Good day all,

I'm in a bit of a panic here. I have a £4500 season ticket with SWT. I managed to lose it about 1 month into the ticket and was interviewed by revenue protection and subsequently given a replacement.

Last night as I got up to let a lady off I folded the tray back with my season ticket in there and forgot to take it down again before getting off leaving my ticket on the train. Realising my mistake I tried to call the guard and SWT 30 mins after. However there were no numbers I could get through to.

I spoke to the guard this morning and he advised that I wouldn't be given a duplicate and I would have to buy a new season ticket as I'd already had one replacement. My current season ticket had until June to run, so about £1500 worth of travel.

I've got a new daughter being born soon and I can't afford the travel to get to work.

Surely SWT can't refuse to let me travel? I've paid for the service not the ticket right? Is there anyone who can offer me any advice on how to go about coming to a resolution which doesn't end up putting me into debt or losing my job!

Any advice greatly appreciated!!!

thank you

T

Hello and welcome to CAG. The forum guys should be along over the course of the day.

I've looked at SWT's website and couldn't see anything about replacement season tickets. They have a helpline, it would be worth calling that to ask your questions.

I would say you need to buy tickets for now, because the website does say that you should carry your season ticket and display it when asked. Without a ticket you're likely to have further problems, I'm afraid.

My best, HB

Well I would certainly have said that you have paid for the service rather than the ticket. It seems to me that refusing to replace the ticket amounts to a penalty which exceeds their administrative costs and therefore could be unenforceable.

Presumably they deal with this in their terms and conditions. Please could you point us towards their terms and conditions

Thanks for the welcome HB13.

Yep I'm buying tickets at the moment, which is killing me at £54 a day. I'll get a weekly next week but funds are low.

I'm just wondering if anyone has any advice to get round this issue and get SWT to issue a 2nd duplicate. Do I make up a story and file a report? Would they take pity on me because it's the 2nd time in a year rather than a month? Literally any advice... I know I screwed up here by leaving it on the train in the first place.

thanks all

T

Hi there, the wording on their season ticket leaflet terms and conditions is as follows :

"if you lose your Season Ticket or it is stolen, report this immediately to the ticket office where you bought it. You should also report this to the police. If you or we cannot recover the lost or stolen ticket, we will then consider an application for a duplicate ticket, it the original was issued for a period of one month of more.

We only allow one duplicate issue in an 12 month period. However we will only allow a second duplicate issue if :

(a) the original season ticket is returned to the train company which sold it to you within one month of you reporting the loss, or

(b) the first or second request for a duplicate was because of theft, robbery, fire or other exceptional circumstances, the facts of which have been reported to the police, the fire service or another appropriate body."

However the wording on their website is different :

"Lost or stolen Season tickets or Photocards

- If you lose your Season Ticket or it is stolen, report this immediately to the ticket office where you bought it. You should also report this to the police. If you or we cannot recover the lost or stolen ticket, we will then consider an application for a duplicate ticket, if the original was issued for a period of one month or more. We do not issue duplicates in respect of lost or stolen 7 Day Season Tickets. We may ask you or others for information. There is an administration charge when we issue a duplicate Season Ticket.

- A duplicate season ticket can be issued if:

you tell staff at an office of the Train Company from which it was bought as soon as you reasonably can and, if required, you give a reasonable explanation for the loss;

you agree to return immediately the lost Season Ticket if you find it, to an office of the Train Company from which it was bought; the lost Season Ticket is valid for one month or longer

- If you subsequently lose or mislay your duplicate Season Ticket or it is stolen, then further duplicate Season Tickets will be issued on the same basis as your first duplicate Season Ticket. However, you may be asked to attend a meeting with the Train Company concerned to explain the circumstances in which your duplicate Season Ticket(s) was lost. Train Companies have agreed a Code of Practice for such meetings, a copy of which can be found on the National Rail and Train Company websites.

- We will refund (with no administration charge) the cost of tickets you buy while you are waiting for the duplicate ticket to be issued, if you hand these tickets in.

- If you lose your photocard or it is stolen, we can issue a new one, for which a further passport-type photograph is required. If we need to reissue your Season Ticket, an administration charge will be made."

Presumably these season tickets have electronic strips so that journeys can be logged but also which would allow the company to disable the ticket?

Have you any idea about this?

As far as i know, the electronic strips are the method of access through gates etc, but these cannot be cancelled remotely so the tickets that are issued remain active... so I can see their point that they could lose revenue through fraud...

I can't imagine that they're not cancellable remotely.

