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Advance Ticket Refunds (purchased via Crosscountry)

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Hi Everyone,

Like many people I have bought advance tickets to travel to events which are no longer taking place, maybe 7 or 8 tickets in total. I bought them all via the Crosscountry website or app.

At the moment, for each individual ticket in your booking history, despite it showing a refund option, when you click on it, it says a refund isn't available for this ticket. Instead, you are supposed to email their customer support, which must be absolutely inundated with correspondence at the moment.

Does anyone have an inkling (or insider knowledge) of whether Crosscountry will update their website and app so that qualifying advance tickets can be refunded at the click of a button? My first ticket is dated 8th April, so I'm inclined to wait for the simpler option if it's likely to become available.

Thanks for your help.
 
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_toommm_

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You’d be best tweeting them with the booking reference as long as you booked it on the CrossCountry website. They’ve been actioning the refunds all day on there.
 

D.K.TAYLOR

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I have similar bookings but with Avanti Transpennine and Chiltern as l have already collected the tickets sent all off Freepost.
Lucky as a day later they scrapped the admin fee Avanti have amended there site yesterday so did online refunds then
 

jrh2254

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Just been onto the crosscountry site and its still not able to give refunds on advance tickets.
Do we know when crosscountry will be able to allow this to be done online without having to call or email? Thanks.
 

_toommm_

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Just been onto the crosscountry site and its still not able to give refunds on advance tickets.
Do we know when crosscountry will be able to allow this to be done online without having to call or email? Thanks.

They’re working on it, but it’s TBD as to when it will come to fruition.
 

D.K.TAYLOR

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I have similar bookings but with Avanti Transpennine and Chiltern as l have already collected the tickets sent all off Freepost.
Lucky as a day later they scrapped the admin fee Avanti have amended there site yesterday so did online refunds then
Hi Everyone,

Like many people I have bought advance tickets to travel to events which are no longer taking place, maybe 7 or 8 tickets in total. I bought them all via the Crosscountry website or app.

At the moment, for each individual ticket in your booking history, despite it showing a refund option, when you click on it, it says a refund isn't available for this ticket. Instead, you are supposed to email their customer support, which must be absolutely inundated with correspondence at the moment.

Does anyone have an inkling (or insider knowledge) of whether Crosscountry will update their website and app so that qualifying advance tickets can be refunded at the click of a button? My first ticket is dated 8th April, so I'm inclined to wait for the simpler option if it's likely to become available.

Thanks for your help.
Got my first refund today from Avanti via there website they told me to send the tickets back via recorded delivery to Edinburgh
 

trainophile

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Got my first refund today from Avanti via there website they told me to send the tickets back via recorded delivery to Edinburgh

I'm assuming Avanti can't refuse to handle refund requests that don't arrive by recorded delivery. Why should we have to go to a post office - it's risky enough going out to a postbox just now?
 

CrispyUK

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I'm assuming Avanti can't refuse to handle refund requests that don't arrive by recorded delivery. Why should we have to go to a post office - it's risky enough going out to a postbox just now?
No, but they could throw all the regular stamped mail they receive into the shredder and claim they never received the tickets (I’m not suggesting they would do this, and they could of course genuinely go missing in the post).

Recorded delivery at least provides a record of the item being delivered (normally with a recipient signature, but not at the moment). It doesn’t however increase the compensation level above the standard £20 available with regular 1st/2nd Class. It also increases the compensation cover to £50, compared to £20 with regular 1st/2nd Class Mail (corrected, thanks island!) It’s also worth noting here you would need to obtain a proof of posting receipt from a post office to be able to claim against the £20 compensation cover (proof of posting is issued automatically with the tracking number for recorded (Signed For) delivery).

If the tickets were worth more than this, you’d need to use Special Delivery to be safe, but that’s considerably more expensive, so depends on your appetite for risk :)
 
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D.K.TAYLOR

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I'm assuming Avanti can't refuse to handle refund requests that don't arrive by recorded delivery. Why should we have to go to a post office - it's risky enough going out to a postbox just now?
The next 2 refunds l had about 20 hours later was to cut up and e-mail a photo of them cut whitch included the ones l sent of ??? they then emailed me to give me the refund for the tickets l had sent to Edinburgh bit confused but now done 6 more to go
 

island

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Recorded delivery at least provides a record of the item being delivered (normally with a recipient signature, but not at the moment). It doesn’t however increase the compensation level above the standard £20 available with regular 1st/2nd Class.
Not quite right. If you upgrade from standard stamp to Signed For (the current brand name of what was traditionally called “recorded delivery”) you would be able to claim up to £50 compensation.
 

GB71

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Quick question if I may - we are always told that for a refund tickets must go back to the retailer who sold them. For long winded boring reasons that I won't go into here when I was visiting relatives I popped into the TPE ticket office at Thornaby to make a couple of LNER bookings. These are relatively expensive 1st advances between Doncaster and Glasgow/Edinburgh - not for another few weeks so am holding fire on refunds just now to see how the current situation develops.

However if as I suspect I do need to refund them I fully appreciate that TPE will have to process the refund. Do I need to return them to Thornaby ticket office or can any TPE ticket office process a refund? Also in the event that I cannot go to a ticket office should the tickets then be posted to TPE for a refund?
 

