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Delay Repay after door didn't open (help please!)

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Nunners

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Yesterday (17/10) I was on 2P82 2219 Portsmouth Harbour to London Waterloo. I was travelling back to Southampton and planned to change at Hilsea and then take 2E76 2233 Portsmouth to Southampton Central.
However, the door opened slightly and then got stuck. I didn't try to force it open because it didn't seem like a great idea to try and mess with large heavy moving parts of a train that might shut at any time. I ran to the next door down, but the door open button was not lit so I couldn't open it, as it was too late.

I thought I had missed a chance to get the last train back so I found the guard in the back cab and asked him what I should do. He told me to get off at the next stop (Bedhampton) and use the helpline to contact control, who would be able to arrange a taxi for me. I showed him the door when we arrived at Bedhampton, and it did the same thing, but he gave it a shove to open it fully.

I rang the helpline and after telling them several times that the door wouldn't show up on the system as a fault, he rang the guard to ask about the door. I don't know what he asked because I was on hold, but he said that the guard had told them there weren't any door faults and that I have to make my own way back and that they wouldn't arrange a taxi. I assume they asked if there was a door fault rather than if there was a passenger that couldn't get off because the door got stuck, but that's just speculation.

I worked out that there was a way I could get home by getting 2S95 2240 Portsmouth Harbour to Brighton up to Havant, and then 1S40 2203 Brighton to Portsmouth Harbour to Fratton, then 2T68 2324 Portsmouth Harbour to Winchester as far as Eastleigh and then 1B77 2305 London Waterloo to Southampton Central, arriving at 00:32.

At this point I had (just!) enough time to catch the last bus back home at 00:35, but the driver left early and so I had to walk back, which made me approx. 2 hours later than planned back home.

My ticket was a Weekend Super Off-Peak Day Return from Southampton Central to Shanklin, with a 16-25 railcard, and cost £20.85. I paid with both card and RTV (Rail Travel Voucher) at Southampton Central at about 11:50am the morning I went.

Any help with how to approach the delay repay claim for this would be greatly appreciated. I know I should claim with SWR, but I think my claim would be rejected as the train wasn't delayed and no fault would have shown up with the door.

Thanks for any help,

Nunners
 
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island

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I would just lodge the delay claim as normal and include a note regarding what happened. You can include this in the photo with your ticket if there is no open comment box on their form.

If approved, you will be paid for a 30-59 minute delay (£5.25 give or take) as you arrived at Southampton Central at 00:32 where your intended journey would have had you there at 23:36. DelayRepay is payable to the booked railway destination and they will not take account of your unfortunate situation with the bus.

I am not sure why you didn’t just join the 22:33 at Portsmouth Harbour in the first place, but that shouldn’t affect your DelayRepay claim.

You could also have saved yourself some faff by joining 2T68 at Hilsea, but that’s by the by.
 
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theironroad

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Why anyone would involuntarily want to wait at hilsea at night rather than change at southsea or fratton is curious unless mobility issues with a possible platform change at pms or ftn.

Similarly, being advised to leave at bedhampton rather than havant where far more trains stop, esp if going to Southampton is odd.

Btw, in future the door won't fall off if you give it a friendly shove if it part opens, it's just sticky and happens occasionally.

Can't really help on the delay repay. You'd need to write /email customer service as an exceptional case as delays won't appear in system if there weren't any.
 

Nunners

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I would just lodge the delay claim as normal and include a note regarding what happened. You can include this in the photo with your ticket if there is no open comment box on their form.

If approved, you will be paid for a 30-59 minute delay (£5.25 give or take) as you arrived at Southampton Central at 00:32 where your intended journey would have had you there at 23:36. DelayRepay is payable to the booked railway destination and they will not take account of your unfortunate situation with the bus.

I am not sure why you didn’t just join the 22:33 at Portsmouth Harbour in the first place, but that shouldn’t affect your DelayRepay claim.

You could also have saved yourself some faff by joining 2T68 at Hilsea, but that’s by the by.

Thanks, I will try that. I don't hold out much hope that it will be accepted though.

