Positive Delay Repay experience

[Merseysider]

As part of a longer journey on Sunday 3rd October, I ended up rather delayed between Lichfield and Birmingham.

I put in for Delay Repay with WMR the same evening and tonight (the 6th, just 3 days later!) I have received a rail travel voucher as requested, for the correct amount, with an RTV dated the 4th & a letter dated the 5th.

So well done WMR.

If WMR with their expansive network and multitude of routes can resolve DR within a week, then I’d argue that’s where the bar should be set & there’s no good reason other operators (looking at you Northern) take over month to respond, or even longer to eventually look at and wrongly reject the case.

 

[Deafdoggie]

The problem is, once behind they start drafting in other staff to try and clear the backlog. These staff may not have had fully comprehensive training and thus correct claims can get rejected in error...thus creating more work, the problem you were trying to resolve! The question really is how have they got so far behind with claims already after months of virtually no one travelling, they should have a clean sheet.

 

[yorkie]

West Midlands Trains messed up a claim I had, involving a missed train at Tamworth, so I'm not happy with them.

Northern were actually good for my last claim.

 

[462cd]

Well, for balance on WMR ...

I lodged a DR claim with them on 12 Sep that they rejected because they said my ticket wasn't valid for the journey. It was valid, so I appealed. They then decided that okay, it was valid after all, but now they say my delay was caused by Avanti not them. That's nonsense too, and they don't let you appeal an appeal, so I had to open a formal complaint on 24 Sep and haven't heard anything from them since then.

If I'd put false info in my DR claim they'd come after me for fraud, so I'm a little peeved that they can use false info to reject it.

 

[Watershed]

Well, for balance on WMR ...

I lodged a DR claim with them on 12 Sep that they rejected because they said my ticket wasn't valid for the journey. It was valid, so I appealed. They then decided that okay, it was valid after all, but now they say my delay was caused by Avanti not them. That's nonsense too, and they don't let you appeal an appeal, so I had to open a formal complaint on 24 Sep and haven't heard anything from them since then.

If I'd put false info in my DR claim they'd come after me for fraud, so I'm a little peeved that they can use false info to reject it.

Ah, but their 'defence' will effectively amount to "we've not used false information, we're just incompetent"

 

[yorkie]

If I'd put false info in my DR claim they'd come after me for fraud, so I'm a little peeved that they can use false info to reject it.

It's not a level playing field; the entire system is stacked up in train companies favour.

 

[462cd]

Well, for balance on WMR ...

I lodged a DR claim with them on 12 Sep that they rejected because they said my ticket wasn't valid for the journey. It was valid, so I appealed. They then decided that okay, it was valid after all, but now they say my delay was caused by Avanti not them. That's nonsense too, and they don't let you appeal an appeal, so I had to open a formal complaint on 24 Sep and haven't heard anything from them since then.

If I'd put false info in my DR claim they'd come after me for fraud, so I'm a little peeved that they can use false info to reject it.

So it took a claim, an appeal and a complaint, but they finally sent me an apologetic email and paid me what I was owed. I also put in a new DR claim for a trip to London a couple of days ago and they have accepted that one within just a few minutes (despite their identity crisis about whether it was an LNWR or WMR service) so I'm feeling a little more positive about them.

ETA: One thing that did annoy me was that they passed my personal details to Avanti and launched a false DR claim with them on my behalf without my consent. I doubt that's entirely GDPR compliant.

 

[Andy Pacer]

As part of a longer journey on Sunday 3rd October, I ended up rather delayed between Lichfield and Birmingham.

I put in for Delay Repay with WMR the same evening and tonight (the 6th, just 3 days later!) I have received a rail travel voucher as requested, for the correct amount, with an RTV dated the 4th & a letter dated the 5th.

So well done WMR.

If WMR with their expansive network and multitude of routes can resolve DR within a week, then I’d argue that’s where the bar should be set & there’s no good reason other operators (looking at you Northern) take over month to respond, or even longer to eventually look at and wrongly reject the case.

Thanks for sharing, always good to hear of positives as we tend to be quick to share negative experiences!