So after another pretty miserable experience, though not exactly the fault of SWR directly, I was eligible for another delay repay claim. The one from 5th September is still waiting for a manager's attention so that's by the by, but I thought this one might be easier. I got to keep the ticket, and I had the forethought to ask the TVM at Waterloo to print a receipt, so I was well-armed for a DR claim, or so I thought.
The service I used was this one:
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/W37727/2017/10/14/advanced
because in my infinite wisdom I decided to let the previous Reading train past since this one was due to arrive at Waterloo sooner.
After being strongly encouraged to detrain at Putney following a man on the track & traction current off at Wandsworth Town (and fair play to them for allowing the doors to be opened at an unscheduled stop within 10 minutes), I used the service below to get back to Waterloo, but fundamentally, the delay was very similar to what it would have been if I'd stayed on the train.
http://www.realtimetrains.co.uk/train/W36894/2017/10/14/advanced
So that's either 39 or 41 minutes' delay, in either case clearly above 30.
As a result, because I was late getting back to Liverpool Street for the remainder of my journey, I missed the preceding train, blissfully unaware there was a 43 minute gap in the timetable which TfL did not advertise beforehand. As a result, I took the next train (not actually considering the possibility that an off-peak TfL service would skip Brentwood) and once I realised my mistake when the driver announced the omissions, rather than wait 40 minutes at gone midnight on an exposed platform somewhere, since the last westbound train of the day had already departed I used a taxi from Shenfield to Brentwood instead.
Not expecting much, I sent the DR form in citing the actual delay to my journey which ended up at 70 minutes, due to the missed connection. That would be accurate whether or not the taxi was used (longer in fact if I hadn't), so I filed a claim of '60+ minutes', attached my ticket, CC receipt, the taxi receipt and a covering letter explaining the entirety of the above, the reason for claiming what I did, in the hope that it might prompt them to actually give me the £5 extra back on top of the 60 minute claim at best, just give me a 60 minute claim at worst. If all else failed, I knew I was at least safe to get a 30 minute claim back. Does this seem reasonable?
Two days later I received an email back saying the claim had been rejected as the delay was under 30 minutes. My interpretation of that is that someone processing DR saw all the info attached to the claim and simply hit the reject button, 'nah not dealing with that, too complicated'.
I have of course disputed this but will have to wait 15 working days for a reply. Another 50 minute phone call is certainly not worth the effort given I stand to get £10 back at best. The wait time is so great that unless making a very high-value claim it'd be better to assume there is no telephone support. Fundamentally action only seems to be taken in response to emails anyway, even though their own emails ask you to call them.
Once again it's a fairly small amount of money, but the principle certainly leaves a very sour taste. Technically TfL are more to blame than SWR are as they can't prevent a man fallen onto the tracks, whereas TfL could certainly make more of an announcement about cutting services from the late night timetable, but since the only part of the journey that was officially delayed was on SWR, that's where I had to file the delay.
I (mercifully) only use SWR very occasionally these days, but given that I've already lost hours of my time dealing with this from just two round trips, what must it be like for the poor folk who commute on this route every day? Especially when you consider that the 'upgrade' works at Waterloo haven't actually had any impact on the two delays I've experienced. Frankly, based on my experience of SWR's customer service, coupled with the punctuality stats that I've witnessed from the botched Waterloo upgrade, I would say that SWR right now is as bad, if not worse than the height of the Southern industrial action. I don't say things like this lightly and am usually quite defensive of the railways, but at present I'd vote SWR as the worst TOC in the country. GTR are not a lot better, but I use their services a lot more often and although I'm almost always a little late, I don't have to put up with this.
