EMR advice on cancelled train

[Skymonster]

Interesting interaction between a customer (not me) and EMR on Facebook today…






The statement “not to mention… the additional expense of actually still getting to my destination” in the second panel and the cusotmer wanting a refund would seem to imply that the passenger bought another ticket or traveled by another means (OK, edge case paid a route excess). Notwithstanding the customer used Trainline (I’m not really her to discuss TL’s refund policy even though it might not be right in this situation either), on the basis of the inference, it seems refund would be the correct approach rather than EMR directly prompting the customer just to use Delay Repay (or at least ask additional questions first). I’m really not sure that this is straightforward good advice, and indeed if used by customers who elect not to travel when a train is cancelled could lay the foundation for other issues that have been discussed here in the past.

 

[Watershed]

It sounds like as if this person still made their journey, albeit they were delayed. In that case, they shouldn't have refunded their ticket, but should instead have used their ticket on the next service and claimed Delay Repay.

Of course they were perfectly entitled to get a refund of their ticket and to buy a new one, but this leaves them much worse off than doing the above, and so it makes no sense to do this.

Trainline were wrong to charge an administration fee (no admin fee is payable where a ticket is refunded due to disruption) and the person would be entitled to claim this fee back.

 

[Haywain]

Trainline were wrong to charge an administration fee (no admin fee is payable where a ticket is refunded due to disruption) and the person would be entitled to claim this fee back.

I believe from a previous thread it came to light that Trainline have a separate process for refunds which are due to delay or cancellation, and if that process is used there is no admin fee. How a customer should know that though is far from clear.

 

[robbeech]

I believe from a previous thread it came to light that Trainline have a separate process for refunds which are due to delay or cancellation, and if that process is used there is no admin fee. How a customer should know that though is far from clear.

Indeed. The normal refund process with Trainline is very easy, clear and well labelled, the trouble is it’s the automated process that doesn’t take cancellations or other factors into account that may mean an admin fee is not due. As you rightly say the process for getting a refund in this situation is much more difficult and poorly labelled. I wouldn’t say this is deliberate but it’s awfully convenient.

This issue crops up daily and if you look at their social media feed you’ll see it’s a very common complaint.

With regard to EMR, there have been instances where EMR have wrongly told passengers to use delay repay instead of a refund. This may be one of them but it’s unclear whether they travelled by train or not.
It’s disappointing to see incorrect advice given in these situations, particularly when operators go on to threaten passengers with court action for claiming delay repay for a journey they did not take (instead of a refund) as happened with GA.

The most interesting part is that nobody is phased about the multiple consecutive cancellations, it’s just par for the course now. Very sad.