort of sliding scale?

 

[island]

Oh yes of course, although aren’t they variable on trainline, on some sort of sliding scale?

Yes, Trainline charges a lower sliding-scale fee on refunds under (about) £13.

 

[Ticket123]

Thank you for your replies. Yes the trainline refunds vary and have been bout £3 each ticket and have been automatically issued by trainline. Often it is because I get the tube and then switch and has been because I've been rushing to get the hourly train or rushing home to get the last tube. This isn't an excuse though and I know I should've been collecting the tickets

 

[Haywain]

Thank you for your replies. Yes the trainline refunds vary and have been bout £3 each ticket and have been automatically issued by trainline. Often it is because I get the tube and then switch and has been because I've been rushing to get the hourly train or rushing home to get the last tube. This isn't an excuse though and I know I should've been collecting the tickets

Thing is, if you have been getting £3 back and Trainline have been getting their admin fee then Chiltern gave been getting nothing at all and they won't be at all happy with that.