Penalty fare

Haywain said:

But lots of people have demanding jobs, so it is of no relevance at all.

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I agree with you regarding other demanding jobs. But I stand my original point and the context of that. Let's agree to disagree.

Hi all! The appeal for me and my wife have both been accepted so we are have the penalty fares refunded!! Thank you all for your help! Does anyone know what will happen now? Like is this the end of it for good?

Raiser21 said:

Hi all! The appeal for me and my wife have both been accepted so we are have the penalty fares refunded!! Thank you all for your help! Does anyone know what will happen now? Like is this the end of it for good?

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Good news - that should be the end of the matter. Obviously monitor that you actually get re-paid the money!

I would however, keep copies of everything to do with this (your appeal wordings / their appeal response etc etc) and keep that long term in case you ever need it - eg keep it longer than a year - maybe even up to the 6 years generally advised for keeping paperwork about many formal things.

WesternLancer said:

Good news - that should be the end of the matter. Obviously monitor that you actually get re-paid the money!

I would however, keep copies of everything to do with this (your appeal wordings / their appeal response etc etc) and keep that long term in case you ever need it - eg keep it longer than a year - maybe even up to the 6 years generally advised for keeping paperwork about many formal things.

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How long should I wait for the refund before getting in touch? If I don't receive it obviously?

Raiser21 said:

How long should I wait for the refund before getting in touch? If I don't receive it obviously?

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sorry - I don't know what you should expect on that so no idea. 4 weeks maybe?

It may be set out in the regulations how quickly they should refund you - in which case PF experts here would probably know* (or you could apply the '21 day' approach they seem to give passengers in terms of a deadline for things like appealing, paying at discounted rate etc )

Most appeals on here seem to be made before people pay the PF so refunds are not involved in those cases (tho nothing at all wrong with your approach in terms of paying it and then getting refunded).

*Edit - I see @furlong has given the answer clearly below

The company has 10 working days to repay it. (Again, if it fails, it puts at risk its ability to impose further Penalty Fares until it returns to compliance, and in theory other people could win appeals on the basis of your failure to be paid back on time.)

Raiser21 said:

Hi all! The appeal for me and my wife have both been accepted so we are have the penalty fares refunded!! Thank you all for your help!

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A good result - well done.

Sorry to talk about the general rather than your specific case, but just now we seem to be seeing a few penalty fare appeals being resolved in the passenger's favour at first appeal. Is it coincidence (not impossible) or is it that following the ORR report some train companies are now encouraging their appeals people to take a more open view of the question at an earlier stage?