Delay compensation & Delay Repay Sniper

[paulfoel]

Not that I'm planning to do this. I generally dont bother a lot of the time because, with a season ticket I find that 50% refund for a journey works out at £4 or something.

BUT, I've noticed that there a few sites that will give you exact times for the past few weeks. So OK you travel from A to B at a certain time every day generally.

Whats to stop someone checking for a late train (theres occasionally one or two ) and then claiming saying - honest, I caught that one even if they didnt'?
Impossible to check as well surely - unless the system is clever enough to check times tickets were scanned at the station.

Then again, it wouldn't work, sometimes, I've been in work and I've checked and train is cancelled (happened once or twice). So I wont bother and catch the next one - 30 mins later. In effect, the cancellation of my train has made me 30 mins later but I've still not arrived at the station in advance because I knew about it.
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In fact, delayrepaysniper.com lists all the trains that you can claim for. Implying that you should claim for them. Bit naughty.

 

[34D]

I expect the TOC's spot multiple claims at different times and take a look. Remember they theoretically have CCTV and robust legal powers.

 

[paulfoel]

I expect the TOC's spot multiple claims at different times and take a look. Remember they theoretically have CCTV and robust legal powers.

LOL. I guess if you did it all the time they might notice.

 

[higthomas]

There is nothing to stop you, and if you were devious enough you could basically get almost unlimited free travel. The two reasons not to are the fact humans have a conscience, and that if you do get caught, which I think you would if you did it frequently enough, you have been committing fraud and are liable for all sorts of things.

 

[talltim]

delayrepaysniper.com claims that are were 40 late trains I could have claimed for in the last month, for my Chesterfield-Sheffield commute. However AFAIK, there have been no times I could have claimed, whatever time I travelled, because I would never have arrived late enough to claim (i.e. there were other trains that would get me there)

 

[All Line Rover]

delayrepaysniper is highly suspicious. It claims that a Birmingham to London weekly season ticket, which costs £265, is eligible for £795 compensation! Two Delay Repay claims every single day!?

Even worse, the website is offering to buy/sell Rail Travel Vouchers. This is openly fraudulent given that it is specified on the front of every voucher that they are "not transferable". I am surprised ATOC isn't chasing after this website's owner(s).

 

[All Line Rover]

delayrepaysniper.com claims that are were 40 late trains I could have claimed for in the last month, for my Chesterfield-Sheffield commute. However AFAIK, there have been no times I could have claimed, whatever time I travelled, because I would never have arrived late enough to claim (i.e. there were other trains that would get me there)

A good point. For Birmingham to London passengers, even if the train at ten past the hour (which comes from Scotland) is delayed, the train at half past the hour (which starts at Birmingham) may be on time, in which case the delay would only be 20 minutes. The website doesn't seem to take account of that.
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Not that I'm planning to do this. I generally dont bother a lot of the time because, with a season ticket I find that 50% refund for a journey works out at £4 or something.

BUT, I've noticed that there a few sites that will give you exact times for the past few weeks. So OK you travel from A to B at a certain time every day generally.

Whats to stop someone checking for a late train (theres occasionally one or two ) and then claiming saying - honest, I caught that one even if they didnt'?

On the subject of Delay Repay generally, I would be in favour of guards being issued with a booklet of Delay Repay vouchers which could be handed out when a train is delayed. It would enable TOCs to ensure that passengers are claiming for the appropriate trains, it would ensure that all passengers are aware that they are eligible for compensation, and if a voucher could be redeemed along with the ticket that was affected by the delay, there would no longer be a need for Rail Travel Vouchers. Missed connections are more complicated (they can be caused by delays of just a few minutes, and passengers might abandon their journey if they miss the last connection of the day), but I'm sure such instances could be accommodated, perhaps by requiring the passenger to ask the guard to validate the voucher in some additional way.

