simple challenge for Borders Rail ticket machines

[Jack Campin]

Try asking for two off-peak returns at a senior railcard discount.

Do user interface designers for standalone machinery ever test anything?

Is the shopping cart model used by every website from Amazon to an
Etsy seller of crocheted toilet roll covers so hard to understand?

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e m a i l : j a c k @ c a m p i n . m e . u k
Jack Campin, 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU, Scotland
mobile [phone] <http://www.campin.me.uk> Twitter: JackCampin

[charles]

Post by Jack Campin
Try asking for two off-peak returns at a senior railcard discount.

at least you can order one plus one now. When they brought in the
machines; one senior ticket was all you could buy on one transaction ("to
prevent fraud"). To get a second one meant a second transaction. I
complained .

Post by Jack Campin
Do user interface designers for standalone machinery ever test anything?
Is the shopping cart model used by every website from Amazon to an
Etsy seller of crocheted toilet roll covers so hard to understand?
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Jack Campin, 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU, Scotland
mobile [phone] <http://www.campin.me.uk> Twitter: JackCampin

[Jack Campin]

Post by charles

Post by Jack Campin
Try asking for two off-peak returns at a senior railcard discount.

at least you can order one plus one now. When they brought in the
machines; one senior ticket was all you could buy on one transaction
("to prevent fraud"). To get a second one meant a second transaction.
I complained.

You still can't. Ask for two, and at the next step of the transaction
your order reverts to one, with no box for adding another adult - you
can only add a child.

What on earth is the fraud they're trying to prevent?

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
e m a i l : j a c k @ c a m p i n . m e . u k
Jack Campin, 11 Third Street, Newtongrange, Midlothian EH22 4PU, Scotland
mobile [phone] <http://www.campin.me.uk> Twitter: JackCampin

[charles]

Post by Jack Campin

Post by charles

Post by Jack Campin
Try asking for two off-peak returns at a senior railcard discount.

at least you can order one plus one now. When they brought in the
machines; one senior ticket was all you could buy on one transaction
("to prevent fraud"). To get a second one meant a second transaction.
I complained.

You still can't. Ask for two, and at the next step of the transaction
your order reverts to one, with no box for adding another adult - you
can only add a child.
What on earth is the fraud they're trying to prevent?

People pretending that they have senior railcards when they haven't - I
was told.

Complain to ScotRail and get them to update the software to the stuff that
SW Trains (Stagecoach) use.

[The Real Doctor]

Post by Jack Campin
You still can't. Ask for two, and at the next step of the transaction
your order reverts to one, with no box for adding another adult - you
can only add a child.

It's understandable how it happens. It's so that people don't buy more
tickets than are covered by a presumed single railcard and thereby
unwittingly breach the railcard rules. So, for example, ticket machines
generally insist that if you are using a Family and Friends Railcard you
must at least one child and no more than four child tickets and at least
one and no more than four adult tickets. It's perfectly permissible to
buy just child or just adult tickets, but you need to be warned that you
need some of the other sort, and not too many, for the railcard to be valid.

Disabled railcards allow discounts for two people, so machines let you
buy two discounted tickets; senior railcards only allow one so they will
only sell you one.

The easy answer would be to have the machine ask, like on-line ticketing
sites, how many railcards of each type are held, but while that isn't
done an assumption of one railcard per transaction is not unreasonable.

"I bought tickets for me and my wife with my railcard. It most be
allowed or the machine wouldn't have sold them, would it?"


Ian

[charles]

Post by The Real Doctor

Post by Jack Campin
You still can't. Ask for two, and at the next step of the transaction
your order reverts to one, with no box for adding another adult - you
can only add a child.

It's understandable how it happens. It's so that people don't buy more
tickets than are covered by a presumed single railcard and thereby
unwittingly breach the railcard rules. So, for example, ticket machines
generally insist that if you are using a Family and Friends Railcard you
must at least one child and no more than four child tickets and at least
one and no more than four adult tickets. It's perfectly permissible to
buy just child or just adult tickets, but you need to be warned that you
need some of the other sort, and not too many, for the railcard to be valid.
Disabled railcards allow discounts for two people, so machines let you
buy two discounted tickets; senior railcards only allow one so they will
only sell you one.
The easy answer would be to have the machine ask, like on-line ticketing
sites, how many railcards of each type are held, but while that isn't
done an assumption of one railcard per transaction is not unreasonable.
"I bought tickets for me and my wife with my railcard. It most be
allowed or the machine wouldn't have sold them, would it?"

The machines at our station allow you to purchase a second ticket exactly
like the first in the same transaction. Eg Railcard held - select - add to
basket, next ticket, car park?

Post by The Real Doctor
Ian