Here is the letter that Tom Coady wrote.

"Quick" Ticket machines

Why do you force your customers to enter an 8 part alphanumeric code before releasing the tickets you can see they have paid for with their credit card?

Thanks for the 'quick' answer.

Do you seriously need a billion different numbers in addition to the credit card number to distinguish which journey we want tickets for? Wouldn't it be sensible to just print all the tickets if there is more than one?

The fact that other rail franchises follow a similar policy does not indicate that there is any additional sanity in your collective outlook.

If four digits are good enough for banks, why is rail special? At least make it just digits, your keyboards clearly weren't designed for humans.

Tom,

I assume the case they are catching is if you had a joint credit and the 2 holders wanted to independently pick up tickets.

However I do agree it is slow typing in the reference numbers and of course a extra bit of information to have to carry around and therefore a potential cause of frustration. A better option would be to simply pick the tickets from a list.

I do wonder if they are keen for you to carry the booking reference so they can investigate problems; but this is a case of overcomplicating what should be a simple process for most passengers.

Perhaps you could ask them the question:
"If it is important to have an option of only printing out some of the tickets, then why can't these simply be picked from the list instead of having to type in the booking reference for each one, which is slow and adds one more unnecessary complication?"
You can reply to Southern by clicking on the 'Reply to this message by email' button at the end of their response.

Paul (FixMyTransport Volunteer)

If it is important to have an option of only printing out some of the tickets, then why can't these simply be picked from the list instead of having to type in the booking reference for each one, which is slow and adds one more unnecessary complication and frustration?

-----Original Message-----

Dear Mr Coady

Thank you for your email.

The reason for the requirement for customers to enter in their
booking reference as well as insert their payment card when
collecting their tickets from our Ticket Vending Machines is not
just for security reasons but also to ensure you are printing
off the correct booking, if for example you have made multiple
bookings under the same payment card. This is not exclusively a
Southern policy.

If you wish to contact us further regarding your query, please
contact our Customer Service team directly at
[1][Southern problem reporting email], by phone on 08451 27 29 20 or
in writing to:
Southern Customer Services
PO Box 3021
Bristol
BS2 2BS
quoting ticket number [65374-1347879684] on all communication.

For the latest travel information, why not follow us on Twitter
@southernrailUK and @GatwickExpress

Kind regards

Timothy Fife-Schaw
Southern Customer Services

Your message :

Dear Southern,

Why do you force your customers to enter an 8 part alphanumeric
code before releasing the tickets you can see they have paid for
with their credit card?

------------------

Here is some information from FixMyTransport about the location
of
this issue:

Location name: Brighton Rail Station

Area: Brighton

Easting: 531000.0

Northing: 104920.0

----------

To view a map of the precise location of this problem, or to
provide an update on the problem, please visit the following
link:

http://www.fixmytransport.com/campaigns/2288

[ PLEASE NOTE: Your replies to this problem report will be sent
to
Tom Coady and will be published online. This message was sent
via
FixMyTransport.com - a not-for-profit service dedicated to
helping
people get public transport problems resolved. If there is a
more
appropriate email address for messages about this type of
problem,
please let us know by visiting
. This will help improve
the service for people travelling. We also welcome any other
feedback you may have. ]

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

This e-mail message has been scanned and cleared by NetIQ
MailMarshal.

Southern Railway Ltd is registered in England No. 06574965.
Registered office: 3rd Floor, 41-51 Grey Street, Newcastle Upon
Tyne, NE1 6EE

This email is sent subject to our email disclaimer which can be
accessed here http://www.southernrailway.com/emaildisclaimer

Southern is the trading name of Southern Railway Ltd.
Registered in England under number: 06574965
Registered offices: 3rd Floor, 41-51 Grey Street, Newcastle upon
Tyne, NE1 6EE.

This email is sent subject to our email disclaimer which can be
accessed at: [2]www.southernrailway.com/emaildisclaimer

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[Southern problem reporting email]
2. file:///tmp/www.southernrailway.com/emaildisclaimer

I might have guessed it was for security reasons - can't argue with that. I have recently learned it takes about 2 hours for the booking data to reach the machines, which seems quite unambitious, even if they're still using fax machines.

I wonder if the security problem is actually serious enough to justify having everyone typing in the codes (and also from their own perspective having a machine unavailable while people fiddle around doing this).
Paul