[Travel] Can someone explain train fares

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Once a cluster of people I gave on ignore appear on a thread started by someone I have on ignore, appear, I'm out.

I'm out.

Ta ra.

 

[drew]

He was in a situation of being in receipt of inadequate information as a consequence of his lack of clarity about when he was traveling owing to his having asked for a specific type of ticket rather than explain what times he would be travelling, or asking how best to obtain the cheapest option.

The problem is that the ticket types are complicated. The best way for me to travel to London if I am leaving before 9 is an ordinary single, and a super off peak return with added discount from my senior railcard (and I usually upgrade this return part, which includes a needless and unusable outward bound ticket, to First Class). It took my white female assistant 20 minutes to work this out the first time I bought one.

When I asked a white male assistant for the same combo a few weeks later he started arguing with me and it took 10 minutes to get what I specifically asked for, and not till after he made repeated mistakes while muttering with incredulity at my weird request. Tremendous customer service, but not really his fault.

If I am leaving between 9 and 10 the ticket combination is different. If I leave after 10, it is different again, and all I need is a super off peak return (with the discount, and the first class upgrade).

If I need to travel up or back on the high speed, the ticket combinations are different, and are priced differently.

Altogether there are SIX cheapest ticket options depending on the time of day of travel, and whether I need the high speed to Kings Cross or not.

In addition there are at least six other combinations of ticket that are not the cheapest.

Any lack of clarity from the customer may create confusion.

Of course I blame the ****ing French owners.

After all that, if you haven't flounced off, can you answer my question?

 

[drew]

The comment "unfortunately, the operative had English as a foreign language" is completely unnecessary and adds nothing to the conversation at all, I have no idea what you were trying to "gain" from that comment.

As someone who lives abroad and speaks multiple tongues I can confirm it is difficult to communicate in a second language at times, especially in a business environment where language is extremely specific when compared to conversational language and the flexibility it offers.

My children have English as a second (foreign) language, does that mean that they simply would't understand you if you asked them a "simple question"?

You do understand that some who have English as a second or even third or fourth language, are very fluent. And there are some who have it as their first language and aren't.

 

[BN9 BHA]

Once a cluster of people I gave on ignore appear on a thread started by someone I have on ignore, appear, I'm out.

I'm out.

Ta ra.

I’m disappointed that you didn’t reply to post #73.

 

[arfer guinness]

He was in a situation of being in receipt of inadequate information as a consequence of his lack of clarity about when he was traveling owing to his having asked for a specific type of ticket rather than explain what times he would be travelling, or asking how best to obtain the cheapest option.

The problem is that the ticket types are complicated. The best way for me to travel to London if I am leaving before 9 is an ordinary single, and a super off peak return with added discount from my senior railcard (and I usually upgrade this return part, which includes a needless and unusable outward bound ticket, to First Class). It took my white female assistant 20 minutes to work this out the first time I bought one.

When I asked a white male assistant for the same combo a few weeks later he started arguing with me and it took 10 minutes to get what I specifically asked for, and not till after he made repeated mistakes while muttering with incredulity at my weird request. Tremendous customer service, but not really his fault.

If I am leaving between 9 and 10 the ticket combination is different. If I leave after 10, it is different again, and all I need is a super off peak return (with the discount, and the first class upgrade).

If I need to travel up or back on the high speed, the ticket combinations are different, and are priced differently.

Altogether there are SIX cheapest ticket options depending on the time of day of travel, and whether I need the high speed to Kings Cross or not.

In addition there are at least six other combinations of ticket that are not the cheapest.

Any lack of clarity from the customer may create confusion.

Of course I blame the ****ing French owners.

My God, you do waffle on. Read again my opening post, I'm not asking for the cheapest fare, I had an enquiry about an anomaly. Having travelled for many years to away games I am fully aware of the ticket structure, cards to use, ticket splitting and saver fares etc. Why you make a point of mentioning colour, I don't know, nobody else has. You need to pull your head in and start to treat all races, colours etc. as one.

 

[arfer guinness]

The comment "unfortunately, the operative had English as a foreign language" is completely unnecessary and adds nothing to the conversation at all, I have no idea what you were trying to "gain" from that comment.

As someone who lives abroad and speaks multiple tongues I can confirm it is difficult to communicate in a second language at times, especially in a business environment where language is extremely specific when compared to conversational language and the flexibility it offers.

