Great Western Coffee Shop

I would be interested to hear honest answers on this one to the following yes or no answers to see why people book online

1> the adverts for the websites lead me to believe that online is cheaper than the station
2>even with a booking fee i am still saving money
3>i use the web to purchase my tickets as the nearest staffed station is too far away
4>the websites sell the full range of tickets
5>if you have a problem collecting your tickets/find out you have purchased the wrong ones you can get them refunded or amended at the station
6>the website will automatically offer you cheaper ways of doing things like offering you a railcard (if on a suitable journey and if eligible) if the ticket costs more than 84 pounds or groupsave


to be honest apart from special offers i see now and again like evouchers and using clubcard vouchers and one of the above im not sure why people use them....

especially after finding a booking confirmation for 4x anytime day returns to london today for travel today all priced with no discount what so ever on a saturday !! with a 1 pound booking fee and a 3.50 credit card fee so totaling 375.90 instead of the walk up fair on a groupsave as its a saturday super off peak all day costing  89.20 ...... for all four !

1. No, I'm not mislead. (Although less savyy folk may well be). That said there are often online only walk-up tickets that are cheaper than buying the equivalent (or near equivalent) at the station. Virgin's SVH for example, or TOC special offers such as those often run by London Midland.

2. With an exact like for like walk up ticket (excl. examples mentioned above) you'll never save money versus buying at the station.

3. This one does sometimes apply to me when I prefer to get the bus to a staffed station rather than walk to my nearest unstaffed one. In this case I'll often buy online. Currently I'm using redspottedhanky.com for such purchases. I can build up loyalty points or use Tesco Clubcard vouchers when I have enough.

4. If only! Websites are useless for Rovers & Rangers.

5. That rather depends on the original ticket type purchased.

6. Websites don't automatically offer the you the cheapest way of purchasing tickets suitable for your needs. The correct criteria need to be inputted by the user.

In all honesty it's swings and roundabouts. For me, sometimes online is better, sometimes it's more convenient for me to buy onboard, from a TVM or a staffed station.

As to your final point, if I'd met the person who'd bought the 4x SDRs, I'd be advising them not to use the original tickets, put them in for a refund (less admin fees) and then advising them to buy the GroupSave.  ;D

unfortunately all i found was litter !

but i can tell you that this is quite common!

In my case it's because I live in the wrong bleedin' country so I'm usually trying to find cheapo Advance tickets to get back home from Heathrow. The annoying thing is, as far as I've ever been able to establish, there's no means of collecting tickets at Terminal 5 (unless someone knows better...!)

Not so much of a problem if you're taking the RailAir bus though as these add-ons are actually cheaper if purchased as an 'e-ticket' direct from the RailAir website then I can pick up my tickets at RDG.

I tend to buy online for one of the following reasons:
1. Buy advance tickets without having to travel 7 miles to the nearest station.
2. To make sure I buy the correct walk-up tickets I want (which is especially useful when splitting journeys).
3. Cashback is currently available on train tickets purchased online!

It annoys me when people think they've saved money having bought a SVR online, paid a postage fee and paid a booking fee, without a seat reservation as the service is unreservable.

I buy online because I can research the fare and identify the lowest possible fare, getting a ticket office to do that would be impractical.
Once I find the fare I will not pay booking fees, credit card fees, ticket collection fees but will with some websites be able to choose a favourite seat.
If anyone ever asks you to pay a fee for buying a ticket and they aren't offering some sort of compensation walk away.
When I research if the fare is cheaper at the station then I'll buy there, usually that is applicable to Groupsave (potentially appearing online), Ranger and Rover fares.
With those very few exceptions I'll always save online by going via one of the cashback providing websites where they share the sales commission with me.

Dont get me wrong there are some occasions for which online booking is damn handy! If you live too far away for example , as you lovely smart people have shopped around and know what your doing you don't get ripped off, at a station short of splitting tickets you have to be offered the cheapest fair... Online its down to you to assess all the information and decide yourself

 - If I need to buy several tickets (multiple journeys or splits) I'll probably do the research online anyway, so might as well buy then, rather than explain it all at the booking office or go down to find that the advances are no longer available.
 - Website offers - cashback (topcashback etc) or reduced advance fares (e.g. when using Southern recently).
 - If it's an expensive journey I might prefer to pay when I have the money, even if I'm paying no less than I would on the day.

Sometimes the booking office is better, even for longer journeys, e.g. if I have vouchers. I'm not usually going to book a local journey in advance - perhaps the night before from the machine if I don't want to queue on the day. And obviously for certain fares (weekly seasons etc) the booking office is better. The death of dedicated advance booking areas tilts things in favour of websites.

The advertising for certain websites is downright misleading. Unless it's a TOC-specific offer it's unlikely to be cheaper. It perhaps doesn't help that a ticket can be bought in advance but not an 'Advance' ticket; perhaps one of the old names like 'Apex' or 'Value' would help to differntiate it, but I suspect a lot of people just don't look at the actual name.

