Discussion: Is claiming delay repay twice for a multi-leg journey fraudulent?

[trainophile]

The more old-fashioned option of submitting a claim by post remains open to all passengers, even after the website shuts down!

When I did an online claim from TPE at the weekend it said I MUST print off the form and send it to them in the post (Freepost) with the tickets. Rather defeats the object of doing it online in the first place.

 

[Belperpete]

You are indeed. But if you elect to do that, what you can't do is *also* claim for them as separate journeys on separate tickets.

I repeat what I said earlier: I have every right to claim. Everyone has the right to claim for any delay incurred on a journey for which they hold a valid ticket. I encourage everyone to do so.

If I were to demand say £20 which I know that I am not entitled to, then that could be construed as fraud. But that is not the way that delay repay works. A claim is merely a request for compensation, it is not a demand. All you do is give the TOC details of the delay that you incurred, and THEY work out what if any compensation they think is due. Even if they think you are not entitled to compensation under their delay repay rules, they can (and have) granted compensation on a discretionary basis. By deciding yourself that the TOC might not grant the claim, all that you are doing is denying yourself any chance of compensation.

 

[Haywain]

TOCs only repay about one third of the money they receive from NR in compensation back to their customers.

I have no idea of the actual amount that TOCs receive from Network Rail but you are choosing to see this as a one way street, which it is not. TOCs also pay vast amounts to Network Rail and other TOCs and freight operators through the same mechanism. It is far from clear who the 'winners' really are.

 

[island]

During the recent Stonehaven derailment incident, I had to travel to Glasgow. My rail replacement bus was late (the driver didnt know where any of the intermediate stations were), and we missed a connection at Dundee, resulting in a 2 hour delay. On my return journey the bus waited half an hour at Dundee before leaving, and I was over an hour lat arriving at my destination.

I was unable to claim for the return-leg delay, as I had already received the full price of my ticket for the delay on the outbound leg (200% of a single for a 120 min+ delay).

There is nothing to say that you cannot claim compensation in excess of the price of your ticket.

 

[Bletchleyite]

There is nothing to say that you cannot claim compensation in excess of the price of your ticket.

As I posted above, some TOCs do explicitly restrict in this way. It is my view that this is not intended to be possible in any case, but it does seem there is nothing disallowing it at some TOCs and so such claims may well succeed.