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Ticket dropped in price over £20.00 two days after purchase can I get refund of the difference?

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sprunt

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As I indicated above, a legal challenge might result in a change to the words, (like: "ticket prices will probably be more expensive nearer to the travel date".) There's nothing to stop that.

There's nothing to stop them being honest without having legal action taken against them.
 
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joeneat

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Went to the ticket office, just asked for an exchange (with a fee) of my advanced fare ticket on to a different train (from Sunderland for £36). Was told that the return ticket software was down in all LNER ticket offices and that the nearest ticket office that could help was Sunderland. I said that wasn't acceptable and explained how I'd bought a ticket that had subsequently come down in price and that I wasn't happy as the website says "the earlier you book, the cheaper the tickets will be!" with no caveat referring you to the T&Cs where it says, fares might go up with no refunds being made of the difference. They went away to speak to a manager and came back and said they would manually process an admin fee free refund of my non refundable ticket manually, on condition I bought a new ticket exactly the same as the previous one there and then for £48.50. So after filling in a form, I will get a refund back in the next week or two hopefully of the original advance fare of £70. So they wouldn't refund the difference but could refund the whole ticket.
 

AM9

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There's nothing to stop them being honest without having legal action taken against them.
But there's plenty of business pressure (i.e. profit, - or in the case of LNER, better returns) that encourages any company to take opportunities.
 

Y Ddraig Coch

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But there's plenty of business pressure (i.e. profit, - or in the case of LNER, better returns) that encourages any company to take opportunities.

But surely opportunities should be legal? An advert possibly left open to interpretation would be ok, but by stating that tickets "WILL" be cheaper the earlier you book. That as proved, just isn't factually correct and should not be advertised as such.
 

AM9

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But surely opportunities should be legal? An advert possibly left open to interpretation would be ok, but by stating that tickets "WILL" be cheaper the earlier you book. That as proved, just isn't factually correct and should not be advertised as such.
That was an answer to Sprunt's post. The current wording (I haven't seen it personally but others here have) is liable to ASA action. However, my point again is that any TOC can have ticket conditions where the ability to raise/lower subsequent ticket prices at will is inherent in the actual words. There are many instances of dynamic pricing in every market now, and if the TOCs want to practice it on advance fares, they have the legitimate example of flight ticket pricing as an example to follow.
I doubt that it waould have a noticeable negative impact on sales so it might be coming anyway.
 

michaelh

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Under consumer law, as LNER have specifically stated "the earlier you book, the cheaper the tickets will be", you are owed the difference back as otherwise this would be a clear breach of consumer law.

The ORR would be responsible for enforcing this, but of course the matter could also be pointed out to the Rail Ombudsman, Transport Focus, and your MP.

With everything else going on, are you seriously suggesting that an MP (when one is elected) would want to get involved in someone claiming that he's due a £20 refund?
 

jon0844

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I've heard LNER might be about to do a push on advance ticketing, either offering more on any given train as a whole or doing more of the cheap ones.

If so, they ought to check the wording if this means new batches of cheaper tickets on previously sold out trains (advance fares wise).
 

Wallsendmag

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I've heard LNER might be about to do a push on advance ticketing, either offering more on any given train as a whole or doing more of the cheap ones.

If so, they ought to check the wording if this means new batches of cheaper tickets on previously sold out trains (advance fares wise).
What makes you think it hasn’t already been flagged up?
 

yorkie

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With everything else going on, are you seriously suggesting that an MP (when one is elected) would want to get involved in someone claiming that he's due a £20 refund?
It's not the amount that is important per se (some companies will prosecute people over 10 pence) however this is a breach of consumer law.
 

AnkleBoots

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What's the lesson to learn here? Possibly that Advance tickets costing almost the same as Super Off Peak Singles are pointless? And it's worth buying from sites that give you penalty-free refunds / exchanges - Southern? CrossCountry?
 

47271

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Darandio

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I posted this on another thread last night. Is there any connection I wonder?

I'm not so sure. If it was related then I would have assumed they would have changed the potentially misleading wording about cheaper tickets posted upthread, but they haven't.
 

mmh

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With everything else going on, are you seriously suggesting that an MP (when one is elected) would want to get involved in someone claiming that he's due a £20 refund?

It's exactly the sort of thing you have an MP for. What do you think they are for?
 

michaelh

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It's exactly the sort of thing you have an MP for. What do you think they are for?

They're supposed to be part of government - not some sort of claims lawyer for those who want to claim £20 because they bought the wrong ticket and thus want to portray them self as some sort of victim
 

yorkie

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They're supposed to be part of government - not some sort of claims lawyer for those who want to claim £20 because they bought the wrong ticket and thus want to portray them self as some sort of victim
Nonsense; an MP for an area served by LNER absolutely should be interested if LNER are breaching consumer law.

If the customer gets nowhere with the Ombudsman and if the ORR/DfT are not interested in a consumer law breach then an MP should be contacted. Obviously this would require waiting until after the election.

I have moved the other posts about whether MPs represent constituents until the election into this thread: https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...r-mp-before-the-electrion-takes-place.195299/

@joeneat please let us know how you get on and I will re-open the thread at that point. I have sent you a direct message.
 
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