Passenger Refunds - Rail Vouchers - Time for a rethink?

[Furrball]

Given that for some time East Coast have offered discounted online only fares and other online promotions that are available from time to time is it fair that any compensation that refunds made to passengers in respect of the passenger charter are made using vouchers that can only be redeemed at a ticket office thus potentially resulting in you paying more for the journey?

We have had several hundreds of pounds of vouchers over the past few years and sometimes it can be a little difficult to get through all of them!

Also, one could argue whether it is correct that they have an expiry date!

It was interesting that as a result of a submission to Virgin following my girlfriends woes on a recent journey that the refund resulting from the delay of the service was issued in rail vouchers but the refund due to the declassification (or not as was the case!) of 1st class was issued as a cheque.

 

[SS4]

IMO any refund should be given by the same method the original ticket was paid in, be it cash, card or rail voucher.

Rail vouchers are all very well and good but obviously the liquidity of cash is necessary and it's not like they can't do it, the CoC state that the original MOP [method of payment] should be used if a customer decides not to travel due to a cancellation
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If they are going to continue with rail vouchers at least put a code on them that can be used against online tickets. This is especially important given the proliferation of online only offers

 

[AlterEgo]

IMO any refund should be given by the same method the original ticket was paid in, be it cash, card or rail voucher.

Rail vouchers are all very well and good but obviously the liquidity of cash is necessary and it's not like they can't do it, the CoC state that the original MOP [method of payment] should be used if a customer decides not to travel due to a cancellation
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If they are going to continue with rail vouchers at least put a code on them that can be used against online tickets. This is especially important given the proliferation of online only offers

It is worth remembering that Delay Repay compensation is just that - compensation. It is not a refund.

I'd love to see Rail Travel Vouchers usable online. However, online discount codes are specific to a TOC and their website. Until there exists some centrally-recognised discount code for vouchers, it won't happen. Such a system might be prohibitively expensive in the short term.

Unless you'd like your vouchers to be fixed for use on the issuing TOC's site, it's not something that can happen in the near future.

Virgin Trains are making use of promotional codes etc for the purpose of providing complimentary tickets. This doesn't apply to the vast majority of cases though.

 

[route:oxford]

Given that for some time East Coast have offered discounted online only fares and other online promotions that are available from time to time is it fair that any compensation that refunds made to passengers in respect of the passenger charter are made using vouchers that can only be redeemed at a ticket office thus potentially resulting in you paying more for the journey?

We have had several hundreds of pounds of vouchers over the past few years and sometimes it can be a little difficult to get through all of them!

Also, one could argue whether it is correct that they have an expiry date!

It was interesting that as a result of a submission to Virgin following my girlfriends woes on a recent journey that the refund resulting from the delay of the service was issued in rail vouchers but the refund due to the declassification (or not as was the case!) of 1st class was issued as a cheque.

Switching to cheque wouldn't be ideal. Chances are the cheque clearing system will be abandoned within a 7 years.

In certain respects, I do quite like the voucher scheme. I've been delayed when travelling for work (in my own time) on a number of occasions. It would have been disappointing if I'd suffered the delays and work had had a refund remitted directly to them.

 

[island]

John Lewis does gift vouchers that have a code for use online under a scratch-off panel, and once you've scratched it, the voucher's no longer valid in store.

 

[Paul Kelly]

So when do you get vouchers and when do you get a cheque? Is it anything to do with whether the TOC operates a delay repay scheme or gives compensation under its passengers charter?

I have to admit to not being aware that you could claim compensation and that it was a standard procedure with predictable results until I read about it on this forum. I'm not a particularly regular traveller on the british rail system, but I'm sure there were a few times in the past that I was entitled to claim compensation and didn't.

Recently I claimed from First Great Western for a delay I suffered travelling from Portsmouth to Oxford. It was quite a complicated delay; I had intended on travelling with FGW (1923 service ex PMH) to Southampton and then changing to CrossCountry to get to Oxford around 2130. But the FGW train was delayed and I missed the XC connection. I then took a SWT train to Basingstoke intending to catch the local FGW service to Reading. But the SWT service was also delayed and I just missed the FGW service (I could see its tail lights in the distance when I got to platform 5 at BSK). So I ended up what I think was 2hrs 6mins late (by the timetable) in Oxford. And FGW refunded me the full price of my ticket by cheque. Is there any particular reason for this (rather than in vouchers)? And will they have reclaimed some of the cost from SWT since they contributed to the delay (I understatnd if the delay was between 1 and 2 hours I would have only been entitled to half the cost of the ticket)? The letter apologised that their 19:23 service from Portsmouth Harbour was delayed, but didn't mention my subsequent delay on South West Trains at all.

