Kings Cross rip off merchants

[Shaggy]

Ok - I know this isn't specifically about ED but it may be of interest to locals who hail from up North.

Anyone had a proplem with the fast ticket machines at London Kings Cross? Mme Shaggy and I are spending the weekend in Yorkshire. I got relatively cheap tickets.

So I turn up half an hour early, put my card in the machine and type in the reservation code. It claims it is going to print me out nine tickets. Nine tickets for two returns? It prints me out seven.

I go to the real, live ticket office. I tell them that only seven tickets have printed. The spotty, porky oaf examines my tickets and says 'you have two missing.'

The oxygen-thief walks over to the machine comes back and say 'no, they arent there. You have to buy another ticket.'

After I have bullied him and given him the full treatment, he tells me that there is really nothing he can do and he is the supervisor. And I believe him.

So quite simply when the GNER machines don't work their customer services response is 'tough.'

I know I am not alone in this as a the exact same thing hapened to another customer while I was there. Her ticket was worth 200 pounds though. She left screaming.

Has anyone else had the same experience with GNER? I plan to build up a file of poor service to send to their customer services team and certain members of the consumer press. I'm looking for refunds and heads on poles.

[Nero]

Ok. First thing, calm down. You will get your money back, and if you are clever and resourceful, you will get a bonus too.

Make sure you have the name of the person who treated you badly. Make sure you have the time of the incident etched in your mind, ready to tell the person to whom I am about to make reference. Take photos, even by phone-cam, of the offending machine. Make sure you find out the right name of teh person to address your perfectly spelled and wonderfully worded letter of complaint to. Remember to mention your knowledge of the Yorkshire media, such as BBC North, Yorkshire Evening Post, Calendar etc in the aforesaid letter.

Wait a few weeks. Reap your rewards. Nero

[Jessie]

Have had similar probs with Kings X GNER fast ticket machine which gave me tickets but failed to give me accompanying seat reservation on a packed out train so I was left standing most of 3 hours.

Another word of advise regarding GNER: you can save loads of money if you get your tickets face to face at the station in advance as opposed to over the internet or even the phone. I saved about 50 quid last Easter.

[Frisco]

"I plan to build up a file of poor service to send to their customer services team"

Haven't GNER just lost the contract for East Coast train services? If I'm right, I doubt GNER customers services will be interested, but the rail regulator should be.

[Jockey1]

Always take the e-mail confirmation with you. I've had to pull it out of the bag twice now due to the dodgy fast ticket machines and both times it's been accepted. They can't argue with something they've agreed to on paper...

[Asset]

Exactly, I would have thought that under the rules of contract, the contract becomes enforceable at the point of sale. Worth taking it up with someone.

[Shaggy]

Thanks for your suggestions. Intenet vendor The Trainline (which appears also to be reponsible for sales on the GNER website) have now promised me a refund which they say they will claim back themselves from GNER. Apparently it is GNER's responsibility to provide a ticket if the machine fails to work, but instead they use it as an opportunity to make another sale.

[ClaireinSE22]

It's all very well getting ones money back but they cannot compensate for lost time and mental stress. Just reading this thread has made my pulse increase and stomach muscles tighten - I'm afraid I can't help with a specfic complaint Shaggy as all my hideous experiences of Gner customer services at KC have blurred into one but please accept my deepest sympathy. Unfortunately the operators relay on the maxim that the greatest remedy for anger is delay (Seneca)so people like me who are abit crap and disorganised and don't complain formally help them get away with it I suppose. Sorry.

[Lucius Rex]

Shaggy, you have my sympathies as I use Kings X about once a week to travel from ED to Hatfield (incidentally the ED connection is that the 63, one of the few useful busses in ED, has one terminus in Forest Hill Rd and the other at KX). During the many years I have been making this journey I have lost count of the numerous times I have been driven mad by the incompetance and rudeness of KX staff, not to mention the fact that if any train is going to leap off the rails or go sideways into a station it will probably do so on the Hatfield line. The other week I arrived back at KX on a Friday evening, when inexplicably they only have one ticket window open. I needed a travel card for the next day which I wanted to purchase with my network card discount, but when I requested this of the slumped oaf behind the ticket window said he could not do it. I pointed out I had bought this ticket numerous times before on the evening before it was required so why was he unable to sell it to me, to which he responded that the computer would not let him. I enquired why the computer should have a particular antipathy to him when it allowed other ticket sellers to sell the self same ticket, and (extremly politely) sugested he did not know how to operate it and would he get someone down who did. He slouched off to make a phone call and a few moments later I was surrounded by three British Transport Police who tried to arrest me. I asked if it was common pratice to try to arrest someone for attempting to buy a ticket at Kings Cross and they looked confused before attempting beligerence to try and break my reasoned and calm demeanour. Eventually the youngest officer, who was slightly above Neanderthal interlect (he'll never last) realised this may be a case where the customer was right and suggested I went downstairs to the Underground ticket office, where they promply and without question sold me the ticket I required.

One tip when buying tickets at busy times at KX is to use the small booking office over by platforms 9-11 which is usually much less conjested as many people do not even know it is there.