My children have English as a second (foreign) language, does that mean that they simply would't understand you if you asked them a "simple question"?

If I was abroad and required assistance in a non-English speaking country, I would be fortunate to receive the help of someone who does speak English. As it was, I was unfortunate to be speaking to someone in a call centre in this country who failed to understand my question.

 

[arfer guinness]

Once a cluster of people I gave on ignore appear on a thread started by someone I have on ignore, appear, I'm out.

I'm out.

Ta ra.

Thank God for that, you've occupied nearly 10 percent of the posts on someone you dislike and ignore. You are now free to carry on and hijack other threads for your own agenda.

 

[arfer guinness]

I find it amazing the number of contributors to this thread who assume the helpline assistant was a different race or colour to myself, I never said it, as being a phone call, I wouldn't know it. Is a European, east or west a different race, I don't know, it could have been one of them. The majority replied with an answer to my thread, but unfortunately a minority want to scream the non-existent race card.

 

[Justice]

Isn’t it quite obvious what the OP was asking the £21 ticket from Victoria to Worthing as that is the fare the opposite way As for the slur accusations, really?

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

Isn’t it quite obvious what the OP was asking the £21 ticket from Victoria to Worthing as that is the fare the opposite way As for the slur accusations, really?

If I've read it correctly, that's not exactly what they were asking. The question was whether a return from Victoria to Worthing could be used in reverse, so using the return ticket as the out ticket and vice versa. Having said that, how they phrased it in the phone call may well have been completely different.

Incidentally, and apropos of nothing, apparently the National Rail helpline call centre is in Doncaster.

 

[Swansman]

... so in summary, I guess no one can explain the train fares.

 

[Hamilton]

... so in summary, I guess no one can explain the train fares.

Don’t be ridiculous! NSC can explain everything.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jcdenton08]

Has “Stephen Seagull” been banned yet for inciting racial hatred?

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

... so in summary, I guess no one can explain the train fares.

It's answered in posts 5 and 6. Everything else is just noise.

Come for the helpful advise about train fares.
Stay for the arguments about who may or may not be racist.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

After all that, if you haven't flounced off, can you answer my question?

"How would you describe the situation he was in then with regard to the call centre?"

Answered in the first sentence

 

[Acker79]

A family member wishes to come down to Worthing by train. As an example, Victoria to Worthing return today quotes £34.50 super off peak return, ticket can be used on all available trains. Yet if I search Worthing to Victoria today it quotes £21.20 super off peak return, ticket can be used on all available trains. I called the national Rail helpline to ask if the ticket starting from Worthing could be used in reverse but, unfortunately, the operative had English as a second language and didn't seem to understand the question. Can the great and good on NSC explain this.

A serious attempt to answer the question.

The beer we pay for in pubs down here is the same beer that is sold at lower prices up north. Prices change depending on the market. A ticket for london to worthing and back to london is likely to be sold to someone living in london, with london uplift in their wages, so the market allows a higher fare. A ticket for worthing to london and back to worthing is likely to be sold to someone from the Worthing area, without the london uplift, so the market means the prices are lower. It is essentially the same product, but is being primarily sold to a different market so has different prices.

 

[drew]

"How would you describe the situation he was in then with regard to the call centre?"

Answered in the first sentence

No you haven't but to make it clear, how would you describe a situation where the other person doesn't understand your question due to apparent problems with language. You've just spouted off a load of assumptions.

 

[maltaseagull]

Maybe you should go and work in their country and take calls from the xenophobes in their language and then come back with your question

That is very harsh. If you work in a call centre servicing UK customers, it is entirely reasonable to expect a very high level of English.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

No you haven't but to make it clear, how would you describe a situation where the other person doesn't understand your question due to apparent problems with language. You've just spouted off a load of assumptions.

'Apparent'? In the OP's case it was assumed.

How would I deal with it if it were real and not assumed? Nicely, of course .

 

[Stephen Seagull]

That is very harsh. If you work in a call centre servicing UK customers, it is entirely reasonable to expect a very high level of English.

And speaking English as a foreign language means that it’s not spoken at a high level? How many on here speak a second language and could even get a job where they have to speak it every day?

It’s not an easy thing to do, sometimes colloquialisms, accents/connections make things lost in translation or difficult to comprehend, it in no way means the person can/can ot do their job and the OP added nothing to the question with the comment.