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Barriers to claiming Delay Repay

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AnkleBoots

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Start date of ticket
End date of ticket
Start station on ticket (as well as "journey from")
End station on ticket
Code from bottom of ticket
Type of ticket
Price paid
Recaptcha

All the above are required to be completed by the passenger for Delay Repay despite being already shown on the ticket that you have to upload.

Is this process designed to filter people out who might struggle with extracting/inputting all the data? The old paper forms didn't require as much.
 
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paddington

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Many times the journey I am claiming for is not between the start and end stations as printed on the ticket. And I've been compensated based on the entire price paid for a multi-day rover for a short delay.
 

mikeg

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If you find it hard to deal with you could always email customer services. Alternatively send in your claim by post.
 

WesternLancer

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Start date of ticket
End date of ticket
Start station on ticket (as well as "journey from")
End station on ticket
Code from bottom of ticket
Type of ticket
Price paid
Recaptcha

All the above are required to be completed by the passenger for Delay Repay despite being already shown on the ticket that you have to upload.

Is this process designed to filter people out who might struggle with extracting/inputting all the data? The old paper forms didn't require as much.
I assumed it was to permit automation of claim processing (with the ticket image as a back up for when/if they do a manual check) - but indeed makes it harder for some people to do on line I am sure)

What annoyed me was that when I appealed I had to re-submit info, and then when they accepted the appeal I had to re-send my bank details for payment having already provided them...
 

Haywain

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Start date of ticket
End date of ticket
Start station on ticket (as well as "journey from")
End station on ticket
Code from bottom of ticket
Type of ticket
Price paid
Recaptcha

All the above are required to be completed by the passenger for Delay Repay despite being already shown on the ticket that you have to upload.

Is this process designed to filter people out who might struggle with extracting/inputting all the data? The old paper forms didn't require as much.
No. It is designed to enable claims to be processed more quickly due to automation of the process.
 

Failed Unit

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I assumed it was to permit automation of claim processing (with the ticket image as a back up for when/if they do a manual check) - but indeed makes it harder for some people to do on line I am sure)

What annoyed me was that when I appealed I had to re-submit info, and then when they accepted the appeal I had to re-send my bank details for payment having already provided them...

I think this highlights the whole problem with the situation, far too much is on the passenger.

Lets say I order a ticket from LNER, GTR delay may, I have to claim from GTR and enter all this stuff which LNER already have. But if I claim from the seller (LNER) they just reject it anyway. It is difficult to put in connections as you are in a no win situation.

If you enter Welwyn Garden City - Edinburgh via Stevanage - your will get it rejected as no journey exists
If you enter Welwyn Garden City - Stevenage - you will get it rejected as the delay was not long enough to qualify (even if you are no 1 hour late because of the missed connection)

Then as you say if they reject it you are back to square 1 where you need to submit everything - they totally discard any information you have already provided.

The whole system is rotten to the core. I have another thread about this where I am writing to my MP (who also is the transport minister) to give real examples of how difficult the TOCs make the whole process and how it is to skewed towards them not paying (good profit earner for them)
 

35B

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I think this highlights the whole problem with the situation, far too much is on the passenger.

Lets say I order a ticket from LNER, GTR delay may, I have to claim from GTR and enter all this stuff which LNER already have. But if I claim from the seller (LNER) they just reject it anyway. It is difficult to put in connections as you are in a no win situation.

If you enter Welwyn Garden City - Edinburgh via Stevanage - your will get it rejected as no journey exists
If you enter Welwyn Garden City - Stevenage - you will get it rejected as the delay was not long enough to qualify (even if you are no 1 hour late because of the missed connection)

Then as you say if they reject it you are back to square 1 where you need to submit everything - they totally discard any information you have already provided.

The whole system is rotten to the core. I have another thread about this where I am writing to my MP (who also is the transport minister) to give real examples of how difficult the TOCs make the whole process and how it is to skewed towards them not paying (good profit earner for them)
I appreciate that, but the thought of a central clearing house which has no relationship with an individual customer, and is paid by operators with an incentive to minimise cost, fills me with dread.

Think whether you'd want TIL to win that contract for RDG...
 

sheff1

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No. It is designed to enable claims to be processed more quickly due to automation of the process.

Well my last claim was processed quickly. Northern soon came back to say they were not responsible for the delay and had forwarded it to EMR.

Presumably, within the automated system, the origin on the ticket being an EMR station and/or the first leg being on EMR, trumps the fact that Northern cancelled two consecutive trains on a line with only an hourly service o_O. The delay reaching my destination had zero to do with EMR.
 

