Hi, my 19 year old dd had a similar experience with a 2 Virgin trains inspectors at Euston who reduced her to tears, threatened her, took her bags off her, all because she had forgotten her rail card . She had to buy a new ticket at an extra £40, her original ticket was about £10. They also threatened her with the police a criminal record. Other passengers offered to be witnesses as they were horrified by the 2 Virgin train inspectors behaviours, but she was too flustered and upset to take their details.
She complained to Virgin trains by email and also tweeted it, the tweet got an immediate response and after an ignored email, another tweet a month later was again responded to in under 5 minutes.
She had her passport with her, her student card and her Santander card (as a student you get a 3 year rail card with the Santander account). She was in the queue at the barrier, not trying to leap over it or travel without a ticket. In my opinion they were bullies and acted in a way that would not be tolerated in an other environment. I wonder how the big rail chiefs, in this case Richard Branson would feel if their 19 year old dd/ds was treated in this way.
My daughter fully understood that that she should of had her card with her, but the way she was treated was disgraceful.
I would encourage your daughter to tweet and email as the only way to deal with people and organisations that allow this type of behaviour is to stand up to them.
A simple purchasing change, such as linking tickets to the rail card on purchase, which must be possible, would stop this kind of problem. Sometimes the rail companies forget that young people are also customers.