221129

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Quick question if I may - we are always told that for a refund tickets must go back to the retailer who sold them. For long winded boring reasons that I won't go into here when I was visiting relatives I popped into the TPE ticket office at Thornaby to make a couple of LNER bookings. These are relatively expensive 1st advances between Doncaster and Glasgow/Edinburgh - not for another few weeks so am holding fire on refunds just now to see how the current situation develops.

However if as I suspect I do need to refund them I fully appreciate that TPE will have to process the refund. Do I need to return them to Thornaby ticket office or can any TPE ticket office process a refund? Also in the event that I cannot go to a ticket office should the tickets then be posted to TPE for a refund?
You need to go via TPE websitw. DO NOT GO TO A TICKET OFFICE!!
 

_toommm_

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Quick question if I may - we are always told that for a refund tickets must go back to the retailer who sold them. For long winded boring reasons that I won't go into here when I was visiting relatives I popped into the TPE ticket office at Thornaby to make a couple of LNER bookings. These are relatively expensive 1st advances between Doncaster and Glasgow/Edinburgh - not for another few weeks so am holding fire on refunds just now to see how the current situation develops.

However if as I suspect I do need to refund them I fully appreciate that TPE will have to process the refund. Do I need to return them to Thornaby ticket office or can any TPE ticket office process a refund? Also in the event that I cannot go to a ticket office should the tickets then be posted to TPE for a refund?


Use this form, then follow the instructions on there on what to do with your paper tickets
 

GB71

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@221129 - Thanks - i am well aware of current advice but as I said these are for quite a few weeks out (6 weeks) and nobody knows where we'll be then.

@_toommm_ - Thanks for the link - useful.

My question however that I would genuinely like to know for future reference as much as anything is if you are refunding a ticket, whilst you must go to the same retailer (TOC) do you have to go to the same station or can any station managed by that TOC process a refund?
 

CyrusWuff

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My question however that I would genuinely like to know for future reference as much as anything is if you are refunding a ticket, whilst you must go to the same retailer (TOC) do you have to go to the same station or can any station managed by that TOC process a refund?
Any Ticket Office managed by the same TOC SHOULD be able to do it, though there will be a limit as to what they can refund on the spot.

Having said that, the latest generation of Ticket Issuing Systems allow the clerk to capture your card details as part of the refund application process, so they can pay out a larger refund once it's been authorised by a Manager without needing you to return to the station.
 

CrispyUK

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Not quite right. If you upgrade from standard stamp to Signed For (the current brand name of what was traditionally called “recorded delivery”) you would be able to claim up to £50 compensation.
Apologies, you are absolutely correct, my mistake when checking the Royal Mail site. I’ve updated my post to reflect this, so it’s accurate for anyone reading in future 8-)
 

liam456

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When I wished to refund my advance tickets booked with XC, I was told I needed to collect them from a ticket machine and send them back before they would refund me...
...and now over two weeks since posting, no updates from Royal Mail. :'(

Has anyone else found Royal Mail to have slowed down considerably? (I know why of course!)
 

D.K.TAYLOR

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When I wished to refund my advance tickets booked with XC, I was told I needed to collect them from a ticket machine and send them back before they would refund me...
...and now over two weeks since posting, no updates from Royal Mail. :'(

Has anyone else found Royal Mail to have slowed down considerably? (I know why of course!)
If it was by recorded delivery you should be able to track it l sent a batch off to TPN a couple of weeks ago l don't expect to hear anything in the near future. There inundated so very slow response though have had 5 refunds though from Avanti fairly quickly TPN Crosscountry and Chiltern very rarely rush like to hold onto the cash as long as they can
 

liam456

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If it was by recorded delivery you should be able to track it l sent a batch off to TPN a couple of weeks ago l don't expect to hear anything in the near future. There inundated so very slow response though have had 5 refunds though from Avanti fairly quickly TPN Crosscountry and Chiltern very rarely rush like to hold onto the cash as long as they can

Yep, sent via Signed For, but doesn't that mean I don't hear anything until it's actually delivered? Shame, because it only had to get across the Central Belt!
 

D.K.TAYLOR

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Yep, sent via Signed For, but doesn't that mean I don't hear anything until it's actually delivered? Shame, because it only had to get across the Central Belt!
Sometimes l send recorded and mine seems to stop at the depot for a couple of days you can ring them and give them your tracking number they can update you. I wouldn't worry all TOCs at the moment are struggling with amount of refunds applied for and presumably staff shortage
 

Joe Paxton

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Like many people I have bought advance tickets to travel to events which are no longer taking place, maybe 7 or 8 tickets in total. I bought them all via the Crosscountry website or app.

At the moment, for each individual ticket in your booking history, despite it showing a refund option, when you click on it, it says a refund isn't available for this ticket. Instead, you are supposed to email their customer support, which must be absolutely inundated with correspondence at the moment.

Does anyone have an inkling (or insider knowledge) of whether Crosscountry will update their website and app so that qualifying advance tickets can be refunded at the click of a button? My first ticket is dated 8th April, so I'm inclined to wait for the simpler option if it's likely to become available.

This is now available - i.e. fee-free redunds for Advance tickets - via the Crosscountry website (login here).

The refund confirmation page warns that it may take up to 28 days to receive your refund, due to an understandably high volume of requests. The page also shows a Transaction reference number, which I kept a note of (actually I just saved to PDF the refund confirmation page).
 
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