Southwest Trains UK (Warning)
On 25 January I had bought a discount ticket Waterloo to Bournemouth, online for £14. Iwas with Southwest Trains UK (Warning) Make sure you well informed as the Southwest Train staff admitted they were not!
On arrival at the station, I tried to use the ticket but it would not work. so I asked the ticket inspector at the gate about the validation of the ticket, he told me that I was able to use this ticket until after 7:30, and that there was a train to Bournemouth at 7:35 that I could get. So I waited a few hours until the 7:35 PM train was announced, I had suitcases so I used the suitcase gate to get through to the platform, I checked with another ticket inspector who said the ticket was fine and I can use this train. I get on the train and settle down, there was an announcements but nothing about this ticket only about certain passes. Five minutes into the journey the ticket inspector was checking the tickets, when he looked at mine he told me that he would have to charge me £53 for a ticket as I’m not on the correct train. I had explained that I had asked two ticket inspectors that both told me that I could get on a train after 7:30 PM, so I offered to get off at the next station and wait for the next train, he said that he would still have to charge me for the ticket to Bournemouth. I was not impressed but I kept my cool and paid for another ticket. Straight after me in the next set of chairs 2 other individuals had been misinformed and also had to pay the £53 each.
Once I got to Bournemouth I went back to the station to to get the required forms to issue complaints. I explained to four station masters from Southwest trains, which happened to be doing a random inspection the situation. All four of them explained that any train after 7:30 PM was okay to go on, then a ticket master shouted out that they have several new promotions running at the same time, but some of those tickets are only valid after 8 o’clock.
The ticket inspectors slightly embarrassed explained that Southwest trains does not keep them informed on the new promotions, and they were unaware of the rules of the 8PM tickets. Quote “its south west trains fault”.
This lack of information to both the public and South West trains and employs, is unacceptable and I believe that under marketing and information standards that this is highly irregular.