Trainline rip off - charged admin fee but refund was for cancelled train

[Bilebonce]

Bought a return ticket via Trainline, All the return trains wher cancelled that evening.
Had to take a taxi and then pay for a further fare via a different route home.
Trainline charged a £10 fee to refund tickets for cancelled trains. If they want £10 why don't they take it from the train company who cancelled.
It's rotten.
You can get a full refund if you buy your tickets through the actuall train company.
from now on I will look up fares and train companies through trainline and then book direct with the train company.
Especially in this era of unstability
I feel proper ripped off by Trainline. I'm sure its all in the fine print. It's stiil wrong.

 

[norbitonflyer]

Well, you were ripped off when you booked in tghe first place, because Trainline charge a booking fee, something none of the TOCs do.

Follow Barry Doe's advice (RAIL magazine) and don't use Trainline.

 

[ainsworth74]

Bought a return ticket via Trainline, All the return trains wher cancelled that evening.
Had to take a taxi and then pay for a further fare via a different route home.
Trainline charged a £10 fee to refund tickets for cancelled trains. If they want £10 why don't they take it from the train company who cancelled.
It's rotten.
You can get a full refund if you buy your tickets through the actuall train company.
from now on I will look up fares and train companies through trainline and then book direct with the train company.
Especially in this era of unstability
I feel proper ripped off by Trainline. I'm sure its all in the fine print. It's stiil wrong.

You should complain to Trainline. Refunds due to a cancelled train are not subject to a £10 admin fee. Though I'm aware their website makes almost impossible to avoid.

 

[AdamWW]

Well, you were ripped off when you booked in tghe first place, because Trainline charge a booking fee, something none of the TOCs do.

On the other hand, where a refund fee is appropriate do any TOCs charge less than £10 for fares under £13 as the Trainline do?
You get something back from a £10 ticket which is more than most sites will offer.

 

[WesternLancer]

Bought a return ticket via Trainline, All the return trains wher cancelled that evening.
Had to take a taxi and then pay for a further fare via a different route home.
Trainline charged a £10 fee to refund tickets for cancelled trains. If they want £10 why don't they take it from the train company who cancelled.
It's rotten.
You can get a full refund if you buy your tickets through the actuall train company.
from now on I will look up fares and train companies through trainline and then book direct with the train company.
Especially in this era of unstability
I feel proper ripped off by Trainline. I'm sure its all in the fine print. It's stiil wrong.

You need to insist on your right to full refund without any admin fee under the circs of a train being cancelled and you opting not to travel on the train and be entitled to a full refund. It's set out in the Rail National Conditions of Travel so you can insist they abide by it. Search for that online and search the doc under 'refunds' or 'travel disruption' and quote the clauses to Trainline.

But yes, in general, buy tickets elsewhere.

 

[AlterEgo]

Bought a return ticket via Trainline, All the return trains wher cancelled that evening.
Had to take a taxi and then pay for a further fare via a different route home.
Trainline charged a £10 fee to refund tickets for cancelled trains. If they want £10 why don't they take it from the train company who cancelled.
It's rotten.
You can get a full refund if you buy your tickets through the actuall train company.
from now on I will look up fares and train companies through trainline and then book direct with the train company.
Especially in this era of unstability
I feel proper ripped off by Trainline. I'm sure its all in the fine print. It's stiil wrong.

It simply looks like Trainline were unaware, either by incompetence or by omission that your train was cancelled; did you tell them the reason for the refund as due to disruption? Do get in touch with them again for a fee-free refund.

 

[Watershed]

Did you ask staff at the station to provide you with alternative transport? If you did, and they refused, then the train operator they represent would likely be liable for the cost of the taxi you had to pay. In any event you should not have had to pay more to travel home via an alternative route. Furthermore, you would be entitled to claim delay compensation through a Delay Repay scheme in most cases (depending on the company involved and the length of any resultant delay).

The National Rail Conditions of Travel remain unchanged whether you book through a third party retailer or a train company - if there's disruption and you decide not to travel, you're entitled to a full refund without any fee being applied. It's important to make clear the reason for your refund claim is disruption related, to avoid a fee wrongly being charged. However, it's worth noting that you can't have both a refund, as well as be reimbursed your alternative transport costs and claim delay compensation - it's one or the other.

Regardless, you are right to steer cleer of the Trainline, since they charge booking fees that you don't pay if you book through a train company or most other third party retailers.

 

[ainsworth74]

It simply looks like Trainline were unaware, either by incompetence or by omission that your train was cancelled; did you tell them the reason for the refund as due to disruption? Do get in touch with them again for a fee-free refund.

From memory their online form makes it very difficult to get a fee free refund.

 

[Haywain]

Bought a return ticket via Trainline, All the return trains wher cancelled that evening.

Did you use the ticket you bought to make your outward journey?

 

[Alex C.]

