There is no need to be rude, we have access to the internal Irish Rail fares matrix and we know all about the biased fare structure
Drogheda - Connolly day return is 16.40 (not on Friday)
Connolly - Drogheda day return is 20.00 (actually Connolly cant even issue a day return to Drogheda since it doesn't even exist)
http://www.railusers.ie/passenger_in... stage1=Submit
http://www.railusers.ie/passenger_in... stage1=Submit
The classic example
Tipperary - Heuston 21.50-27.00
Heuston - Tipperary 46.50-55.00 depending on day
Poor training and ignorant staff are the primary reason passengers get charged higher fares than they should pay. The original poster got caught out through a quirk in the system which should never have happened clearly the wrong code was entered into the machine, weekly and monthly tickets are always the same price regardless of direction, singles and returns are not.
If the clerk in Dun Laoghaire isn't paying attention the ticket is issued as Dun Laoghaire Drogheda using the code for that, however since the passenger actually started in Drogheda the ticket should have been Drogheda Dun Laoghaire and issued with the code correct for that since it could be different, its sloppy and in worst case leaves the passenger open to being declared a fare evader
The discounted fares are different and require a different code to be entered into the machine (A61 vs A190) if you get a useless clerk, e.g. Mr playstation portable feet on office table celtic Jersey no namebadge (who is well known to me and several other posters) for instance you might as well forget getting anything remotely clever and the wrong code goes in.
We got a result on a passenger being overcharged last week in this kind of scenario, over 30 euro was involved
I have regularly had to provide the ticket clerk with the station and ticket codes to issue my ticket, when its got to that point you really have to question the training and selection process followed since the default answer is the ticket I want doesn't exist, the more you persist the more aggressive and abusive the response