So I have decided to nip into town at lunch to do a spot of shopping. Nice and easy it is for me. I live right by the railway station and it is a five-minute journey into town. I do it all the time but today I was actually unable to travel.
There was only one ticket booth open but the gentleman refused to serve me telling me that he was too busy. So I go outside and the self-service ticket machine had been emptied and wasn’t accepting any ticket purchases. I walk over to the other platform and that self-service ticket machine had been emptied as well so wasn’t accepting any ticket purchases.
So there I was actually unable to buy a ticket for my journey to actually get on a train. I mean just how crazy is that? So I am now back at home and I’ll try to go into town in an hour or so and hopefully they won’t be too busy to sell me a ticket – at a ticket booth.
I just can’t get my head around it. No doubt there is some important paperwork to do and you have to cash up at various points in the day but doing it when there is only one person and whilst the self-service ticket machines are both not working is just mad. As a customer this type of service just seems pretty shocking.
All in all I hardly ever have problems on the c2c line and compared to the issues I used to feel all the time with SW Trains then c2c are like the pope but I just really thought that was off. As I trudged back home (ok trudged is slightly over the top considering I was home within a minute) but I could see other people walk in, try and buy a ticket from the ticket booth only to be turned away and walk to the self-service ticket machine and look at it and then look around wondering how on Earth they’ll actually be able to get on a train.
Hopefully I’ll be able to go later otherwise I will be rather annoyed. I think that was a pretty poor show c2c. I try to buy a ticket to travel but you made it impossible.
Update: I went back half an hour later and the guy was still doing a cash up. There was some young woman watching over him. Guessing they were doing a spot check on the tills or something. Luckily by then the other ticket booth was open so I was able to buy a ticket and go do my food shopping. Rejoice!
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I would have just got on the train without a ticket (as I have done before)
The folks selling tickets live in a separate world to the folks who run the trains. I tried to explain that my priority was to travel by train; the holding of a ticket being secondary but the ticket office seemed to think it entirely logical that I should queue (behind others buying tickets for later in the week) must have a ticket but miss the train!