 

[higthomas]

A good point. For Birmingham to London passengers, even if the train at ten past the hour (which comes from Scotland) is delayed, the train at half past the hour (which starts at Birmingham) may be on time, in which case the delay would only be 20 minutes. The website doesn't seem to take account of that.
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On the subject of Delay Repay generally, I would be in favour of guards being issued with a booklet of Delay Repay vouchers which could be handed out when a train is delayed. It would enable TOCs to ensure that passengers are claiming for the appropriate trains, it would ensure that all passengers are aware that they are eligible for compensation, and if a voucher could be redeemed along with the ticket that was affected by the delay, there would no longer be a need for Rail Travel Vouchers. Missed connections are more complicated (they can be caused by delays of just a few minutes, and passengers might abandon their journey if they miss the last connection of the day), but I'm sure such instances could be accommodated, perhaps by requiring the passenger to ask the guard to validate the voucher in some additional way.

Hmm, whilst that would work very well on some services, there are scenarios where that wouldn't work, such as a train so overcrowded the guard can't get throught the train, or DOO services, which would leave people unable to claim even though they were delayed.

 

[paulfoel]

Or in my case where Im in work see a train cancelled and dont bother to leave because Ill have to wait for the next one anyway.

 

[All Line Rover]

Or in my case where Im in work see a train cancelled and dont bother to leave because Ill have to wait for the next one anyway.

In such instances even a voucher-based system would rely on the honesty of the passenger as to whether they really did intend to catch the earlier service, had it ran. Considering the affected TOC may already be receiving a substantial sum of money for the cancellation of the earlier service, I can't imagine this scenario being high up their list of concerns. Of far greater concern is the suggestion by delayrepaysniper that passengers could/should make 60 Delay Repay claims a month!

 

[paulfoel]

In such instances even a voucher-based system would rely on the honesty of the passenger as to whether they really did intend to catch the earlier service, had it ran. Considering the affected TOC may already be receiving a substantial sum of money for the cancellation of the earlier service, I can't imagine this scenario being high up their list of concerns. Of far greater concern is the suggestion by delayrepaysniper that passengers could/should make 60 Delay Repay claims a month!

Seems to be impying that you should find all the delayed services and claim for all of them. REgardless of whether you were planning to travel or not

 

[DelayRepay]

It tells me that on my commute, I could have claimed for 359 delays in the last month. My commute is on Thameslink with a train every few minutes in the peak. Even if a few of those are cancelled, it is rare to exceed 30 minutes because the next train turns up. The only time you get a delay repay claim is if there's a major incident such as a fatality. I have had 2 claims in April, not 359!

 

[Flamingo]

Anybody remember the thread a few months ago about the chap with several thousand in RTV from delays on his commute...

And I seem to recall some member on here who did the same journey and could not work out how all these had been earned...

 

[yorkie]

In fact, delayrepaysniper.com lists all the trains that you can claim for. Implying that you should claim for them. Bit naughty.

You can't claim for delayed trains; it's the journey that matters.

Someone doing this will get caught (eventually)

That site claims there have been "328 instances" of claimable delays in the last 28 days between East Croydon & Victoria. This is a route with a frequent service.

All trains could be delayed but for a passenger to be 30 mins late into Victoria you'd either need a huge gap in service, or a 30 minute delay for the short time you're actually on the train for or a combination of the two. That number seems implausible, so I conclude it's probably coming up with invalid claims.

 

[trevmonk]

I suspect the train companies probably just check the actual arrival time of the train you travelled on when a claim is submitted.

On the Thameslink route when they have one of their meltdowns some of the trains are so full it's impossible to get on. There would be lots of arguments if claims were rejected on the basis that you could have taken the next train and still arrived with less than a 30 minute delay.

 

[sarahj]

There have been some cases of folks setting up multiple accounts. These folks are now helping the police with their inquiries.

 

[yorkie]

I suspect the train companies probably just check the actual arrival time of the train you travelled on when a claim is submitted.

In some cases maybe, but not all. See this example: Disputed compensation claim (need train running data longer than 7 days ago)

If you know anyone who has dealt with such claims you can hear some interesting stories about how ridiculous some claims, or patterns of claims, are.

For example some people appear to commute at odd times, and only commute when there are delays. So if there are delays at 10am on a Monday, that's when they commuted on Monday. If there are delays at 1pm on the Tuesday, then they just happened to commute then, and so on. Yes some bad luck is not statistically impossible but there comes a point when the probability of all the claims being genuine is negligible.

