> It was Arriva Trains Wales. Their online system *requires* you to open
> an account before you can buy tickets. No, I just want the fucking
> tickets. By the time I had pissed about with the online system and had
> completely un-intelligeable conversations with an Indian call centre,
> the

> Yep, try doing it for a dozen people and the price changes are just stupid,
> still going to the same event this year as last train fairs have gone up by
> 240%% booked in advance, unsurprisingly we are going by road this year.

>I was trying to post an account of my trials and tribulations trying to
>buy some rail tickets online yesterday. But maybe the post is too long
>and it won't go through.
>
>It was Arriva Trains Wales. Their online system *requires* you to open
>an account before you can buy tickets. No, I just want the fucking
>tickets. By the time I had pissed about with the online system and had
>completely un-intelligeable conversations with an Indian call centre,
>the £10 tickets had gone and I had to pay an extra £6.

> One thing worth knowing in this context is that all online ticket
> vendors are required to sell tickets for all operators. This doesn't
> just apply to the independent sellers such as The Trainline and
> Raileasy but also the operators themselves. So, even if you want to
> travel on Arriva Trains Wales, you don't have to use their website to
> buy the tickets - you can use any other operator's site to do so. And
> not all of them require registration in order to purchase.
>
> Mark

notes> "Thankyou, have a nice trip". Simple really isn't it.

>One thing that really pisses me off is having to
>open "an account". More like opening a "we want to send you advertising
>shit" account.

>I just want the tickets! If I go to the ticket office
>they don't ask me to open an account, or fill in a questionaire, or
>anything. "Chesterfield to Dover, that'll be £50 please" >notes> "Thankyou, have a nice trip". Simple really isn't it.

>On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 13:56:59 +0100, Me put finger to keyboard and
>typed:
>

>>I was trying to post an account of my trials and tribulations trying to
>>buy some rail tickets online yesterday. But maybe...

>In article <6pv814hh506gv6ops6c2tdjgp9fva2lvfj@news.markshouse.net>,
>usenet@listmail.good-stuff.co.uk says...

>> One thing worth knowing in this context is that all online ticket
>> vendors are required...

> On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 14:48:28 +0100, Me put finger to keyboard and
> typed:
>
> It's not quite that simple at the ticket office - you still have to
> decide what ticket you want (if it isn't for immediate travel), and
> that can involve quite a detailed conversation with the ticket clerk
> if the answer isn't immediately obvious. It's just that this is
> something where a conversation with a human is often quicker than
> doing it with a machine, as humans use intuition to avoid the
> obviously wrong answers before drilling down into the details.
>
> The real issue with online purchase, though, is that you have to pay
> by card, which involves an element of complexity that's absent from a
> cash-over-the-counter purchase, and you also have to arrange a way of
> getting the tickets to the purchaser. The best online sales system use
> a logical and intuitive order for this: Make selection, enter
> contact/delivery details, make payment. Requiring registration not
> only reverses the order of the first two (which is wrong as it risks ...

>On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 14:48:28 +0100 someone who may be Me
>tiscali.co.uk> wrote this:-
>

>>One thing that really pisses me off is having to
>>open "an account". More like opening a "we want to send you advertising
>>shit" account.

>
>I'm sure that Mr Donald Duck, disney.com> and any other
>details one cares to supply, is delighted to receive advertising
>shit from any number of companies. He also has colleagues like Dr
>Minnie Mouse and Mr B Bunny.
>
>There is the question of giving them a real postal address to send
>the tickets to, but there are ways around that.