Trying to buy Nat Rail train tickets

I frequently book train tickets online.Now always use 'Redspottedhanky' site - well satisfied with their service.Have tickets delivered by post if there is enough time.If at short notice after online booking I collect from nearby station.-no office but I can collect from ticket machine.
Can also use my Tesco tokens to get a x2 discount!

I dont think our nearest station's machine does that. Though I have never looked at it that closely.
The machine that we have that prints up prepaid tickets is not the easiest thing in the world at the best of times. Is yours outside too?
No idea why ours isnt in the waiting room.
Pretty sure ours wont give out tickets either, unless you put in the card that you prepaid them with. Though the ticket office[if open] might.

I did not buy tickets on line for the last train journey we took, so had to rely on the railway station ticket office which was closed. Instead there was a do it yourself ticket purchase machine, where you had to find your destination key in the code, and pay, all sounds easy? Yes, try it in a dark place,(no light over the machine) bending low over the machine which refuses to take your card, and a very angry queue in a hurry because they are late for their train.

I wont bore anyone too much
Rang Rail Easy at 7.10am. Phone call took 20 minutes. First the system wouldnt allow the single from station A. Then it wouldnt allow the returns from station B, but would allow the single from station A.
So ended up putting all tickets from station A, and it went through.
No ides what the problem was with all of it. One of life's mysteries I guess.
But all is well that ends well[I hope]. Thanks everyone.
Oh, and at the cheaper price for the returns.

My last journey saved about £40 and I was on the same train, but instead of having one ticket I had 4 tickets. Luckily all my seats were in the same coach. I had to move from 19 to 17 to 16- at least 17 was for 2 stages.

I split the tickets and it is cheaper - but cheaper to find your own splits than one of the sites. You do have to swap seats which is a bit inconvenient.

Update.

I got all excited!

Thought I would try Rail Easy. Perfectly easy site to navigate.
Delighted when the return tickets were all coming up as £20 cheaper than Nat Rail, from the different stations. The single one came up £8 dearer though. But all in all quite a big saving.
Registered , put card details in[charge for a couple sorts of cards which I was not used to, but not mine] plus a booking fee of £2.50 or £1.50 I cant remember which.

Pressed the final button...
Message said "unable to complete. One or more tickets/seats are no longer available, we havent taken any booking or money", or something like that.

I want you to take the money! grr.

[obviously first world problem].

It said ring a number for further help. Rang number. No one answering. Going back to ring again.

Good site though I think.

I will take a look at those thanks.

There are a couple of booking sites I have found equally satisfactory - Rail Easy and Red Spotted Hanky. However, when I took the option of splitting the journey into bite-sized chunks to make it cheaper, it resulted in considerable confusion as it seemed to be impossible to reserve the same seat for the whole journey. It saved me £11 from Stockport to Dundee return.

I find it perfectly straightforward, granjura, perhaps I have been lucky, but I regularly book mobility assistance locally and at Euston for DH, book our tickets and seat reservations, book tickets to and from Birmngham and Scotland. Never been let down by either Internet or phone booking.
And No, let's NOT talk about going back to rail nationalisation and the bad old days

It wasnt the cheapest when I looked 3 days ago.

Relative has told me to ring Nat Rail! Harumpf!

Oops. Finger slipped.
I always book my rail journeys through the train line.com. I find it very straightforward. It is usually the cheapest too.

I always book my rail journeys through the trainline

Perhaps time then to discuss re-nationalisation of the railways, lol ;)

Buying train tickets, and planning routes, especially if involving bus services too, is currently a total and absolute nightmare in the UK.

I am sitting here chickening out, and going to see first if someone else in the group fares better. I will ring her tonight.

Train station is miles away, and wont give the cheapest tickets normally.

Doing it by train company also didnt give the chepaer fares. If it was one or two tickets I wouldnt mind, but it is other peoples' money too, so I am reluctant.

Instead of nat rail I Google the actual rail eg southern rail you could try that or whichever company you want to travel with.

Our phone call was answered very quickly and efficiently.
I read somewhere, that if you enquire at a station, the cheapest seats are not always offered, as the staff don't have the time there to trawl through all the options.

I used to regularly book by phone before I had my iPad,and even now book our tickets and seat reservations by phone when I am arranging mobility assistance for DH. The other thing is can you not get to a station? Very often the personal service is so easy, it is worth the trip!
You say it is complicated, so might be best to speak to a real person, I have never waited or taken 30 minutes and it is usually a "nice young man"!

I will try a phone line, <shudders>

Memories of a call of 30 minutes to them, 2 years ago, loom large in my mind.

It is going to be a difficult call as it is for a group, and some journies are for singles, and some returns. And some going from a different station.

I found the National Rail Enquiries phone number on-line, and booked our tickets to York through a very helpful lady based in a call-centre in Mumbai. They arrived by post 2 days later.I paid by credit card.

Is there a phone number you can try?
I have sometimes ended up phoning when trying to buy coach tickets and a real life person has quickly sorted it out for me
(usually if it is a more complex journey).

National Rail Enquiries Journey Planner? Haven't used it for 4 weeks so I don't know if this is a temporary problem or just one for you.
Have you tried ringing them?