I have to admit that the conversation with control where they didn't believe me that I couldn't get off made it much more annoying than it had to be, and I'll probably complain about that.

I joined 2P82 and changed because it was new for haulage for me (that'll teach me!)

Thanks for your advice
 

Hugo3000

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I can see a lot of hassle for the sake of getting back £5.25! This whole episode seems so easily avoidable by not messing about getting indirect trains late at night for the sake of 'new haulage'!
 

Bletchleyite

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I'd have given the door a kick but maybe that's just me. It sounds like the OP just stood there before running to an adjacent door

Particularly as there's a known issue with Desiro doors when the train isn't vertical. Just give it a shove, you won't break it, it's exactly what the staff would do.
 

Hadders

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I would log the incident with customer relations rather than make a delay repay claim. A delay repay claim will get rejected by the automated system as there was not a delay to the train service, what you ate relying on is a potential discretionary payment which would need to be made by customer relations.
 

Qwerty133

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Incidents like this are exactly why passengers don't care when TOCs introduce more DOO services. The guard knew full well that there was an issue with the door that caused the OP to be unable to alight but when asked by his/her control team claimed that no such issue had occurred (I don't really care about the exact wording used by control because the guard was aware of the situation and therefore would have known what the question related to). This type of incident should be reported to the general customer service team rather than submitted as a delay repay request as it requires further investigation in order to see what occurred in order to prevent it from happening again (not the known issue with the doors but the communication failures between TOC staff).
 

Nunners

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I'd have given the door a kick but maybe that's just me. It sounds like the OP just stood there before running to an adjacent door
Particularly as there's a known issue with Desiro doors when the train isn't vertical. Just give it a shove, you won't break it, it's exactly what the staff would do.
Thanks, I'll definitely do that next time! I've seen trains with broken doors before so I thought it was completely broken. I wasn't aware of the issue with Desiros, but I'll bear that in mind if this happens again

I can see a lot of hassle for the sake of getting back £5.25! This whole episode seems so easily avoidable by not messing about getting indirect trains late at night for the sake of 'new haulage'!
I would log the incident with customer relations rather than make a delay repay claim. A delay repay claim will get rejected by the automated system as there was not a delay to the train service, what you ate relying on is a potential discretionary payment which would need to be made by customer relations.
Incidents like this are exactly why passengers don't care when TOCs introduce more DOO services. The guard knew full well that there was an issue with the door that caused the OP to be unable to alight but when asked by his/her control team claimed that no such issue had occurred (I don't really care about the exact wording used by control because the guard was aware of the situation and therefore would have known what the question related to). This type of incident should be reported to the general customer service team rather than submitted as a delay repay request as it requires further investigation in order to see what occurred in order to prevent it from happening again (not the known issue with the doors but the communication failures between TOC staff).
I probably won't log a delay repay claim for the sake of a fiver, but I will tell customer relations about the incident as the lack of communications did make me quite annoyed. I think it is a problem with the railways at the moment that you are treated as "guilty until proven otherwise", if you get what I mean.

It could have been worse if I hadn't known where the guard was, or what a help point was or looked like as well, so I understand why some "normals" just give up on travelling by train after incidents like this. It was a stark contrast with hovertravel who were very helpful and willing for me to change the times of travel, even turning up half an hour before the hovercraft left.
 
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maniacmartin

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Incidents like this are exactly why passengers don't care when TOCs introduce more DOO services. The guard knew full well that there was an issue with the door that caused the OP to be unable to alight but when asked by his/her control team claimed that no such issue had occurred (I don't really care about the exact wording used by control because the guard was aware of the situation and therefore would have known what the question related to). This type of incident should be reported to the general customer service team rather than submitted as a delay repay request as it requires further investigation in order to see what occurred in order to prevent it from happening again (not the known issue with the doors but the communication failures between TOC staff).

This was exactly what I thought. Fob off the customer telling them to call control because then its not your problem. Some people like an easy life I guess.
 

SussexLad

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Ring them up and lodge the delay repay and lodge a complaint about the same time

Tend to get a better espouse first time if you ring up
 
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