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.

And yes I know this isn't relevant but when we came out the concert last night it was late. All the scanners were open and my sister's station doesn't have them. I still bought a £20 ticket for a half hour train journey.
Yes yes I know it not relevant and was a different operator. But I just feel like the trains can charge what they like, act like they like, do what they like....And we can be treated like shit.

Kennenora. Because nowhere else ever thst I have lived and travel do you expect to leave an HOURS extra time to travel somewhere. That's utterly bizarre. And yes only Londoners think that's ok.

Unfortunately both trains were different companies I have emailed both.

Do you mean the late train and the train you got on were different companies or the train you missed and the train you got on?

Errr slash no. The train that was delayed that made me miss my train was different from the company of both my missed train and the train I got on (which were obviously the same. I'm not stupid enough to think I can use a ticket on a different carrier )

memorial

You seem to want us to congratulate you for trying to buy a ticket.

I do not think you are being unreasonable and I’ve been given discretion when I’ve missed the connecting train because of a late running service. The way I’ve done this though is by speaking to the guard on the platform and then they have spoken to the guard on the train. I appreciate you couldn’t have done that given you didn’t realise the error, but this has worked for me previously.

YANBU. You had a ticket, you were on a train. Does anything else really matter? It's not like you tried to get on without paying. For a country as tiny as ours is, with such short distances between destinations, moving around sure is terrifically complicated.

I would hope that the train company whose train was late reimburses you. I had similar one time when a driver just failed to fucking turn up and they cancelled the train entirely. There wasn't another train for an hour. So of course I missed my connection. Got to the connecting station, explained what had happened and I had to buy another bastard ticket "because it's a different train company". Like I fucking care who owns which fucking train, I just want to get on one and go to my destination. Anyway i got a refund from the first company in the end. But it was bullshit that I had to pay because some lazy arsed twat couldn't be arsed to show up for work and the gonks supposedly running things failed to do fuck all about it.

He sounds like a jobs worth who dealt with it really badly and enjoyed making a scene.

I don’t blame you for being upset.

I was once on a train full to the brim and was 38 weeks pregnant so sat on the disabled chairs rather than stand. I was asked to move by the ticket inspector and told the seats were for disabled people only. (There was nobody else waiting to use the seats).

My husband took offence and pointed out I was 9 months pregnant and entitled to use the disabled seats as there was no other seating free. He still didn’t back down but told us on “this occasion” we could sit in first class without charge but not to drink hot drinks!!

Wow. I have accepted my error numerous times and apologised.
Don't victim blame me for being upset. He was aggressive, intimidating and bullying. Not my perception. That was his actual manner. And it is unacceptable. And I do wonder whether he would have spoken to a big aggressive man or a man in a business suit the way he spoke to me.
Perhaps if he had been polite and respectful initially explaining my mistake I would have just paid up (which I did anyway fairly quickly).

Yabu - have you seen the abuse they deal with on a regular basis (often from the nice looking middle-class suit wearing, briefcase carrying professionals).

And?

The only thing I can think of that was unreasonable of you was you should have driven.

Know exactly what you mean about leaving an hour extra if you are travelling in London.

I was on an Amtrak train several months ago, in business class. When the conductor came through he had to unseat two blokes who had economy class tickets and thought that they could just bully their way into business class. That got pretty salty.

Then he checked the ticket of a woman who was supposed to be on a later train but got to the station early and just assumed that she could jump on an earlier train going to the same destination. He explained why that wasn't the case. Since she didn't cop an attitude about her mistake he got on his mobile, called Amtrak customer service and they transferred her ticket to the train she was on and all was good.

I took the commuter rail for many years into and out of NYC. The conductors take a lot of abuse from people who don't want to pay and they don't have a lot of leeway to make exceptions. They still need to be reasonably polite about it.

Perhaps if he had been polite and respectful initially explaining my mistake I would have just paid up (which I did anyway fairly quickly).

Somehow I doubt that.

He’s not a jobsworth ffs.
He will have heard every excuse in the book from every fit/frumpy/stunning/ugly/working class/middle class/homeless person/working professional ever.
You had an invalid ticket.
He told you this.
You carried on arguing.
He does not have the time, and is not paid enough, to hear another sob story that turns out was a scam and he gets b**cked from his employer for.
He explained. You knew you were in the wrong. Pay up and shut up. Sorry to sound harsh, but it is what it is.
(Fwiw being 9 months pregnant doesn’t make you ‘entitled to use the disabled seats’)

Kennehora. Yu are reading an awful lot into my post.
I made a mistake. I hold my hand up. I genuinely didn't realise/remember that this was an advance single not a super off peak.
I'll just give myself a quick whipping for not checking my ticket and not leaving 2 hours to do a one hour journey (because I should be so grateful for London's felt expensive shit public transport)
I absolutely didn't give him my life story. TBH it was quite hard to say anything and I am a fairly confident person.
He was a bully.

London is like that im afriad-and the pp what do you want the driver to do run into a lorry because your late?

I thought hercule poirot was supposed to be a class detective, not a fairground psychic.

HaroldsSocalledBluetits

What’s a class detective?

A detective who is class.

Poirot would have worked that one out.

Pps suggesting it was the other train's fault. That's London. The tubes, dlr, buses, all the various trains are not one big family. Which is why always double your estimated time. You can't fir example blame SE trains for another train from another company. He sounds a bit brusqe but that's the reality of London travel.

HaroldsSocalledBluetits

Well, I am only number 2.