HELP! Unfair Penalty Notice! DLR

[tehbarejadeyo]

Firstly, Thanks to anyone that takes the time to actually read this and help me

 

So about a month ago I received a fine on the DLR for an invalid ticket. I was travelling from Colchester Town to Devons Road. I got my ticket in the morning from the ticket machines at the station as there was a que at the ticket office and I didn't want to miss my train. I saw on the screen it said 'London zones 1 - 6' and Devons Road being Zone 2, I clicked on that and got a return, it cost me £45. As far as I was concerned this was the correct ticket and I had no reason to believe that this wasn't!

 

1 stop before Devons Road a ticket inspector came round, I showed my ticket thinking it was valid, well I was then told it wasn't. I explained to the man that I simply followed the instructions on screen and it said zones 1 - 6 so I thought it was right. It turns out the ticket just says 'London Terminals' on the ticket, and doesn't say the zones, despite it saying on the machine the zones!

 

After looking online it turns out if I got it from the ticket office and got the correct ticket my ticket would have cost me £44.90 (10p cheaper). And apparently after looking online 'London Terminals' literally only means to the furthest station in London that my original train calls at, which would be Liverpool St. It does not say this on the ticket machine though! Straight away I appealed this as I don't see it fair that because national rail haven't made it clear on the machines that I should be paying the fine for it when in theory I actually paid too much for my ticket! Why should I pay another £40 on top of this? It should be national rails problem, not mine!

 

Anyway, they declined my appeal & I sent another appeal off to them. HOWEVER, the letter I got from them declining my appeal was dated 26th April 2012 and they said they had to receive my appeal within 14 days or I'd have to pay £80. Well I didn't even receieve their letter until the 4th May 2012 so that was 8 days gone already! I posted my letter back the next day 1st class but received a letter today from them saying i've now got to pay £80!

 

I can't contact IRCAS because their number is just an automated line and even after looking for the number on here it just diverts me to an automated line!

 

I refuse to pay ANY fine for this at all! National Rail should make these things clear on their ticket machines! I'm on JSA so can't afford it, but even if I could I wouldn't be willing to pay this, its just outrageous & disgusting! I had a ticket, and ended up paying more for it!

 

Someone help me!

Edited May 17, 2012 by honeybee13
Editing in some spacing for ease of reading.

[honeybee13]

Hello and welcome to CAG.

 

I hope someone who knows about these things will be along to help later. We're here to help, please try to stay calm.

 

My best, HB

[RPI]

On the ticket machines if you select london zones 1-6 it will print on the ticket "To U1-6" (or it may be U123456) either way it will say the zones on it, London Terminals only appears when for example you select London Liverpool St, or Paddington or any individual London Termini, judging by what you have told us it does appear that you may not have selected on the screen what you thought you selected.

[tehbarejadeyo]

I definitely didn't click on London Liverpool Street or any others, I've used the machines thousands of times as I used to travel to London daily. I even went back to the machine to check that night and I had clicked on 'London terminals 1 - 6'. If it was London Liverpool Street or any other station it wouldn't have said the included zones when I clicked it as It would only be valid for that 1 station so zones wouldn't matter. And surely if I clicked 'London Liverpool Street' it would have printed 'London Liverpool Street' on my ticket.

[RPI]

If you selected "london Liverpool St" or any London terminal it is simply printed on the ticket as "London Terminals", same as if you select any Birmingham station, simply "Birmingham Stns" is printed on the ticket, if everything you have put on here is true then there is obviously a serious fault with the machine at your origin station so you need to report this to the TOC responsible, if it is faulty and can be proved then you MAY be able to get something out of their customer services dept as a goodwill gesture from them (wonder how many others have been caught out if this is the case?), even if this is the case then I would imagine that the PFN would still stand as this is between you and DLR/TFL and Technically you are responible to ensure that your ticket is valid before travelling.