Hoping for a massive favour

[ad hoc]

Dear OTF, and specifically London based OTFers. I need some help, and it isn't really a small ask.

Next Sunday myself and two others (including Mrs hoc) will fly into Luton airport and then head down to Exeter for a conference. To this end, and knowing how expensive train tickets are if you don't buy them in advance these days, I have been trying to buy tickets from London to Exeter on the internet. This process has, in the space of the last 5 days of pissing about and being pissed about, revealed to me the shocking and infuriating news that it is impossible to buy train tickets online unless you have UK post code and UK credit card. Now, I would have imagined that if I did have these things and lived in the UK, I could just wander down my local train station and buy them in person, and wouldn't need to buy online, whereas for people in my situation online purchasing is actually the only option. Unless of course the system is designed specifically to ensure that foreigners are ripped off (something which I strongly suspect)

Anyway, the upshot of all this is that I am wondering if it is at all possible that there is anyone on this board who would be prepared to buy three train tickets for me at the cost of approx 155 GBP, and meet me somewhere in London on Sunday late morning/lunchtime-ish where they could give me the tickets and I could repay them for their kindness by giving them a wodge of cold hard cash for the money they have shelled out, and buying them a pint.

I do realise it's a big ask, but I wondered if anyone would be in a position to help out?

[Mumpo]

Hoping for a massive favour

Sorry imp, but I watched The Real Hustle on BBC3 last night and I'm on my guard against scams like this.

[noj]

Hoping for a massive favour

I'm quite happy to buy the tickets for you, although I won't be able to meet you to hand them over - I could possibly post them to someone to meet you?

[Mumpo]

Hoping for a massive favour

It was the first time I'd ever seen it, by the way, and it was bit of a let down. Some of the scams were clever but none of them were particularly inspired. One of them amounted to nothing more than 'People might dress up as detectives and act like real detectives act and get you to do things that real detectives would never get you to do'.

And what does the bird do exactly, beyond being all pouty and goggly-eyed in the little bumps between segments?

[ad hoc]

Hoping for a massive favour

Cheers Noj. I think the online options would allow you to have the tickets delivered to someone in London directly which would cut down on part of this process. So anyone free on Sunday morning in that London?

[Ginger Yellow]

Hoping for a massive favour

The best Real Hustle I saw (most of them rely on gullible or stupid punters) ended up with the them nicking a car from a hotel valet service. It's the new Beadle's About.

[Moonlight Shadow]

Hoping for a massive favour

Ad Hoc, have you checked if you really need the tickets sent out or can you not have them printed at a Fast Ticket machine at the station of your choice? That way if you have a mean to transfer money to someone in the UK, pretty much anybody can buy those tickets for you (like me...)

[evilC]

Hoping for a massive favour

I don't know if these websites might be of help, Ad Hoc (at a glance, I doubt it) but I thought I'd suggest them anyway:

http://www.seat61.com/Europe-train-t...20/%20the%20UK

http://www.eurail.com/?gclid=CMuImoOFupICFQGiQwod7CqSzQ

I expect you've probably chanced across them already.

[evilC]

Hoping for a massive favour

Also, might it not be an option to fly down to Exeter? I'm not sure if there are direct flights from Luton, but I'm pretty sure there's an airport at least near Exeter. ...Or how about coaches, even?

[Guest]

Hoping for a massive favour

I presume you looked at this site too

https://www.thetrainline.com

[Moonlight Shadow]

Hoping for a massive favour

Scratch that above Ad Hoc, I had a look on Qjump and there is no indication you can't order a ticket with a foreign card however choose the option to have the ticket printed at a Fast Ticket (there is one in every major train station). You need the CC used to pay for it to obtain the ticket at the machine (and a code they provide you by email). I used that plenty of times and it works very well.

[ad hoc]

Hoping for a massive favour

Hi 1890. Yes, the pick up the ticket at the machine at the station option was obviously what I was going with. But it fell foul of the hidden no-foreign-credit-card rule. And yes, you need the credit card you bought the tickets with to actually pick them up that way. So i couldn't have noj buy the tickets for me and give me the code to pick them up myself for example. Because I'd need his credit card.

Yes, thanks clive and Wendy, I have been through those sites (and not a few others)

[Crusoe]

Hoping for a massive favour

I'd be happy to help but am out of London from Friday to Sunday late afternoon. The only possible solution I can find is to call the train company directly and see if they can help (which possibly isn't much help, sorry).

[Wyatt Earp]

Hoping for a massive favour

Andy, let me check my availability on Sunday. I should know later this evening.

[Crusoe]

Hoping for a massive favour

Hmm. Just spoke to First Great Western. I'm not convinced the telesales person knew exactly what she was talking about, but she did say you could book over the phone with a non-UK credit card and collect from the Customer Services desk at whichever station you want.

Might be worth a try - (+44) 8457 000 125

[ad hoc]

Hoping for a massive favour

That sounds promising crusoe, thanks. I'll give it a try

[ad hoc]

Hoping for a massive favour

Brilliant Crusoe, thanks a lot. That worked a charm. And I even got the tickets significantly cheaper than I was being quoted over the Net.

[Crusoe]

Hoping for a massive favour

No worries, glad it worked out.

[evilC]

Hoping for a massive favour

Phew! I'm glad it's sorted, Ad Hoc.

As a footnote to this 'purchasing-from-abroad' hassle, I have a technical question: Is there a way of fooling your computer/operating system (or others you interact with) into thinking that you are in fact located somewhere other than where you actually are? I'm assuming that Ad Hoc had this trouble because his IP address (address range maybe) or cookies indicated to the ticket search database that he was 'elsewhere'.

It's probably a fairly basic question, but my Windows/PC/Mac knowledge is pretty much sub-basic, these days!

[ad hoc]

Hoping for a massive favour

This was specifically a credit card problem, so that wouldn't have helped evilc, but appearinmg to come from the Uk would certainly help with accessing stuff like the BBC

[evilC]

Hoping for a massive favour

Ah yes. I suppose that even if your location appeared to be UK, once their system tried to process your credit card details, it would have 'a location of its own', so to speak.

You see, part of the problem I was encountering when trying to look for websites that might be helpful to you was that each of the sites instantly knew I was based in Britain and thus would only let me look at the site 'from a UK angle', if you see what I mean. I wanted to look at the sites as if from elsewhere ...but couldn't, really.

[Wyatt Earp]

Hoping for a massive favour

Astonishingly poor show on the part of the rail ticket agencies. You used to get this kind of thing when booking tickets for stuff in America, but even baseball teams let us Euroweenies buy tickets online now. I thought this kind of banking parochialism was, nowadays, pretty much confined to Japan. Shows how wrong you can be. Must be an "Insular ex-Empires situated off the coast of great continents" thing.