I'm fairly sure the refund form tells you to call them if you are cancelling due to disruption - I've had to request refunds recently for cancelled trains twice, and once because of a website error - both times they picked up the phone immediately and a refund was sorted within a few minutes fee-free.

I actually think they have some of the better customer service in the industry (and that comes from a position of being a customer and working across several TOC customer service teams) but it's possible I've just been very lucky in my dealings with them.

 

[Puffing Devil]

You should complain to Trainline. Refunds due to a cancelled train are not subject to a £10 admin fee. Though I'm aware their website makes almost impossible to avoid.

Our corporate deal sees a £10 refund fee charged even for cancelled trains. I've complained, though our procurement people don't care. If they did, they wouldn't have contracted with the sharks in the first place.

 

[David Goddard]

With the greatest respect to the op, Avoid Trainline like the plague.
Their style of inaccurate marketing over the years has duped so many uninformed people into thinking that they are cheaper, which they are not, then when things go wrong they encounter further problems getting something back from them.

 

[Bletchleyite]

From memory their online form makes it very difficult to get a fee free refund.

It's not hard,you just go via customer services.

 

[Deerfold]

It's not hard,you just go via customer services.

So, not by using the provided form?

 

[AlterEgo]

So, not by using the provided form?

The Trainline website says this is the process. Whether the form gives an option is not for me to say, as I don't book tickets on Trainline.

Refund for a cancelled train​

If your train is cancelled, you can use your existing ticket to travel on the next available service...
Advance Singles – hop on the next available train with the same train operator.
Flexible tickets – such as Off-Peak and Anytime tickets offer flexibility and you can travel at various times of the day.
Remember to check the conditions of your ticket in case you can only travel with a certain operator/route.

If you can't take the next train or decide not to travel, you’ll be entitled to a refund.


The quickest and easiest way to refund your ticket is to do it online. Login to My Bookings, select your booking, and click on refund tickets.

 

[WelshBluebird]

I had this the other week. Whilst in theory the refund button SHOULD pick up your journey was disrupted and offer a fee free refund, that doesn't always work. But it was pretty easy (if time consuming and annoying) to use their online live that to get the proper refund.

Well, you were ripped off when you booked in tghe first place, because Trainline charge a booking fee, something none of the TOCs do.

To be fair, they don't charge a booking fee for all tickets. E.g. etickets bought on the day of travel.
And as someone else has mentioned, they do operate a sliding scale for their admin fee (when it is legitimately charged) rather than slapping you with the full £10 all of the time.

 

[LAX54]

Bought a return ticket via Trainline, All the return trains wher cancelled that evening.
Had to take a taxi and then pay for a further fare via a different route home.
Trainline charged a £10 fee to refund tickets for cancelled trains. If they want £10 why don't they take it from the train company who cancelled.
It's rotten.
You can get a full refund if you buy your tickets through the actuall train company.
from now on I will look up fares and train companies through trainline and then book direct with the train company.
Especially in this era of unstability
I feel proper ripped off by Trainline. I'm sure its all in the fine print. It's stiil wrong.

How many times has it been said 'never' buy from Trainline, but many still do !

 

[Haywain]

How many times has it been said 'never' buy from Trainline, but many still do !

They are the country's biggest retailer of rail tickets and these forums represent a tiny proportion of their potential customers. You can only teach those who wish to learn.

 

[Bletchleyite]

So, not by using the provided form?

There is, as I recall, a separate form for a refund where disruption was the cause, it's under the customer services bit. I'm not justifying it, just stating how it works, and I've done it.

How many times has it been said 'never' buy from Trainline, but many still do !

It does have a number of advantages now including simple splits, as well as a lower discretionary refund fee for fares under £10. Plus it doesn't (or didn't) at last count charge booking fees when used to purchase walk up tickets on the day of travel, and the app is certainly one of the more intuitive ones.

There are reasons not to use it in some contexts, but the vitriol poured on it from this site is really over the top.

I had this the other week. Whilst in theory the refund button SHOULD pick up your journey was disrupted and offer a fee free refund, that doesn't always work. But it was pretty easy (if time consuming and annoying) to use their online live that to get the proper refund.

Ah, they've changed it since I last used it in that way then, it did used to be that pressing the refund button would always charge a fee.

Of course with a walk up it can't know your train was cancelled...

 

[yorkie]

Bought a return ticket via Trainline, All the return trains wher cancelled that evening.
Had to take a taxi and then pay for a further fare via a different route home.
Trainline charged a £10 fee to refund tickets for cancelled trains. If they want £10 why don't they take it from the train company who cancelled.
It's rotten.
You can get a full refund if you buy your tickets through the actuall train company.
from now on I will look up fares and train companies through trainline and then book direct with the train company.
Especially in this era of unstability
I feel proper ripped off by Trainline. I'm sure its all in the fine print. It's stiil wrong.

