A few weeks back I went to see a friend in Manchester. My journey was two-stage, a train to Lancaster and from there a train to Manchester, with different providers.
On my way from my home town station into Lancaster I ask for an off-peak, open return to Manchester. The ticket dude takes my money, prints off the ticket and starts serving someone else. I checked and he'd given me an anytime open return, which is more expensive. I point this out to him and he tells me it was what I asked for and that he'd sort it out when he'd finished serving the customer.
He comes back to me, tells me I'd got the ticket I'd asked for. I said I asked for an off-peak open return, he continued to contradict me. He then tells me there are no off-peak open returns, which is nonsense because that's what I ended up getting and I'd looked for the cheapest ticket online the day before my journey. I say there are, and he gets aggressive and asks me if I want to get off at the station we were pulling into by this point. I simply look at him and wait for my ticket. Upon eventually getting the ticket I'd originally asked for he sarcastically and noisily asks me how long I've worked for the railways for.
Long story short, I complained to Northern Rail and they sent a travel voucher for slightly more than the cost of my tickets, though it took several e-mails to get this out of them they were pretty pleasant and helpful. My advice to you is if you are treated like this by customer services employees, don't get angry with them, there and then. They are probably overworked and underpaid and don't mean to be rude. Take it up with the company, be patient and you should get the right result.
On my way from my home town station into Lancaster I ask for an off-peak, open return to Manchester. The ticket dude takes my money, prints off the ticket and starts serving someone else. I checked and he'd given me an anytime open return, which is more expensive. I point this out to him and he tells me it was what I asked for and that he'd sort it out when he'd finished serving the customer.
He comes back to me, tells me I'd got the ticket I'd asked for. I said I asked for an off-peak open return, he continued to contradict me. He then tells me there are no off-peak open returns, which is nonsense because that's what I ended up getting and I'd looked for the cheapest ticket online the day before my journey. I say there are, and he gets aggressive and asks me if I want to get off at the station we were pulling into by this point. I simply look at him and wait for my ticket. Upon eventually getting the ticket I'd originally asked for he sarcastically and noisily asks me how long I've worked for the railways for.
Long story short, I complained to Northern Rail and they sent a travel voucher for slightly more than the cost of my tickets, though it took several e-mails to get this out of them they were pretty pleasant and helpful. My advice to you is if you are treated like this by customer services employees, don't get angry with them, there and then. They are probably overworked and underpaid and don't mean to be rude. Take it up with the company, be patient and you should get the right result.