 

[barrykas]

So when do you get vouchers and when do you get a cheque? Is it anything to do with whether the TOC operates a delay repay scheme or gives compensation under its passengers charter?

I believe the norm is to issue vouchers, but most TOCs will have a policy as to when you can request a cheque (in Chiltern's case, that's if the amount due is over £30, and there's a box on the comments form to that effect).

Cheers,

Barry

 

[mralexn]

For me, what i would love to see, would be the ability just to take your tickets into the station, and have them give you the vouchers there and then, after say, seeing your tickets, looking up on trust or whatever it is they find out the delay on, and just handing you your compensation vouchers,
this would say a lot of time because at the moment, you need to write out loads of details, then actually send it off, and then it can take up to 2 weeks for them to even get back to you, if your tickets do not get "lost"
this would also be good because its a real person giving you your vouchers and also apologising for whatever reason you were delayed, (the personal touch)
what do you think of this idea?

 

[bnm]

For me, what i would love to see, would be the ability just to take your tickets into the station, and have them give you the vouchers there and then, after say, seeing your tickets, looking up on trust or whatever it is they find out the delay on, and just handing you your compensation vouchers,
this would say a lot of time because at the moment, you need to write out loads of details, then actually send it off, and then it can take up to 2 weeks for them to even get back to you, if your tickets do not get "lost"
this would also be good because its a real person giving you your vouchers and also apologising for whatever reason you were delayed, (the personal touch)
what do you think of this idea?

Busy train arrives over an hour late, and everyone who alights is entitled to go to the ticket office for a refund? Not a brilliant idea. Would you be happy queueing for ages to buy a ticket whilst what may be a lone ticket clerk processes dozens of refunds?

 

[hairyhandedfool]

For me, what i would love to see, would be the ability just to take your tickets into the station, and have them give you the vouchers there and then, after say, seeing your tickets, looking up on trust or whatever it is they find out the delay on, and just handing you your compensation vouchers,
this would say a lot of time because at the moment, you need to write out loads of details, then actually send it off, and then it can take up to 2 weeks for them to even get back to you, if your tickets do not get "lost"
this would also be good because its a real person giving you your vouchers and also apologising for whatever reason you were delayed, (the personal touch)
what do you think of this idea?

Firstly, many stations (particularly where there is only a ticket office) don't have trust (or anything that goes back beyond 24hrs) (it's only the replacement of aptis and the paper NFM that allowed smaller stations to have any sort of pc!).

Secondly, the queues at the ticket office at many stations are already longer than the TOCs would like.

Thirdly, bigger stations would require much larger stocks of them than they could reasonably store (they wouldn't be allowed to just leave them on a shelf in a store room).

Fourthly, staff would have more paperwork to fill out (not just ticket office staff either!).

In theory its a sound idea, but it's let down by a few small things.

 

[tony_mac]

If I remember correctly, we can actually than Passenger Focus for this!

The OFT were not happy about it and wanted cash payments but Passenger Focus said that they were happy with vouchers, so the OFT didn't push it.

 

[WillPS]

It is worth remembering that Delay Repay compensation is just that - compensation. It is not a refund.

I'd love to see Rail Travel Vouchers usable online. However, online discount codes are specific to a TOC and their website. Until there exists some centrally-recognised discount code for vouchers, it won't happen. Such a system might be prohibitively expensive in the short term.

Unless you'd like your vouchers to be fixed for use on the issuing TOC's site, it's not something that can happen in the near future.

Virgin Trains are making use of promotional codes etc for the purpose of providing complimentary tickets. This doesn't apply to the vast majority of cases though.

It would be relatively simple to be able to opt for either an evoucher or credit to an account to be delivered via e-mail, and acceptable only at that TOC's website or a postal voucher. It would save all parties rather a lot, and would be simple enough to work in to any decent (which probably rules out any of thetrainline's clients) system.

The TOC would enjoy both the lower processing costs (I received a total of 3 letters from East Midlands Trains last time I complained - these could all be via e-mail) and a degree of loss prevention (since the voucher could only be redeemed through them, rather than for example my postal voucher which TransPennine Express processed).

The customer would receive their voucher quicker, have access to the relevant TOC's promo fares and there could also be the ability for them to use a large voucher bit by bit.

Win/win.

 

[Bristol Rover]

Agree, e-vouchers would be a much better idea. It's a right bore if you don't live near a station with a ticket office- if you go to a small one and start booking complicated journeys, not only does the poor chap at the Ticket Office not used to split tickets/complex advance Firsts take ages to find what you want, but a large queue soon starts building up, pressuring both you and the Clerk.

The idea of 'instant compensation' from the ticket office will never happen - it's in the interests of TOCs not to publicise that refunds are available! On a train that's delayed by an hour, how many people actually know you are entitled to some compensation?