On the Thameslink route when they have one of their meltdowns some of the trains are so full it's impossible to get on. There would be lots of arguments if claims were rejected on the basis that you could have taken the next train and still arrived with less than a 30 minute delay.

Yes if there was a genuine case for that, though if someone constantly had this problem there may be questions asked.

 

[Merseysider]

For example some people appear to commute at odd times, and only commute when there are delays.

I am aware of one practice on an expensive season ticket which is to, ahem, aim for the delays

No fraud involved.

 

[paulfoel]

I am aware of one practice on an expensive season ticket which is to, ahem, aim for the delays

No fraud involved.

As long as you genuinely planned to travel on that service then I think thats fine surely. TOC problem then.

But claiming for 10am train which you know was late when you were in work because you caught the 8am is fraudulent surely.

 

[David57]

How does this work with rovers?
I was caught up with the fatality in Bristol.

 

[221129]

How does this work with rovers?
I was caught up with the fatality in Bristol.

Slightly less clear cut but if the delay was on FGW or SWT then I don't believe you are entitled to anything (Due to the cause of the delay not the ticket).

 

[Tom B]

There are interesting arguments e.g. the not leaving work for an extra half hour because your train has been cancelled - arguably the fact that you spend the half hour in the messroom at work rather than on a platform is irreavent.

Another scenario (albeit on TfL) presents itself. You are travelling from central London to Archway, the Northern line is suspended/severely delayed. You elect to travel to Holloway Road or Finsbury Park from where there are buses. A claim to TfL for this delay will nowadays be rejected as you gave up and took another route. Arguably, you cannot prove the time at which you arrived at Archway, but the wit of TfL cannot be so bad that these things can't be estimated.

Alternatively - say you are advised of severe delays and choose to take a different route etc - but the original train would have got you there on time, however due to the information given, you were delayed?!

 

[headshot119]

There are interesting arguments e.g. the not leaving work for an extra half hour because your train has been cancelled - arguably the fact that you spend the half hour in the messroom at work rather than on a platform is irreavent.

Another scenario (albeit on TfL) presents itself. You are travelling from central London to Archway, the Northern line is suspended/severely delayed. You elect to travel to Holloway Road or Finsbury Park from where there are buses. A claim to TfL for this delay will nowadays be rejected as you gave up and took another route. Arguably, you cannot prove the time at which you arrived at Archway, but the wit of TfL cannot be so bad that these things can't be estimated.

Alternatively - say you are advised of severe delays and choose to take a different route etc - but the original train would have got you there on time, however due to the information given, you were delayed?!

A similar scenario, I was waiting at Hull for a Manchester TPE service a couple of years back, five minutes before departure it was announced as cancelled, I asked staff for advice and was told to wait for the next one in an hour.

So off I wandered into Hull town (city?) centre for a look around. Came back for the next train and also asked for a delay repay form, only to be told they'd put a bus on, and I wouldn't be entitled to anything.

Filled the form in, with a short explanation inside, got £75 in RTVs, £50 for the ticket and £25 as an apology for the misinformation.

 

[DelayRepay]

In the past, the First Capital Connect twitter people told season ticket holders to apply for Delay Repay when they had abandoned their journeys or decided not to travel due to major disruption. I only did this once and wrote on the form that I had followed their advice not to travel, and was paid out without a problem.

There are times I've seen disruption and gone via the alternative route (Ticket acceptance in place) when actually there was a limited service running on my line. These have always been paid without a problem even if I could have used the limited service to get back with less than 30 minutes delay. I usually write "Travelled via Hatfield as advised by station staff/twitter" on the claim.

 

[notadriver]

Does anyone have any experience of using this site.

http://www.delayrepaysniper.com

Is it another PPI type site conning people or a great business idea ?

 

[bb21]

The general consensus on this forum is that they are not offering any service that you cannot do yourself and there is nothing complicated about making a claim.

But if those running the service were honest and upfront about the charges, and did not mislead people, I don't have any problem with it. Some people may prefer to use their services and save themselves the hassle of having to fill in the forms themselves.

 

[DarloRich]

I came across this sometime ago and thought it might be a bit dodgy, especially the bit about buying and selling vouchers but then why shouldn't they be traded on a market like other items?