There have been a few occasions where I've asked for the cheapest day return to London at Bristol Temple Meads. Every time, I've initially been offered a fare to Paddington. It's only my prompting that has led to fares to Waterloo being offered.

A survey by Which? earlier this year showed that in more than 50% of cases, when using stations or a human at National Rail Enquiries, the cheapest fare for the journey(s) was not offered.

Well that should not happen you should be asked if its via reading or Salisbury

"I don't bleeding care - I just want to go to London"  Of course the staff really can't win, can they?

But I do also agree with BigNoseMac that the cheapest fare isn't always offered, and that's often because the cheapest fare to get you from "B" to "D" isn't necessarily a "B" to "D" / any route ticket. 

Indeed. The cheapest way to get to London from Bristol TM is with a ticket that isn't from Bristol TM!

Even looking at Bristol fares, I get confused though.

Returns to Paddington cost 169.00, 61.00 or 48.80 for peak, off peak and super offpeak. Singles cost 84.50, 37.00 and 28.00 which mean if you're doing a return that's peak one way and one of the off peaks the other you may pay 121.50 or 112.50. Via Salisbury, there appears to be a superoffpeak day return at 35.00, an anytime day single for 34.10, and various other fares, with single fares differing eastbound and westbound.

And I haven't looked at Advance, First Class, splitting or longer journey tickets, nor Megatrain (is that still around?)

Ah - I'm researching that online.  Perhaps I should go down to my local station and ask there  ;)

They'll probably be as equally confused as the customer if you want anything other than a bog standard ticket.  There are currently 73 fares available for the stations Bristol Temple Meads to London Terminals ranging in price from ^10.50 (WES rte AP SLOUGH) to ^279.00 (FOR rte Any Permitted) ... excluding Megatrain, seasons, rovers, carnets, split fares and over-distance tickets.

In my case, I buy online because I'll often want to get to a destination where part of the journey is already covered by my existing season ticket. If I just turn up at my local station the ticket office has short hours and will probably be closed by 11am. The ticket machine will only sell me a ticket starting from that station. On the web I can see which station is just inside London zone 6 and select a ticket from there collecting it at my local stations ticket machine.
The downside is that I have to allow 2 hours before I collect it, so impulse journeys cannot be done this way. When this happens I have to use my existing season ticket to go to the ticket office at whichever station I have to change trains at. Also I noticed that the last time I used Southerns website, it would not allow me to collect my ticket at a station managed by another operator :(

Yup, count me in on that too....

As far as I'm aware, despite which station you enter in to collect your tickets from, it doesn't appear to mean anything obvious.

I did a booking on East Coast's website and selected to collect at Bristol Temple Meads; which would have been an FGW TVM. However I had absolutely no trouble in collecting these tickets from a Virgin Trains TVM at Liverpool Lime Street. The same has also worked for me when book to collect at Bath Spa (again FGW) but collected from Chalkwell instead (c2c)

I normally book my London bound tickets on Southern, so when I next book online i'll post back and let you all know ;)

I thought it was well known now that you can collect from any TVM that is linked to the database (i.e. appears ibn the list of statuions offered when purxchasing online) - regardless of the one you specify....

Indeeed, some TOCs don't make you wait the 2 hours either - Chiltern & EAst Coast (the latter if travelling within that period)

According to SWT in their recent webchat, the contractor who runs the national TOD system (ATOS Origin I found by Googling) will only guarantee collection being available after 2 hours, therefore that is what SWT advertise, however SWT agreed that tickets will usually be available earlier.

I suppose all they are doing is being safe with their advertising, people would soon have a go if they advertised an instant service and then they weren't available at some Cumbrian outpost during the middle of the night planned system down time for maintenance...

Paul 

 

It's actually to do with anti-fraud measures - ensuring that the banks pay up rather than block payment after tickets have been dispensed.

to be honest the reason that i am asking this is off the back of a report to be published soon in a rail mag (not yet available and not sure which one) which recommends when buying online to ONLY use the toc's sites the only third party one is red spotted!

Makes sense, simply because each TOC Has a habit of offering a dioscount, but only on their own fares from their own website.

Keeping the commission, basically.

When I last tried to buy a ticket from Southern as mentioned above, it was during a special fares promotion this summer with discounted fares on Southern routes only available on their own website so that is possibly why I could not collect from another station

Promotions bought from the Southern main site (i.e. not the Mixing Deck) can only be collected from Southern stations or posted.  I'm told this is because the other TOC machines cannot issue rovers.

On the subject of Southern's website, I'm very impressed with their feature to amend advance tickets online.  On selecting Amend, you are taken to The Mixing Deck to choose a new ticket.  After payment, an excess ticket is posted out.  No need to make any phone calls or send any emails.  All very easy and only ^2 admin fee on SN only tickets.

