How long are Northern taking to respond to correspondence?

[gray1404]

How long are Northern taking to respond to correspondence? It is clearly much longer then their Passenger Charter standard. I submitted a delay repay claim on 17 June and have heard nothing.

 

[lyndhurst25]

For me, May 22nd and still waiting......

 

[Harpers Tate]

Simple enquiry, not a delay repay. EMailed 23 May, no response.
Second enquiry, different subject. EMailed 1 July, no response.
Same (second) enquiry also sent to East Midlands Trains on 1 July, no response.

 

[gray1404]

The only think I will say is I hope the new Northern Customer Relations staff are friendly and approachable. I found many of the old staff in Leeds to be rather abrupt, too the point and rude over the phone.

These current wait times are unacceptable. How do we contact Arriva Rail North directly to start making a fuss about these excessive responce times by their contractor?

 

[hairyhandedfool]

Twitter or Facebook. These go to the social media team who are still Northern staff.

 

[gray1404]

I tweeted the Northern Assist account on Twitter saying I had been waiting over a month. They replied to say 1. To call the 0800 number so I could be told what the current processing time is and 2. It should not take more then 20 working days from date of claim.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

And did you call them?

 

[gray1404]

Nope, waste of time calling to be told how long it will take.

 

[hairyhandedfool]

I'm really not a fan of the "Customer Experience Centre", but if you call them they may be able to do more than just tell you how long it will take. If your claim/gripe has managed to go unnoticed somehow, or has "gotten lost in the system", or whatever, then not drawing attention to it won't help speed it along.

I know you shouldn't have to chase these things, but sometimes it is necessary. If it still takes too long then atleast you have something to go to Northern with and when they say "have you phoned them?" you can say yes and then they might actually start to take notice.

Just a thought.

 

[gray1404]

Good point. I am best calling them to ask. My friend submitted his delay repay about 2 minutes after me as we made the same journey and he has not heard back either.

 

[apb63]

I submitted a delay repay claim to Northern on 16th May and am still waiting for a response despite a couple of phone calls and subsequently an official complaint.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Nil desperandum! Delay repay claim sent to Northern Railway in late May and the response was eventually received last week. Was more than 20 working days' response time, though!

 

[gray1404]

So we have apb63 submitting on 16 May and yet no reply received. Mcr Warrior however submitted theirs late May and has had a response this week already. Something doesn't seem right.

 

[roversfan2001]

I sent one on June 26/27th - no response yet, not that I'm surprised after some of the replies in here.

 

[lyndhurst25]

Today I finally got an email reply from Northern about a complaint I submitted on 22nd May.

"Thank you for contacting us, please accept my apologies for the delay in responding to your enquiry, we are currently experiencing high volumes of correspondence.
Your enquiry has been passed to the relevant department for their consideration with a request to action any/all necessary updates to correct the information."

Still not a proper reply then but at least I now know that they are dealing with it.

 

[Clip]

First thing I thought of was going to be a high number of claims which always creates a backlog. What disruption was there around the may time to make so many claims come in all at once

Not good for the passenger, true however do they employ more people and then have periods where they dont have high claims and people have nothing to do for the most part and still get paid?

Does anyone have a solution to the problem?

 

[apb63]

On Monday I registered a formal complaint with Transport Focus about Northern not responding to my delay repay claim of 16th May, nor to my subsequent complaint to Northern of 15th June. Transport Focus got back to me next day and told me that Northern had told them that they hadn't received my claim. This is untrue. As well as the online claim I also sent a paper copy to Northern and when I had no response after two weeks, I phoned them - they said that there had been problems with the online claim form and they had lost some, but that they had received the paper copy of my claim.

Can I suggest that anyone whose delay repay claim has not been settled with 28 days should make a complaint to Transport Focus, so that they are aware that there is a serious problem at Northern which affects more than just me.

 

[gray1404]

I wonder if much of the current back log is merely due to the lack of experience on the part of the new customer relations department and the actual time they take dealing with a claim is much longer then it would take someone with experience. Why Northern ever got rid of the Leeds office I will never know! Bad move.

 

[Kite159]

I wonder if much of the current back log is merely due to the lack of experience on the part of the new customer relations department and the actual time they take dealing with a claim is much longer then it would take someone with experience. Why Northern ever got rid of the Leeds office I will never know! Bad move.

Someone high up probably through that outsourcing to the contractor would be a cost saving for the life of the contract.

But like telecoms companies who outsourced customer services, it wouldn't surprise me in a few years time customer services are brought back "in-house".

Shame Passenger Focus are rubbish and don't put on max waiting time limits on claims for delays/customer communication

 

[hairyhandedfool]

....Why Northern ever got rid of the Leeds office I will never know! Bad move.

Money.

 

[Starmill]

I'm waiting for 3 online delay claims from May, June and July, and two refunds from 18th March and 3rd April. Every time I call to chase them, I'm told something different. I haven't had anything at all by way of response beyond an auto-confirm of the online delay claims.

 

[gray1404]

I'm waiting for 3 online delay claims from May, June and July, and two refunds from 18th March and 3rd April. Every time I call to chase them, I'm told something different. I haven't had anything at all by way of response beyond an auto-confirm of the online delay claims.

This is just not acceptable.

 

[lyndhurst25]

I finally got a Northern complimentary travel pass today for my delayed journey on 22nd May. It was accompanied by a generic sounding letter that didn't try to explain the cause of the delay, so no excuse for the two month delay in sending it out.

The new complimentary passes haven't got an expiry date on them, which is a good thing as my delay was less than 60 minutes so I only got a single pass. Plenty of time to get another one so I can do a return journey then.

 

[Merseysider]

I'm waiting for 3 online delay claims from May, June and July, and two refunds from 18th March and 3rd April. Every time I call to chase them, I'm told something different. I haven't had anything at all by way of response beyond an auto-confirm of the online delay claims.

Nothing's changed since the franchise changeover then :roll:

 

[Cundy66]

As far as I am aware last time I received complimentary travel pass they didn't have an expiry date either (2006) and they where unlimited travel for one day on Northern only so if you are returning same day I believe it is valid for return. Check with a guard before travel and putting a date on it. The last one I had I put wrong date on luckily we hadn't left the station and it was for a week later. Phew that was close.

 

[Clip]

So Ill ask again because people are avoiding the question

What do you propose them to do about the long wait times?

 

[lyndhurst25]

As far as I am aware last time I received complimentary travel pass they didn't have an expiry date either (2006) and they where unlimited travel for one day on Northern only so if you are returning same day I believe it is valid for return. Check with a guard before travel and putting a date on it. The last one I had I put wrong date on luckily we hadn't left the station and it was for a week later. Phew that was close.

My free Northern pass from August 2015 had a 12 month expiry.

 

[lyndhurst25]

The new pass look like this.

 

[lyndhurst25]

With Terms & Conditions on the back.

(Forum is only letting me add a single attachment to each post!)

 

[Central Trains]

I have waited 2 months to receive a letter today stating I was delayed less than 30 minutes and not entitled to anything. I was delayed 2 hours!