Idiot Tax

[BrenD]

Guess who just got on the wrong train after misreading the time on his ticket? An honest mistake, but it took a lot of pleading to avoid the £142 penalty fare and 'get away' with paying £71 for a single from Sheffield to St Pancras.

It'll take a while to chill and stop kicking myself on this one. £71 I won't see again and no trip to Shoreditch to visit Vape Lab as time and money no longer allow. Not a mistake I'll make again!

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using proboards

[CaptainChaos]

BrenD I am trying to get my head around this ....

a) You got on the wrong train at the wrong time?
or
b) You got on the right train at the wrong time?

It's a bit harsh of them to try to sting you with that £142 penalty, though.

If you need cash quickly, I'll buy your HTC for a fiver

[teethcv]

£10 for the htc

[BrenD]

May 5, 2014 12:52:45 GMT CaptainChaos said:

BrenD I am trying to get my head around this ....

a) You got on the wrong train at the wrong time?
or
b) You got on the right train at the wrong time?

It's a bit harsh of them to try to sting you with that £142 penalty, though.

If you need cash quickly, I'll buy your HTC for a fiver

The trains from Sheffield to St Pancras leave at 29 past each hour and I turned up an hour late. Didn't realise until the ticket inspector checked and double checked my ticket.

My own fault for being a tool, but I decided not to push it any further after talking my way out of the penalty. A decent person would have told me to pay more attention in future and sent me on my way. But ticket inspectors rarely seem to be decent people!

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using proboards

[BrenD]

Oh and lads it'll be £500 for the HTC

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using proboards

[Super-Shiny]

A stone throw from Shoreditch is Hoxton market...don't go there though or you will lose a lot more than £71.00 and kiss your HTC goodbye

[boyofford]

Done similar.

My usual train is two stops to home, about ten minutes.

But every hour or so there is one that is one stop to home, but then doesn't stop for ages.

I got in that train, forgot, wasn't paying attention and missed my stop, luckily inspector said he sees it often n let me off....but took over two hours to get home!

[Bob]

That's the main problem with ticketing the way it is in this country, I used to have to deal with this sort of thing on a daily basis, but being a guard and not an inspector, we could use our own common sense and not always have to charge the excess. Personally it would be better to have fully priced tickets, based on mileage, and then have discount cards that you purchase to get xx% off depending on the time of day/route that you are travelling.

boyofford it happens to the best of us, even railway workers...

[BrenD]

May 5, 2014 21:43:39 GMT Bob said:

That's the main problem with ticketing the way it is in this country, I used to have to deal with this sort of thing on a daily basis, but being a guard and not an inspector, we could use our own common sense and not always have to charge the excess. Personally it would be better to have fully priced tickets, based on mileage, and then have discount cards that you purchase to get xx% off depending on the time of day/route that you are travelling.

boyofford it happens to the best of us, even railway workers...

I travel on trains more than often enough to see people trying it on all the time, even for short 20-30 minute journeys, so I understand that staff must have heard every excuse under the sun and many times too.  But the woman that dealt with me today seemed to enjoy me all but begging not to be charged £140.  It was almost as if she knew she wasn't going to hit me with the penalty fare as soon as I questioned whether she had to, but made me squirm anyway.  Oh well, no point in moaning about it any more, what's done is done.

But sod's law that an old school friend I haven't seen for a few years has just, about 20 minutes ago kinda just, invited me to his pre-wedding drinks, reception and a BBQ the day after, the weekend before pay day.  It has the potential to be quite a messy weekend and that £70 could have gone a long way towards funding it

[CaptainChaos]

BrenD - they have that 'power' - one bit of backchat/attitude & you would have got stung for the whole lot, and she KNEW that lol

Shame she didn't think "awww bless" and let you off - I would have let you off, but I don't work for the railways, so I couldn't hahahaha

[mart166]

£71 an outrage anyway, I flew return Berlin for that earlier in year, use the train the goverment says, lower the prices and we might.


MP

[Bob]

May 5, 2014 22:00:08 GMT BrenD said:

May 5, 2014 21:43:39 GMT Bob said:

That's the main problem with ticketing the way it is in this country, I used to have to deal with this sort of thing on a daily basis, but being a guard and not an inspector, we could use our own common sense and not always have to charge the excess. Personally it would be better to have fully priced tickets, based on mileage, and then have discount cards that you purchase to get xx% off depending on the time of day/route that you are travelling.

boyofford it happens to the best of us, even railway workers...

I travel on trains more than often enough to see people trying it on all the time, even for short 20-30 minute journeys, so I understand that staff must have heard every excuse under the sun and many times too.  But the woman that dealt with me today seemed to enjoy me all but begging not to be charged £140.  It was almost as if she knew she wasn't going to hit me with the penalty fare as soon as I questioned whether she had to, but made me squirm anyway.  Oh well, no point in moaning about it any more, what's done is done.

But sod's law that an old school friend I haven't seen for a few years has just, about 20 minutes ago kinda just, invited me to his pre-wedding drinks, reception and a BBQ the day after, the weekend before pay day.  It has the potential to be quite a messy weekend and that £70 could have gone a long way towards funding it

I think you said she was an Inspector, we used to call them the Gestapo, they very rarely let anyone off with anything but the full fare.