Haywain

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Well my last claim was processed quickly. Northern soon came back to say they were not responsible for the delay and had forwarded it to EMR.

Presumably, within the automated system, the origin on the ticket being an EMR station and/or the first leg being on EMR, trumps the fact that Northern cancelled two consecutive trains on a line with only an hourly service o_O. The delay reaching my destination had zero to do with EMR.
I'm not saying that it's perfect, but a good number of claims for simple journeys can be paid quickly. My most recent claims have all been like that and all been accepted within around 24 hours and paid shortly afterwards.
 

packermac

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Start date of ticket
End date of ticket
Start station on ticket (as well as "journey from")
End station on ticket
Code from bottom of ticket
Type of ticket
Price paid
Recaptcha

All the above are required to be completed by the passenger for Delay Repay despite being already shown on the ticket that you have to upload.

Is this process designed to filter people out who might struggle with extracting/inputting all the data? The old paper forms didn't require as much.
I can not say I see too much wrong with it. I had one initially rejected by SWR because I told them what happened not what should have happened. I thought the form was unclear they obviously thought I was just thick.
I do not see why people should not expect to have to make some effort to put in these claims.

Moderator note: a discussion on whether Delay Repay is bizarre can now be found at https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/is-the-concept-of-delay-repay-bizarre.197958/
 
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Hadders

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I've never had a problem with GTR's system but I will say that LNW/WMR and Avanti makes it extremely hard to submit a claim.

With these TOCs you have to say how many changes you made, it's not completely clear how you should treat a cross London connection. I made a cross London interchange as part of a journey I claimed for yesterday but the system then said it couldn't find trains departing at that time. Avanti's system was even trying to say I travelled on a train that wasn't even running due to engineering works!!!

It's not clear which ticket numbers you should enter when you make a claim using a combination of tickets. It asks for ticket type but no option for Super Off Peak (and what do you say if it's a combination)

Recently I made a journey from Stevenage to Hereford via High Wycombe. The WMR train from Droitwich to Hereford was cancelled and delayed my arrival. I submitted a claim to WMR who rejected the claim and directed it to Chiltern as 'they operate the train which was cancelled'. Appealed and got the same reply.

It definitely seems to have got harder since TOCs started introducing automated processes.
 

Hadders

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Predictably Avanti have rejected my claim I submitted yesterday. They have blamed Thameslink for the delay to my journey. It was the late running Avanti train which caused me to miss the Thameslink train. I really don't understand why this is so difficult....

I appealed but the web form wants me to upload details of the ticket again. They already have this information so I simply can't be a***d to do this again, especially as the details will be exactly the same as I gave them yesterday. I've therefore written to their customer relations team, setting out the intended itinerary, what actually happened to cause the delay and asking them to withdraw the erroneous claim they've sent to Thameslink.

I've also told them why I haven't used the online form to appeal and asked them what it was I did wrong that caused the claim to be erroneously rejected.....
 

Skiddaw

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I agree with Hadders about the Avanti delay repay on-line form. A problem I encountered when completing it recently was that unless you're claiming on behalf of a group, it only allows you to upload one ticket screenshot. In my case, I needed to upload both my original ticket and a Seatfrog upgrade (which I'd been unable to use owing to missed connection). I therefore submitted a second claim for the same journey but as the form doesn't allow you to add any explanatory notes the second claim was immediately rejected. I've appealed it (the appeal form does at least allow you to add notes) but it was a faff especially as I had to upload all the details again.
 

trebor79

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No. It is designed to enable claims to be processed more quickly due to automation of the process.
Except at least 80% of the time I get an email saying my claim "is now being looked at by one of our team as part of additional quality checks". Doesn't seem to be any rhyme nor reason to which ones actually just get paid automatically, but from my admittedly fairly small sample they are few and far between.
 

_toommm_

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I agree with Hadders about the Avanti delay repay on-line form. A problem I encountered when completing it recently was that unless you're claiming on behalf of a group, it only allows you to upload one ticket screenshot. In my case, I needed to upload both my original ticket and a Seatfrog upgrade (which I'd been unable to use owing to missed connection). I therefore submitted a second claim for the same journey but as the form doesn't allow you to add any explanatory notes the second claim was immediately rejected. I've appealed it (the appeal form does at least allow you to add notes) but it was a faff especially as I had to upload all the details again.

Use a collage app to combine the two screenshots - definitely a farce, but that's one way around it...
 

sheff1

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Surprise, surprise .... Northern have rejected my appeal using the same false 'reason' as in the original rejection.

