To think he didn't need to charge me

[memorial]

Yesterday I travelled from Cardiff to London for a birthday treat to see Hugh Jackman bought for me by my sister.
I bought my train tickets in advance at £50.
We had a wonderful time though the £20 train ticket back to my sister's house was galling. And again this morning back to London.
I left my sister's house in plenty of time (according to TFL planner). But of course the train was stuck at a red light for 10/15 mins and the tubes were awfully slow.
I raced into the station just to see the train doors closing. Never mind I think it's super off peak midweek I'll get the next train in half an hour.
So I do. Scan my ticket at the gates and settle down for the journey. A busy but not full train with no seat reservations.
About 10 mins in a rather brusque ticket collector comes round. I show him my ticket and he gets quite aggressive loudly telling me I need to buy a ticket. I am genuinely gobsmacked and explain what happened.
He points out (rudely and very loudly) that my ticket was an advance single and only valid on the train I missed.
I am very apologetic and say I usually buy a super off peak and didn't even realise this and again explain how I just missed the train.
He again very loudly and rudely says I can buy a ticket or get off with a fine. He really is talking to me like I am a criminal fare dodger.
So I pay another £50 close to tears. What a horrible end to a lovely birthday treat.
So while I accept that my ticket wasn't valid, did he really need to be so rude and aggressive and surely he could have used a bit of discretion. I clearly wasn't trying to take the piss.
Feeling really sad and disappointed. Have spent £140 on train tickets plus tube and feel like a naughty school child.

@whyohwhyowhydididoit it wasnt a suicide. He said it was a train timing issue. Which does happen in ANY other country that I have been in. If you get a train on the way to the airport, you expect to get there on time. Also this exact same thing happened to me the last time that I got a train in England. We were sitting on the tracks for 30 minutes. Again, this has not happened to me in any other country

*does NOT happen in any other country that I have been in

For the price I paid, I was so angry. I got a train yesterday in Eastern Europe. It costed 1/8 of the price of England. It left on time, and it got there on time

I absolutely get what you’re saying, OP.

I used to take trains regularly and have overheard plenty of people in very similar circumstances to you.

People almost always get charged a new ticket, but it’s 50/50 whether the conductor is lovey, sympathetic and apologetic for what they need to do, or (like in your case) treats a person who’s made a simple mistake like a criminal.

The one who encountered me when in a mad hurry I’d got on completely the WRONG train was a total love, who didn’t even think of charging me. They just advised me which platform and train I would need to get me going to my actually intended destination. So some out there are lovely. Sorry you didn’t get a nice one.

My daughter missed her train because of work at the station meaning she had to take her buggy etc up and down the stairs to the platform instead of using the lift. She still had to pay £50 for another ticket when she missed her booked train by seconds.

YABU. I suspect you have over dramatized the events in your precious, entitled middle class head. I'd love to know exactly how he was "belligerent" when he was just stating facts to you. Considering you were "close to tears" because you had to pay for a 2nd ticket, I imagine you aren't that robust of a person.

He can't just use discretion on you because you're a "frumpy middle class professional". Imagine, if he did that to every person who used your excuse? Also, who travels and doesn't bother checking their train tickets first

The inspectors are there to do a job, not to use 'discretion' It would be like me using more gas this week than usual and expecting the supplier to let me off with the extra that i used because i didn't realise i had used it

No it isn’t.

If you want an analogy that fits this scenario it is saying you are sold £50 of gas for the month but you can only use £50 worth of gas for that month.

By mistake you use £50.01 worth of gas in the month instead so they charge you £70 for your gas instead and tell you that the £50 you spent on gas for the month was only if you used that amount.

And no you can’t have your money back.

Everything today is designed to trip you up and get you fined or cost you more.
It is the UK today.

That's the risk you take when you buy and advance ticket, I'm afraid. I've bought them at the station before now (in the days before e-ticketing, you could only collect tickets bought online from a station 7 miles away, not from our local station!), and it's always been made very clear to me that the ticket is valid for that train, and that train ONLY, and that as a journey involves crossing London to change trains I should allow at least an hour more than the timetable would suggest.

So I left an HOUR and 45 mins for an Hour's journey. I can't believe that I should have left even longer.

If you're in the south-east, the delays can be horrific. A 2-3 hour delay is not at all uncommon. A colleague's partner, who commutes to the other side of London, worked out the other week that the amount of time he'd spent in being delayed on the trains exceeded his working hours for the week! Her elderly neighbour commented that the rail service was more reliable during the Blitz.

DP took a 30% pay cut to take a local job rather than endure the horror that is Thameslink.

To think he didn't need to charge me

This is your thread title OP, not 'He shouldn't have spoken so aggressively'.

