LNER overcharge, then refuse to refund unless the passenger visits Waverley station

[yorkie]

https://twitter.com/LNER/status/1066420546223644679

@ScotRail you are terrible. Skipping North Berwick to save time and running from Drem! Where does #scotrail think the most passengers will get on? Oh and the ticket machines are broken and so is the help point!

So @ScotRail to continue this faisco you've over charged me for my ticket. North Berwick to Glasgow Queen Street usually costs me £20.20. So why was I charged £24.50 purchasing my ticket in Edinburgh? Charged extra due to your stop skipping?

So to continue my journey I have to get a taxi to Drem. Try to buy a ticket on the train and the conductor's machine is broken too. Massive queue at Edinburgh awaits meaning I'll miss my Glasgow connection. @ScotRail what is wrong with you today?

You would need to return to Waverley station to request this refund with your original ticket/receipt as evidence. ^KM

@LNER tried that just now but Honor who served me was unable to do this as her machine wouldn't allow it. She was very helpful said she would report the issue, but said I'd need to contact you.

I'm afraid we can't issue refunds for tickets bought at stations. It has to be done at the station you bought the ticket from. ^KM

There's nothing further we can do to help. As I've repeatedly said, you cannot be refunded for a ticket bought by the station by our Customer Services team. It has to be done at the station it was bought from. ^KM

The customer wished to travel from North Berwick to Glasgow, and return to North Berwick.

Due to disruption, they made their own way to Drem, but were unable to buy a ticket until they arrived at Edinburgh. At this point, the customer should be under no obligation to further delay their journey; if it is not possible to purchase a ticket before the next available Glasgow service, they should be entitled to purchase on board the train (or at destination).

It's unclear what happened at Edinburgh exactly but the customer was incorrectly sold a ticket from Drem to Glasgow, which is no use because it would not be valid to get them back all the way to North Berwick.

Also Drem to Glasgow is massively overpriced at £24.50 for the lowest priced return as there is no Day Return. Scotrail did have a policy of reducing such fares around 5 years ago but their new policy is not to do this.

North Berwick or Drem to Edinburgh is only £7.10 return; Edinburgh to Glasgow is £10.40.

A through fare from North Berwick should have been sold (as the customer did not ask for a combination of tickets) priced at £20.20

So, the customer could have got tickets costing £17.50, but should have been charged £20.20 but was actually charged £24.50 for tickets that did not allow them to complete their return journey.

LNER have refused to offer any refund unless the customer goes out of their way to visit their Edinburgh Waverley ticket office. The customer visited the ticket office and was unable to get a refund. So the customer is left in limbo by LNER, with different staff sending the customer to different parts of the company, with neither part able to resolve it.

Sadly this is not the only recent instance of LNER offering poor customer service; I am aware of many more. They appear to be engaging in a war against their own customers. It's all very sad and no way to run a railway.

What are LNER playing at, and why is there no organisation that is able to bring them to account?

 

[ForTheLoveOf]

What the customer services are saying is also entirely wrong. It is perfectly possible to obtain a refund from somewhere other than the ticket office used. You can, if the worst comes to the worst, send the tickets back to LNER's registered office in York (obviously a covering note would be helpful).

Perhaps someone ought to ask LNER where the NRCoT allow them to require customers to obtain a refund. It could well constitute a breach of consumer law if that even was a requirement.

The use of the passive-aggressive phrase "As I've repeatedly said" is something I've sadly experienced from a number of other TOCs too. It's totally useless and adds nothing to the situation. Plenty of other companies manage customer service just fine, so there is no need to resort to tat like that.

 

[robbeech]

It’s clear here that some of Scotrail and LNER social media teams, ticket office staff, customer service teams have got the faintest idea of what they get paid to do.
This comes as a no surprise but will be denied to the death by many on here who will stand by their opinion that since the dawn of the railway a member of staff has yet to put a foot wrong.

What appears to have happened is a lack of training (not necessarily their fault) has got in the way of acceptable customer service. The arrogant attitude that this developed into just makes the company look like a joke which I don’t consider them to be (YMMV).

I have been on the receiving end of “have told you several times” comments before only to be proved correct later that day. This was pointed out to them by a third party but no apology was brought forward. The customer had followed my advice rather than theirs and had got to their destination. I saved them over £200 in delay repay that day too but the attitude remains it seems.

The customer should where possible try to obtain a refund from the source, however given that poor training or faulty equipment disallowed that they should be entitled to contact customer services for them to help with their issue rather than speak down to them as if they as a passenger is a detriment to the railway.

 

[najaB]

It’s clear here that some of Scotrail and LNER social media teams, ticket office staff, customer service teams have got the faintest idea of what they get laid to do.

Freudian slip?

 

[robbeech]

Freudian slip?

Perhaps. More likely fat thumbs. Now edited.

 

[Silverdale]

I don't really understand why the customer paid for a ticket priced at £24.50, when they knew the fare for the ticket they wanted was £20.20. Maybe that was because of a genuine misunderstanding? Can't really tell without knowing exactly what was asked for and what was offered.

That aside, having sold them the wrong ticket for their journey, LNER's attitude to a customer asking for a refund is completely unacceptable. Bad enough that the initial advice given was completely wrong. Worse that when the customer questioned the wrong advice, they were put down so aggressively. LNER performing the whole clown dance on the Twitters for the world to see is a PR car crash.

Was this merely some tweets observed, or has someone told the customer that they do not have to simply put up with this and advised them what they are entitled to and how to complain about how they were dealt with?

 

[robbeech]

I hope someone with the knowledge has contacted the customer to explain their rights to them.