I'm sure that they are able to keep tags in your journeys. It would have been naïve of them not to take advantage of this statistical marketing exercise.

Even if they weren't able to cancel them, they would certainly be able to know when each ticket is being used.

Have a search for this kind of information on the Internet. I'm sure that there are people who will know about these kinds of things.

I would suggest that you begin by sending them an SAR and let's see what kind of information they have about you. They may well have information about the journeys that you make. If that is the case then they would also have information about how the ticket has been use subsequent to the loss.

Can you tell me a bit about the procedure for purchasing the ticket please.

Did you buy it online? Is there a checkbox to say that you accepted terms and conditions? What were those terms and conditions?

Did you buy over the counter? Did you sign anything to say that you agreed certain terms and conditions? Were any terms and conditions brought your attention?

The order of these things can be extremely important – especially to know if terms and conditions were brought your attention and whether they were brought your attention before or after the sale.

For instance, it might be possible that you bought the ticket and you are then given a wallet with the ticket in, and the terms and conditions. In that case the terms and conditions would not be binding because they had not been brought to your attention before you entered into the contract.

We need to look at the whole situation in detail before deciding upon a strategy

yes they can be cancelled for the automatic barriers but that doesnt stop them being used fraudulently.

I would report the ticket as being stolen from your seat on the xxth of whatever and then get a crime number and ask again for a replacement. Keep all your daily tickets so you can ask fro them to be reimbursed

Ah yes, it hadn't clicked with me that you haven't made a formal request for a duplicate yet. You have only asked the guard and been given an informal refusal.

I agree with the above advice. Make a formal application for a duplicate and see what happens. You never know, maybe all of this discussion has been unnecessary.

Keep us informed

Thing is if I make a formal application for a duplicate then I won't be able to report it as stolen later. I've been given very clear advice that I will be refused a duplicate...

I'm leaning towards making a police report to say it was stolen from my seat...

ID, I'm sending a couple of SOSs to forum members who are in the industry, to see if they can come and help.

HB

Thanks very much HB, very much appreciated.

Well you must play it as you see fit, but the advice on this forum would be to play it straight.

Also they will ask you why you didn't report it immediately instead of waiting and paying full price tickets in the intervening time.

However the wording on their website is different :

 

"Lost or stolen Season tickets or Photocards

- If you lose your Season Ticket or it is stolen, report this immediately to the ticket office where you bought it. You should also report this to the police. If you or we cannot recover the lost or stolen ticket, we will then consider an application for a duplicate ticket, if the original was issued for a period of one month or more. We do not issue duplicates in respect of lost or stolen 7 Day Season Tickets. We may ask you or others for information. There is an administration charge when we issue a duplicate Season Ticket.

- A duplicate season ticket can be issued if:

you tell staff at an office of the Train Company from which it was bought as soon as you reasonably can and, if required, you give a reasonable explanation for the loss;

 

you agree to return immediately the lost Season Ticket if you find it, to an office of the Train Company from which it was bought; the lost Season Ticket is valid for one month or longer

- If you subsequently lose or mislay your duplicate Season Ticket or it is stolen, then further duplicate Season Tickets will be issued on the same basis as your first duplicate Season Ticket. However, you may be asked to attend a meeting with the Train Company concerned to explain the circumstances in which your duplicate Season Ticket(s) was lost. Train Companies have agreed a Code of Practice for such meetings, a copy of which can be found on the National Rail and Train Company websites.

- We will refund (with no administration charge) the cost of tickets you buy while you are waiting for the duplicate ticket to be issued, if you hand these tickets in.

- If you lose your photocard or it is stolen, we can issue a new one, for which a further passport-type photograph is required. If we need to reissue your Season Ticket, an administration charge will be made."

You should call the SWT Customer Relations office on 0345 600 0650 and explain how you believe that you came to lose the ticket just as you have done here. Explain what your actions were in the 30 minutes immediately after you alighted.

You may be asked to attend for interview as described above, but in exceptional circumstances and if they are satisfied that this is a genuine event, then I would expect SWT to apply the terms above and as advertised on their current website.

Do not be tempted to make an excuse, help SWT to help you by "hot-listing" the lost season so that if it comes to light being used by someone else then they can take robust action.

The sooner you make a truthful report the sooner you are likely to get this sorted.

Good luck

Thank you for answering the SOS, OC.

HB

can't you do a subject access request via phone?

can't you do a subject access request via phone?

Not according to the information behind the hyperlink in your post above, Frank. I'm not sure how an SAR would help though.

HB

I do think BANKFODDER hit on the point I was making its a contract so why can we not have a SAR?