Of course he shouldn't have been aggressive, and you did make a genuine mistake, but it's clear you expected to not be charged because you're middle class and polite.

You sound like someone I know who recently broke the speed limit while driving past a school, and was spoken to by a policeman. Not fined, just politely warned. And she was still outraged because after all, she's a polite middle-class person who doesn't do anything wrong, just hadn't noticed how fast she was driving.

my train was forty minutes late because he just decided to stop the train on the tracks for forty minutes

I doubt if that was the case. In fact, I'd bet my house that the train stopped because points or signals prevented it from proceeding.

Greytexpectations and those who "suspect" I over reacted/over dramatised, was entitled/demanding/argumentative. I can assure you suspect wrongly.
It was exactly as I describe perhaps even worse. I'm quite hardy. I suspect someone less robust would have found it very upsetting and intimidating. Those who describe similar incidents in trains are quite correct.

I can see both sides here. From the train companies perspective- it is not their fault that the train you was on prior was late- and as it is not part of their network it is not their fault, so why should they forfeit a fare?

However I also get the “ive already paid once and it’s not my fault either”.

I would be emailing the 1st trains company to complain and ask for them to reimburse the ticket cost.

If I was a train conductor I'd get pissed of with people expecting not to have to pay, despite not having a valid ticket, just because they're a middle class professional. Entitlement gets banded around a lot on MN, but Jesus Christ.

I expect someone "less robust" would just have paid the correct fair and had a perfectly pleasant interaction.

You have to have a valid ticket. The rules apply to everyone, even middle class professionals! No he should'nt use "discretion" to let you off. It's not fair on everyone else.

When did the OP say that she expected to travel for free because she was middle class? She used that description alongside her age, appearance and demeanour to convey that she isn’t somebody who would traditionally attract aggressive behaviour unprompted.

So much bile on this thread! OP, if only you were a stepmother who uses fake tan regularly, does not believe in private education and parks outside her neighbours’ houses, the bingo card would be complete.

Wow the ticket inspector sounds like a right jobsworth. He clearly enjoys exercising the smidgen of authority he holds. And all those posters that don't have an ounce of sympathy agreeing she should have been fined when she held a valid ticket for the earlier train are of the same ilk. People really need to cheer up and show some empathy!!

When people are saying the ticket is invalid, whilst technically it was, would the timing and date not make it pretty obvious she wasn't a fare dodger but had genuinely missed the last train under her valid ticket and had waited for the next one along?

The OP clearly didn't intend to dodge the fare and the inspector was a twat. He could've shown some discretion or at he very least been sympathetic but enforced the charge. But some people are just not very nice.

I expect someone "less robust" would just have paid the correct fair and had a perfectly pleasant interaction

But the inspector was not pleasant from the off.
I think at the first stage op hadn’t actually said anything.

www.nationalrail.co.uk/times_fares/ticket_types/46546.aspx

I’m just going to leave this here. Point 2 under conditions of use might be useful to you, OP.

It was exactly as I describe perhaps even worse.

You describe a man doing his job and explaining the facts to you, whilst you tried to dispute them with him. Apart from you not being satisfied with the volume he used and the fact that he didn't make you an exemption from the rules because of your middle-class background, you have given no example of how exactly he was aggressive. Did he insult you? Did he physically grab you? Did he demand anything other than a valid ticket?

OP, you need to get some tougher skin and learn that you aren't special enough to be exempt from the rules just because you made a silly mistake.

When did the OP say that she expected to travel for free because she was middle class?

She said she felt she shouldn't have to pay for a valid ticket (as her's was invalid) as she is a "middle class frumpy professional". Apparently she is more deserving of the rules not applying to her than other people are.

Oh the keyboard warriors on here!
I’ve often wondered with those “one train only” tickets what would happen if you were delayed on a connecting service through no fault of your own eg a fatality. It puts me off of buying them unless it’s a single journey.
They do have discretion-everyone has discretion it’s whether they choose to use it.

GreytExpectations

But she did buy a ticket. The train company took her money to transport her from A to B

Because another train company f**ked up she missed her connection.

As it happens she can probably get her money back so really the ticket inspector not using his discretion has cost the company money and time having to refund the ticket.

Greyt. Your judgements in your desire to pick a fight and berate me are quite staggering.
I work in a profession that attracts regular bile/aggression and complaints. I am indeed very robust. I can assure you he was a nasty aggressive bully (and I have come across very many of these men).
I have accepted numerous times now that i was incredibly unreasonable to expect some compassion for one missed train and that the ticket collector was correct in charging me again for the railways shoddy service. Fine.
I'm pretty sure my OP comments on his rudeness and aggression so no I didn't make it up to garner sympathy.
Sometimes you just have to accept that some people are arseholes for no good reason . This man was. Doing his job or not there was no need.