I buy online principally for two reasons. Firstly, as I'm sure I don't need to mention, my local station of Melksham is unstaffed, and hasn't even got a b***** ticket machine.

Secondly, and I know from chatting to colleagues that I'm not alone in this, quite frankly I trust my own efforts on t'internet to get myself the cheapest ticket for any particular journey far more than than I trust a "customer journey enhancement operative" (or whatever ticket office staff are called this week).

Rightly or wrongly I have gained an impression over the past couple of years that their primary aim is no longer to actually assist me but rather to generate maximum revenue for the company they work for. Quite frankly I'd trust them to find me the cheapest and fairest option about as much as I'd trust a BT salesman for find me the best broadband bundle. Which is pretty much zilch, really. 

I'm sorry that you feel that way phil, but our role is to get you to your destination as cheaply as possible while also keeping you within the rules, we have to be impartial and if another operators route is cheaper it should be offered,while i do not work for fgw myself all toc's HAVE to follow the atoc rules, if you believe that at any point the best option has not been offered to you at a station when it is available you should contact the relevant toc and let them know (an inconvenience i know, but if they don't know its happening.........)

LOL ;D Had one the other day ring me offering me a deal, I said no thank you, he asked if I already had BB, I said yes thank you, he said how much do I pay, so I told him, he said he could definitely beat the price, I said no thank you, he asked why, I said I used to be with BT and they were diabolical. He assured me they had changed significantly since then (never actually asked when I was with them), so I said no thank you again. He was most perplexed.

Mind you, EON were the same - promised me they could save me money, I said no thanks, and they couldn't understand why.

One day they might get a clue, its not always the money, its also the service (and after service) that matters too!

Anyway, sorry for the off topic, but that did make me chuckle!

Had calls from both BT and E.ON sales recently.

BT had apparently never heard of my landline supplier - Primus and E.ON had never heard of my gas & electric supplier - EBICo. Both quickly gave up when they realised they couldn't and wouldn't beat the prices I'm currently paying.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShrbtJ3YB0Y

Trick with those calls is - if from BT tell them you work for Virgin/Sky etc or E.On - Npower or SSE - they havent got a script for that !!

i dont have a land line also works

also for double glazing sales, fake interest and then enquire about having a conservatory installed on the roof of your house in the bedroom so that you can look out at the stars

I buy online to get the best savings and to split the tickets. I only purchase advance cheap tickets online though. I would find it embarassing to go up t a ticekt counter and ask to split tickets at Swindon to make my journey cheaper.  ???

 I just would ok!

The advance tickets all come from the same pool all the same price when bought online or at the station

Er..... no. Some TOCs offer a discount on their own Advance Purchase fares if you buy them from their website.

East Midlands Trains - ^1 off.
East Coast - 9% discount.
First TransPennine Express - 16-25 Railcard holders get 50% off, instead of the usual 34%.

none of which apply to this area

True, but still a good reason to buy online if you're venturing further afield - and remember that not all of our members are located in FGW territory (yours truly included...)

Indeed. Just last week I bought Advance Purchase tickets, for a January trip to York, on the East Coast website.

There are other incentives to avoid a trip to a station booking office as well. redspottedhanky's loyalty points and the ability to use Tesco vouchers and Southern's 6% cashback.

With all these incentives and the fact that websites are available 24/7 and rarely closed 'due to staff shortages' (an all too common occurrence at Bristol Temple Meads these days) means that I haven't bought an Advance Purchase ticket from a booking office/ticket window for many years now.

Buying online also has the advantage that you can work out connections (e.g. buses and lifts from friends/family) at your own pace, as oppose to holding up the ticket office queue.  It's fine looking at a timetable before visiting the station, but that doesn't mean an advance ticket will be available.

I did used to buy Advance tickets at ticket offices when I had RTVs to spare, however I now save these up for railcards and/or rovers.

Also, Southern have their "Rainy Day Guarantee" on walk-up tickets (even from other operators).  This is really handy as it gives the best of both worlds:
1. A seat reservation on other TOC services (i.e. the booking in advance advantage)
2. The ability to get a refund without any charges if you decide not to travel (i.e. the turn up and go advantage)

I'd never heard of the "Rainy Day Guarantee" before now but after looking it up that strikes me as a bl**dy good reason to book flexible tickets with Southern rather than anyone else! In fact given the vagaries of airline arrivals at Heathrow around Christmas (2009 I was two days earlier than planned due to the strike that never happened, then in 2010 I was three days late after Heathrow got screwed up by snow - on both occasions I lost the value of an Advance ticket that was waiting to be collected) I may well be booking my tickets through Southern in due course.

I buy online because I can't abide queues of even one person, any kind of queue sends my blood pressure soaring.

Usually at Taunton I can get to the collection machines without having to queue whereas the same cannot be said of the normal ticket office. Whenever I decide to use the human method of buying ticket I invariably get stuck behind someone investigating the options for a cheap day return to Thurso via Dover with a railcard and a dog ticket to boot.