Which train(s) were cancelled? Were these trains in your booking, or was it an "open" ticket with no specified train?

How did you submit the refund request? Have you appealed?

If you can say the day/time/details of the journey, we can check industry systems to verify the delay.

I don't recall obtaining a refund from Trainline; I used to use them for on the day flexible fares, as I liked the "open return" option and there is no fee when using the app on the day of travel, but I once paid with a business card and I didn't notice an additional fee, so that put me off using them.

In future you may wish to use the forum's site instead; if a train in my booking is cancelled and the tickets are not used the process is automated and goes through without any issues. Sometimes it may not be an automatic process, in which case you may need to contact them.

If you had any issues with the forum's site, we would be able to put you in direct contact with the relevant people, but we are much more limited in any assistance we can provide with regard to Trainline bookings.

I do have a contact there though, so if you provide me with full information and send me your booking reference number, I could ask them to look into it for you. Send me a direct conversation message if so.

 

[AdamWW]

It does have a number of advantages now including simple splits, as well as a lower discretionary refund fee for fares under £10. Plus it doesn't (or didn't) at last count charge booking fees when used to purchase walk up tickets on the day of travel, and the app is certainly one of the more intuitive ones.

There are reasons not to use it in some contexts, but the vitriol poured on it from this site is really over the top.

My main objection is the advertising I've seen which appeared to be suggesting that they could offer discounted tickets not available elsewhere when in fact they were just showing how much money can be saved by buying advances (and not mentioning the disadvantages of advance tickets either).

I've known people say they used the trainline because they sell cheaper tickets.

I suppose if they're now doing splits then they will be offering cheaper tickets in some cases than most retailers.

 

[Bletchleyite]

My main objection is the advertising I've seen which appeared to be suggesting that they could offer discounted tickets not available elsewhere when in fact they were just showing how much money can be saved by buying advances (and not mentioning the disadvantages of advance tickets either).

I've known people say they used the trainline because they sell cheaper tickets.

Yes, that was somewhat dishonest marketing, but it's hardly unusual to market in that sort of manner in any business.

I suppose if they're now doing splits then they will be offering cheaper tickets in some cases than most retailers.

Yes. Obviously Trainsplit does them better, but most people will run scared of specialist splitting sites even if they needn't. But Trainline doing splits (even if only basic single ones) means that it's no longer true that buying from the TOC is cheaper, the advice now (bar use Trainsplit) needs to be to try both and pick the cheaper one.

 

[ainsworth74]

The discussion about charging for ticket collection was interesting but off-topic, it can now be found here.

 

[AdamWW]

Yes, that was somewhat dishonest marketing, but it's hardly unusual to market in that sort of manner in any business.

Maybe.

It seems unusually dishonest to me and I'm surprised they've got away with it.

I know people who have been fooled into paying their booking fees under the impression they were getting a better deal than elsewhere.

 

[James H]

I know people who have been fooled into paying their booking fees under the impression they were getting a better deal than elsewhere.

Likewise.

 

[Purple Train]

I've known people say they used the trainline because they sell cheaper tickets.

So have I. I suggested they use Trainsplit. They may have done something wrong, but the fare given on Trainline (Manchester Piccadilly to Lancing, as it happens) was £72. The fare on Trainsplit was £137!
So clearly it does offer some cheaper tickets... either that or the person in question booked a child ticket by mistake!

 

[WesternLancer]

Does not look like the OP has been back since their original post - so sadly they have not seen the advice on here as to how to solve their problem I guess. Maybe just wanted to 'have a rant' which in this case is fair enough.
Easier to sound off on a forum I guess that actually take the steps to hold the business to account and get them to cough up....

 

[Haywain]

Does not look like the OP has been back since their original post - so sadly they have not seen the advice on here as to how to solve their problem I guess. Maybe just wanted to 'have a rant' which in this case is fair enough.

Noting this, my take is that the OP bought a return ticket and due to cancellation of trains on the return journey claimed a full refund, in spite of having used the outward portion.

 

[AdamWW]

Noting this, my take is that the OP bought a return ticket and due to cancellation of trains on the return journey claimed a full refund, in spite of having used the outward portion.

What are the rules for refunds when a return journey is cancelled and the railway can't get you home?

If you just get the difference between the cost of a return and a single tickets then in many cases you'd get almost nothing yet if they got you there but 2 hours late you'd normally get the entire cost of the return ticket "refunded".

 

[Buzby]

On a slightly different tangent, I had realised that when it launched all those years ago (with glossy ads and posters at stations) someone was going to have to pay for this, and I quickly realised going to the organ grinder and not the monkey was invariably best. My home TOC is ScotRail so I either bought direct or used their app. Now, I’ve no idea if this changed following Abello losing the contract, but trying to purchase a ticket on my phone - in the small print (see photo) that I was actually going to make a Trainline purchase! Anyone know why?