These shysters may well think putting barriers in the way of me getting the compensation I am entitled to will make me give up ..... if so, they are mistaken.
 

jrh2254

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31 Dec 2014
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A barrier to delay repay appears to be the train company only focus on their own train delay, not the delay to the overall journey. Twice GWR have rejected my claim saying their train was only 5 minutes late (it actually 6 minutes!) and ignoring the fact I had (and provided to GWR) a full itinerary for the complete journey(see below).
GWR have now rejected my appeal for delay repay, so I escalated to their customer service department on 15th December. I have not heard anything yet. Appreciate advice on what I should do next? Many thanks.
upload_2020-1-11_12-59-49.png
 

Skiddaw

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Sounds familiar. I think I probably have a similar issue with my recent Avanti rejection (see other thread). I've only just elevated to their complaints section so I don't know how long it will be before they respond.

I've found that generally, the various companies reply much more quickly via their FB pages. Try sending a message via GWRs FB page and see if that speeds things up.
 

trebor79

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Of course, all this imperfect automation can work in the passengers favour. I claimed DR from EMR last week. Service was cancelled so I used a different operators train to get to Peterborough, but had missed my connection. I was 62 minutes late to my destination, and claimed for a 60+ minute delay.
Having been passed for manual checks (which 80% of my DR claims are), they've just written to say they are pleased to confirm a 120+ minute payout! Confused, until I realise the following EMR train was 27 minutes late to Peterborough. They've obviously assumed I've not used any other operators trains, waited for their next Norwich - Liverpool train and subsequently missed both my original AND the following connection at Peterborough.
Daft assumption to make as it was just a bog standard open return, not any kind of advance or operator specific ticket.
 

Tetchytyke

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Automation works for straightforward journeys, it's not that much of a chore. And for more complex journeys, an email/letter usually works better than any form, no matter how well designed, anyway.

The biggest barrier to getting compensation is the intelligence (or lack thereof) of many customer services staff (hello Northern and TPE).
 

trebor79

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EMR have just paid me a second claim at 120+ minutes delayed even though I correctly claimed for 60+ minutes.
 

bella

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As a matter of principle, will TOCs pay out if the tickets have been bought through the likes of Trainline or a split ticketing agent? Sorry if this has been asked before?
 

Hadders

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As a matter of principle, will TOCs pay out if the tickets have been bought through the likes of Trainline or a split ticketing agent? Sorry if this has been asked before?

Of course! The retailer of the tickets Ian irrelevant.
 

yorkie

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As a matter of principle, will TOCs pay out if the tickets have been bought through the likes of Trainline or a split ticketing agent? Sorry if this has been asked before?
They are obliged to pay out based on the journey

GWR and SWR have explicitly stated they will do this since the franchises commenced and a reminder was issued to all TOCs by Rail Delivery Group a month ago: https://www.railforums.co.uk/thread...-of-number-of-tickets-held-mythbuster.198338/

My last DR claim was really easy. I had a combination of three e-tickets, but as I bought them from an accredited ticket splitting provider, I had all tickets on one PDF document. So I simply attached the document to the form. Having all tickets for the journey as a single e-ticket makes DR claims really easy. I put the cost of the ticket as the price of the sum of all three tickets.

I've not had any DR claims for multiple tickets rejected recently; the key is to keep it as simple as possible and make it easier for them to process. Also get your claim in ASAP, preferably on the day of travel, and always submit online!
 

Hadders

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IIRC Avanti’s Passenger Charter Asia says they will pay delay repayment where a combination of tickets is used.
 

allotments

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I claimed delay repay for a 3 leg split ticket journey directly by email from Avanti customer resolutions and was directed to the online delay repay page. I entered the journey there with a pic showing all 3 tickets. Claim paid but only calculated as a percentage of the leg with delay. I've now appealed and complained that Avanti's own passenger charter states:

"If you have a combination of tickets for your journey,
we will compensate you for your whole journey."

I've asked Avanti : "How many other customers are affected?"
 

blakey1152

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A few years ago when I had to use Delay Repay when travelling from Sidcup to Slade Green on Southeastern and I had a zones 56 Travelcard on Oyster it was a total nightmare to get it back.
I recall that at first they wanted a printout of my journey history - which showed the trip but at zero cost. so they then asked for the information on where I bought the season ticket and how much it cost.
I provided this as well...then they wanted to see a bank statement showing the value of the Travelcard and the purchase date.

It was a lot of hoops to go through for the small refund that I eventually got back.
It's definately a lot easier with paper tickets but because of Southeasterns poor reliability between Sidcup and Slade Green these days I save my money and get the bus so i've not had to use Delay Repay since so I've no idea if its improved.
 
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