Buying railway tickets online is the way of the future. Just select the ticket you want, press the button and it is done. When you get to the station, all you have to do is insert your smartcard into the machine and it prints the tickets out. Easy peasy, and no queuing behind the old dear who wants to know exactly how to get to Leeds via Aberdeen on Friday week.
That is the theory, anyway. Southern Railway, the operator in my neck of the woods, has been pushing online booking relentlessly.
Pity their system is so deeply dreadful. Shockingly badly designed, tedious and tiresome to use and subject to frequent failure. The system is without doubt the worst ecommerce site I have ever used.
It starts when you log in. You have to enter your full email address and password every time. No autocomplete.
When in, you have to enter your full address, the security code on the card and even accept the terms and conditions every fucking time you make a purchase. Why? I don't know why I bothered to set up an account at all - it just gives the bastards an email address to spam.
And to cap it all, Visa cards are referred to their security check which is just as bad - you have to work out which letters of your password to enter, and use the mouse to move from box to box. Really infuriatingly picky to do.
And when you get to the station, three times out of four the machine refuses to read the card which is a major problem at an unmanned halt like Fishbourne.
The other day I ordered a USB lead from Amazon. All I had to do was press two buttons and it was on its way. Why can't buying train tickets by like that?
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