Here is the letter that Kwasi Appiah wrote.

Train Fine

On the 28th of August, 2012, I arrived at Woking Train Station at precisely 08:29. Upon arrival, I joined the back of an extremely large queue that continued from inside the station to the taxi bay that lay just in front of Marks & Spencers [store adjacent to station]. I had been waiting for around 20 seconds until one of the station officers came out and directed the people in the queue with these words: "you can buy your tickets from officers on the trains; the barriers are open". As the only train that stopped at Vauxhall (until the next one came at 09:32) was leaving at 08:32 from Platform 2, I decided to take the advice and board the train. When on the train, I couldn't find a ticket issuer. I found the train conductor once the train stopped at the next station (I think it was Walton-on-Thames) and asked if I could buy a ticket from him; he informed me that he did not have the machine on him and then advised me to get back on and explain my situation when I departed the train at Vauxhall. Once I reached my destination, I promptly found a ticket officer with a machine who could issue me a £10 ticket from Woking to London Terminals [I had the exact change in my pocket]. This officer was dealing with a man who was also on my train, I think he got on at Surbiton, and had the exact same issue that I did; the officer was, however, clearly being extremely unhelpful with this man's claim and so the customer went off in frustration. Nevertheless, I decided to persevere with my claim as I may have missed details that led to the previous situation. Unfortunately, this same officer was completely awful with his approach; he would not even call Woking Station to investigate the problem I had informed him about, sarcastically replying: "Do you have their number?". I will not be paying this fine due to the appalling Customer Service I have received from the company, not to mention the contradictory approach of the SouthWest Train officers. I have already appealed against my fine so the issue is pending; I would simply like to make a formal complaint against the rude officer who dealt with me, and the other customer, so poorly. I was in a rush so forgot to take his name, but his authorised collector number is SW6122. If that does not help, I have a small description of him: between 5'10" and 6'2", of Caribbean ethnicity and between 50 and 60 years of age. Whilst I am sure that he is not a bad person, I believe he may have had a rough morning and decided to take it out on customers. This is not only unacceptable for your company, in the sense that you will lose customers, but also for us [your clients]; we pay high prices to stand on the high capacity trains that we are provided with and, as such, it is extremely unappreciated when we are met with such a atrocious behaviour from someone who is in his position to help.