Seeking help and advice....Appealing a penalty

[Irisbeag]

Many thanks Mark

That is what my thinking was.....I am hoping someone within Irish Rail is willing to listen

[Mark Gleeson]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but no easy way around this.

Start with the customer charter

At the Station Ticket Office
We will try to sell you the best ticket to meet your travel needs.

So there is a clear failure there.

As to the on train/issuing of the fine, nothing we can do as the offical was 100% correct in his actions.

[haddockman]

If someone rocks up to the window and asks for a return to Dublin they should be asked what type of return they need rather than just banging out a day return by default.

[Eddie]

I see this story made the Irish Times yesterday.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/consu...ries-1.1733879

Given that the day return is apparently the same cost as a monthly return, I think it's bad form that Irish Rail don't waive this fine. Clearly there was no intent to defraud.

I suspect they will lose more in lost custom from the negative publicity.

[Mark Gleeson]

Open return is 52.50, day return is 47.00.

[James Howard]

I also feel it is bad form. There is obviously no intent to defraud here - who would risk a fine to save a fiver on a 50 euro ticket.

There is an opportunity for Irish Rail to learn something here - that their sales staff should communicate better with their customers in order to sell them the product they need. But Irish Rail completely failed to learn anything as their knee-jerk reaction is to blame the customer.

The end result is the customer and probably most of her friends and relatives will never use the train again, and everyone wonders why rail is in decline.

[berneyarms]

Originally Posted by James Howard

I also feel it is bad form. There is obviously no intent to defraud here - who would risk a fine to save a fiver on a 50 euro ticket.

There is an opportunity for Irish Rail to learn something here - that their sales staff should communicate better with their customers in order to sell them the product they need. But Irish Rail completely failed to learn anything as their knee-jerk reaction is to blame the customer.

The end result is the customer and probably most of her friends and relatives will never use the train again, and everyone wonders why rail is in decline.

The odd part of this is whenever I have asked for a return ticket at a booking office, the clerk has always asked when I was returning.

It's an automatic question, given it defines which ticket ought to be sold - and it is very odd that (apparently) the clerk did not ask on this occasion.

[grainne whale]

Originally Posted by Eddie

I see this story made the Irish Times yesterday.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/consu...ries-1.1733879

Given that the day return is apparently the same cost as a monthly return, I think it's bad form that Irish Rail don't waive this fine. Clearly there was no intent to defraud.

I suspect they will lose more in lost custom from the negative publicity.

The person (staff) in the Ticket Office should have asked as what type of return ticket the passenger required ie basic common sense.

[Mark Gleeson]

Equally its the passengers responsibility to confirm the ticket (and change) issued is what they asked for also.

I've caught several errors that way myself.

There is no legal obligation for an appeals process, if there was it would be independent and cases like this would be resolved

[grainne whale]

From a legal point of view - it could be argued that the passenger was sold a ticket that was not fit for purpose, no effort was made as to the type of return ticket the passenger required. Personally I would take this matter up with the National Consumer Agency, they have a website where you can report matters via email.http://www.consumerhelp.ie/report-a-business I hope this is of some use.