In November I used Southern Rail’s website to buy three return tickets from London to Eastbourne, which cost £66. The confirmation email was a little tardy in arriving, but when it did it was lacking in detail. It contained a booking reference, but no collection number (these are separate numbers), which I thought was odd.
On the day of travel I arrived early at Victoria. I typed in the booking reference number, but the ticket machine did not recognise it. I went to Southern Rail’s office, whose staff also didn’t recognise the reference. They took my card but could not find a matching purchase. I also showed them my email, and then my bank account online that had the same sum leaving my account. The supervisor was called but just laughed and refused any real help. It was, I was told, down to the online team and I would have to take things up with them. No matter how many times I referred them back to their email, showed them my account etc, they refused any further help.
With 10 minutes to go before my train departed, my phone beeped. Having been suspicious of the delay in receiving an email when originally booking, I had noted the on-screen reference number and tapped it into a timed entry on my phone. This, the collection number, was then recognised and they printed my tickets. Surely a train company cannot wash its hands of its own systems failure? PM, London NW1
Many of us have experienced frustration and problems when it comes to relying on the information in emails for rail ticket collection, either when technology lets us down or there is a fault with the machines. It is very disappointing that you were treated badly by Southern’s staff. A spokesperson said: “Emails should display both a booking confirmation number and a collection reference number, which is required for the machines. However, we’ve identified an issue with a small number of emails not showing the collection number.
“This will soon be rectified. Separately, we are surprised to hear that a member of staff at Victoria was apparently unhelpful – our staff pride themselves on their high levels of customer service. We would like to apologise and this will be investigated.”
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