Season ticket holder unfairly treated

[edcrfv]

Can somebody please help. My partner holds a monthly rail season ticket on a rolling basis. She forgot to take it with her one day on her usual journey. She realised her mistake on leaving the train and sought out the barrier guard (despite the fact she could have walked through unchecked) he issued her with a ticket and said that she could claim back the fare. The fare was in the region of £11 and my partner who is a very busy person decided not to bother. She then received a letter saying that the ticket was in fact a penalty notice and demanding the fare plus admin costs. She unfortunately she did not reply to this until another letter arrived and she handed it to me. I wrote to them explaining she held a valid season ticket but had forgotten it on this day. We have just received a letter from IAS saying that the deadline has expired for appealing and she must now pay £71.40. I know she should have dealt with this earlier, but I feel this is harsh treatment of a valid season ticket holder. Any thoughts and help please?

[rebel11]

Hi ed

 

Welcome to CAG

 

The guys will be happy to advise as soon as they are available.

[The Urbanite]

If you forget a season ticket, you are supposed to either buy a ticket for the day that will be refunded, or be issued with a Penalty Fare, which will be struck off once you appeal with evidence of holding a season ticket.

 

If you decide against respecting the official process, then perhaps you need to accept the charges. It's in place to help reduce fraud, as any ticketless traveller could claim that they had "forgotten" a season ticket that doesn't exist.

[edcrfv]

Thank you for your reply. The problem as I see it, is that my partner was led to be believe that she was being issued with a ticket and not a penalty fare. Yes, she was remiss in not reading further correspondence properly, but as she has continuously held a season ticket for the past 3 years or so, it would be easy for the train company to verify this fact. It seems a bit harsh and expensive. Perhaps you are right though and we have to learn an expensive lesson for not paying attention to correspondence.

[MrGates]

When your partner was spoken to, exactly what were they given in regards to a ticket? Did they sign anything?

[Grotesque]

A Penalty Notice and a normal 'ticket' look completely different. PHENOMENALLY different!

 

Anyway regardless of whether the original decision was reasonable, the fact that she ignored two? three? letters on the subject absolutely justifies the current position.

 

You keep reiterating that your partner is a season-holder; can I point out that up until the point she appeals, proving it, the railway Commpany do not actually know this. So all they know is that someone claiming to be 'X' and holding a monthly season has a) not presented a ticket for that particular journey, and that b) has presumably accepted the penalty by the fact of not appealing.

 

A prosecution under Byelaw 18(2) would be legitimate in this case, which if proven (not difficult in this case) would lead to a criminal record etc.

So probably better just to take this one on the chin eh.

 

Good luck.

[SRPO]

She had the chance to get the penalty quashed but ignored it, although they wont prosecute (IMO) they will chase her for the outstanding debt.

[Gooner_88]

she has continuously held a season ticket for the past 3 years or so, it would be easy for the train company to verify this fact. It seems a bit harsh and expensive.

 

Although i dont know what TOC this occurred on i can only assume that they use IRCAS regarding PFN & UFN's which would mean that all the clerical work would be done out of house and the company would not have any actual knowledge of the dealings to feel the need to check up on one customers life story.

[Old-CodJA]

Although i dont know what TOC this occurred on i can only assume that they use IRCAS regarding PFN & UFN's which would mean that all the clerical work would be done out of house and the company would not have any actual knowledge of the dealings to feel the need to check up on one customers life story.

 

Not all of this kind of processing is handled by IRCAS.

 

A great many cases are dealt with by the original BR processing office at R.P.S.S (Portsmouth) which is now an 'independent' company and others still are handled in-house by some TOCs such as FCC for example.

 

Much will depend on which company's service the journey was made on.

[edcrfv]

Thank you to everyone for taking the time to help. For your information, it was National Express East Anglia. Having further questioned my partner, it seems she did sign a piece of paper which she then put in her bag and forgot about! An expensive lesson has been learnt and as 'Grotesque' puts it we better "take this one on the chin" and pay up.

[andydd]

Not only must she of signed a bit of paper but she must of given them her contact details in order for them to contact her...this is all rather different than just buying a ticket, for starters the cost would be different.

 

Ive been in this sitautionm and its normally quite obvious what has gone on and I dont just forget about it, i quickly write off to get either the ticket cost (in my case about £15) or the penalty fare (£20) refunded.

 

Andy