Hello,
On February 16th I was doing a Southern DaySave ticket, but unfortunately the 1903 service from Hove to Havant was cancelled. This was the last train to connect with my other (valid) connections to get home to Pinhoe/Exeter Central.
Staff eventually advised me to go via London Victoria and London Paddington where I could catch a GWR service back to Exeter St Davids. On the journey there, I contacted Southern on twitter, to figure out whether I would have to pay for onward travel.
They informed me that I would need to ask staff, and if they declined then I would "need to just pay and then claim it back". It turns out that I did need to purchase a ticket. Thankfully, I had a rover which covered me after Swindon, so I purchased two super off-peak day singles to Swindon (this fare).
Upon returning home (arriving into Exeter at 0100~, scheduled around 2350~), I submitted a delay repay claim for the entire series of events, using the paltry 250 characters allowed to try and write a description of what happened.
A few days later, I received an email stating that my request was declined for an invalid reason, with them claiming that the tickets did "not match the journey dates provided" (completely wrong). I chased this up on their twitter page, who essentially asked for more information (which makes you wonder why they declined instead of just asking for it), so I responded giving them a larger recap of events than the text-box on the form allowed.
Following this, they requested that I send in the actual tickets by post (at my own expense?), so I did (in recorded delivery just in case they tried anything). Upon arrival, they sent me an email claiming that I had sent in "copies" of the tickets, and that they needed the actual tickets. So I told them that I had sent them the actual tickets, and that was that.
I then received an email from someone else on the GTR team, who the case had been escalated to. He said that he didn't know what ticket I had intended to use between Hove and Fratton/Cosham, so I told him it was the Southern DaySave. We were then paid out the full cost of the Southern DaySave, but this didn't include the other tickets OR the additonal ticket we had to buy.
After asking for this, I received yet another email, where they had finally agreed to pay for all tickets that we already had. However, in that message, it was also mentioned that "regardless of the cause of the cancellation or delay, we would not be liable to pay any losses incurred as a result of a disruption to our services including additional train tickets".
Is this correct, or do Southern still owe me the London Paddington to Swindon ticket cost back?
Thanks for any advice and help.
On February 16th I was doing a Southern DaySave ticket, but unfortunately the 1903 service from Hove to Havant was cancelled. This was the last train to connect with my other (valid) connections to get home to Pinhoe/Exeter Central.
Staff eventually advised me to go via London Victoria and London Paddington where I could catch a GWR service back to Exeter St Davids. On the journey there, I contacted Southern on twitter, to figure out whether I would have to pay for onward travel.
They informed me that I would need to ask staff, and if they declined then I would "need to just pay and then claim it back". It turns out that I did need to purchase a ticket. Thankfully, I had a rover which covered me after Swindon, so I purchased two super off-peak day singles to Swindon (this fare).
Upon returning home (arriving into Exeter at 0100~, scheduled around 2350~), I submitted a delay repay claim for the entire series of events, using the paltry 250 characters allowed to try and write a description of what happened.
A few days later, I received an email stating that my request was declined for an invalid reason, with them claiming that the tickets did "not match the journey dates provided" (completely wrong). I chased this up on their twitter page, who essentially asked for more information (which makes you wonder why they declined instead of just asking for it), so I responded giving them a larger recap of events than the text-box on the form allowed.
Following this, they requested that I send in the actual tickets by post (at my own expense?), so I did (in recorded delivery just in case they tried anything). Upon arrival, they sent me an email claiming that I had sent in "copies" of the tickets, and that they needed the actual tickets. So I told them that I had sent them the actual tickets, and that was that.
I then received an email from someone else on the GTR team, who the case had been escalated to. He said that he didn't know what ticket I had intended to use between Hove and Fratton/Cosham, so I told him it was the Southern DaySave. We were then paid out the full cost of the Southern DaySave, but this didn't include the other tickets OR the additonal ticket we had to buy.
After asking for this, I received yet another email, where they had finally agreed to pay for all tickets that we already had. However, in that message, it was also mentioned that "regardless of the cause of the cancellation or delay, we would not be liable to pay any losses incurred as a result of a disruption to our services including additional train tickets".
Is this correct, or do Southern still owe me the London Paddington to Swindon ticket cost back?
Thanks for any advice and help.