On Nov 1, 1:20*pm, Tim Woodall wrote:
On Sat, 1 Nov 2008 05:02:07 -0700 (PDT),
* * MIG wrote:

When someone grabbed my annual season (possibly not deliberately) back
in the early 1990s

Did you get it back nearly straight away?

My partner's father did exactly this to someone at Euston. *He had a
single that got "eaten" by the barrier. He then waited because he was
expecting his ticket. The chap behind put in his gold card which Jen's
dad then took and walked off with it - leaving the gold card owner
stranded behind the barrier.

Fortunately, my girlfriend saw this happen and ran after her dad and got
the season ticket back.

My partner has had her single ticket "stolen" by someone at the Euston
barriers before as well. They've had an invalid ticket or someone else
wrong with it. She's put her ticket in immediately behind them and then
they've exited using her ticket leaving her with no ticket and no way
out.

As I remember the procedure used to be that you had to turn up in
person at Cannon Street to face a humiliating interview with a
horrible man who obviously thought he was a TV cop, without any
inkling as to whether it would be replaced.

Explaining that you'd have to walk across London in your lunch break
because you have no travelcard, and that you need some idea whether
you ought to give up your job rather than run up a credit card bill
for daily travel, would not result in any clue as to whether you had a
hope of getting a replacement or refund.

In the end, I did get a replacement and refund for all the daily
tickets I'd had to buy with a credit card. I just wish they'd saved
me some stress by letting me know what was likely to happen.