GWR: Refund for over 2 hour delay, not offering 100%

[brynhh]

Hi all

I recently had a journey, with the following details:

• 2x off peak return tickets (not advance) from Swansea to Bath, with a 2 together railcard.
• Cost: £63.60 total for both tickets, after railcard discount.
  
• Swansea - Bath : Friday 6th April afternoon (outward ticket fully used).
• Bath - Bristol TM: Fri evening (return partially used).
• Bristol TM - Swansea 7th: Saturday (the same return ticket).

The Bristol TM to Swansea was the one with the delay. We left around 1520 (I can't remember the exact time as on national rail it now seems future trains are different, but on the claim to GWR it was submitted accurately) with the aim to change at Newport at 1609 and therefore get home around 1720.

However due to signalling issues between Newport and Cardiff and most trains being delayed or cancelled, we arrived in Swansea at 9pm, so easily well over 3 hours late.

Going by this website https://www.gwr.com/help-and-support/refunds-and-compensation/delay-compensation, it states this:

If you’re delayed by more than an hour, we’ll compensate you for the full value of that part of the journey. That’s 50% of the cost of a return, and 100% of a single. If you’re delayed by more than two hours, we’ll compensate you for the full cost of your ticket.

It also says:

You can choose to receive your compensation in the following ways:
eVoucher

We’ll credit your compensation to your online GWR account; where you can use it as full or part payment for travel anywhere in Great Britain.
Rail Travel Vouchers

These are valid for 12 months and can be used as full or part payment at any station ticket office, for travel anywhere in Great Britain.
Credit or debit card

When we’ve validated your claim, we’ll get back in touch for your card details. Payment then takes between one and three days.
Cheque

We’ll send you a cheque in the post.

So my interpretation is that I am able to submit a claim for the full 62.60 given it was well over 2 hours, and payment by debit card, which I did. I had a reply stating this:

We’re sorry for the delay

Thank you for your about your journey on 7th April 2018. I’m sorry to hear you were so delayed on your service to Swansea, I appreciate that this would have been very frustrating for you, as well as inconvenient.

As we delayed you by more than an hour, I’ve arranged a cheque for £31.30 to be sent to your postal address. This covers the cost of your delayed service and will be sent by our finance team as soon as possible.

What went wrong

I’ve checked all the details and the delay to your journey was caused by a level crossing failure.

When something like this happens, we do our best to get our trains up and running as quickly as we can. It’s disappointing this took such a long time for your trip.

Thanks again for getting in touch

Once again, I’m sorry we let you down. I hope you can put the cheque to good use and that, if you’re travelling with us again soon, you have a more enjoyable journey.

I then replied:

I have a couple of comments regarding this:

On the options on your claim form, I explicitly selected the debit card option and not cheque as it is difficult for us to pay in cheques due to our bank branch closing. I would prefer this to be the payment option please.

On your website, it says " If you’re delayed by more than two hours, we’ll compensate you for the full cost of your ticket.". We were delayed by over 3 hours (we did not arrive home until 9pm but should have arrived at 17:43), so as we purchased an off peak return for 2 people, we should be refunded for the total ticket cost as per your website guidance, which is 62.60.

I'd appreciate the above being actioned before any planned refund takes place.

I have then had this reply today:

Thank you for contacting us
Thank you for your email regarding your refund, the amount that was sent to you is correct because you have a return ticket and the line you travelled on,we can only give you 50% of the return cost to keep in line with the passengers charter.
At the moment we dont have the facilities to to transfer any refunds into bank accounts this may be looked in to in the future.
Once again
Thank you for getting in touch if you have any further questions please don't hesitate to get in touch

I have asked for advice on another forum and the person who kindly replied said I appear to be correct and should be entitled to a full refund, but advised to check on here to be completely sure.

I plan to go back to their complaints department at [email protected] but before then. if anyone thinks more needs to be looked into, or how I should respond before I actually do, any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks and all the best.

 

[185143]

Assuming that you were not travelling on a 'Former First Great Western Link service' (I've no idea what that means, being somewhat out of area), then their compensation form states you're entitled to a full refund.

Refer the case to Transport Focus-you've already given them a chance to correct their error. This is really, really basic stuff...

 

[JN114]

£31.30 is the correct value for one return ticket.

Per their compensation page OP linked to above:

If you were travelling as part of a group please submit an individual claim for each person delayed.

 

[brynhh]

Assuming that you were not travelling on a 'Former First Great Western Link service' (I've no idea what that means, being somewhat out of area), then their compensation form states you're entitled to a full refund.

Refer the case to Transport Focus-you've already given them a chance to correct their error. This is really, really basic stuff...

£31.30 is the correct value for one return ticket.

Per their compensation page OP linked to above:

Thanks both, yeah I'm sure you see plenty of these and sorry if it's taking up your time (with it being so simple), just wanted to double check I'd not got anything wrong.

As for the group, I didn't see that part of the website. I submitted a claim for the full amount with 2 pictures because I assumed due to it being a 2 together purchase it's essentially 1 thing, but I guess that's just the discount applied.

Would you say it's best to just submit another claim or just refer it to TF with pictures of both tickets and all of the details above? Problem I've got now is I can't remember the exact departure time from Temple Meads that I put into the claim, as it seems like they've changed since then.

 

[cactustwirly]

Assuming that you were not travelling on a 'Former First Great Western Link service' (I've no idea what that means, being somewhat out of area), then their compensation form states you're entitled to a full refund.

Refer the case to Transport Focus-you've already given them a chance to correct their error. This is really, really basic stuff...

It's the Thames Valley services.

 

[bb21]

Just go back and reiterate that you had two tickets on that photo, and explain what you think the correct amount of compensation should be.

Then see what they come back with. I'd expect the correct amount to be given.

 

[robbeech]

Sometimes multiple tickets will confuse matters so as others have said it’s worth getting back to them to make sure they fully understand.

However, as it is clear that you made 3 (perfectly valid) journeys using this ticket and it was only the third and final journey that was delayed then I feel it necessary to point out that you may not be entitled to the full compensation. It’s difficult to know how this should be priced but despite being a rail user which could benefit from this I don’t necessarily agree that the full price of the ticket should be compensated as the delay was to a journey that was shorter than the full ticket and delay repay is based upon a delay to the journey.
If policy says that they should pay out on the full value of the ticket then this is worth checking and escalating where necessary but I cannot find this scenario written anywhere.

 

[brynhh]

So emailed their complaints department and they have agreed to send a 2nd cheque for the other half of the fare (although haven't even had the first one yet). The reason being was only 1 photo of a ticket went through to them apparently, they didn't say that in the original emails though.

Thanks everyone for your help.

 

[robbeech]

One would have hoped they’d look at the two together part and question where the other one is since both parties must travel together.
At least they’ve agreed to send more money to you.