Firstly apologies for the long post, think that I've got a bit of a strange situation.
I've read through the forum and have tried to get my head around how a change to my season ticket is calculated but am still a little confused.
My season ticket was part of my work scheme and so was purchased through an agency (Abellio) and they processed the change over. Details of the change over was:
Original ticket: Wokingham to Horsham (route not London) Start date: 20/09/18 End date:19/09/19
Ticket cost £3495.6 (note normal cost is £3884, but due to poor service I was told I was eligible for a 10% discount when I renewed in 2018)
New route: Wokingham to Reigate (Via Gomshall) - Start date: 05/03/19 End Date: 19/09/19
The change over has ended up costing me an extra £145.27, which seems very strange to me as a season ticket to Reigate is cheaper than a ticket to Horsham. So I would've expected a refund.
When i queried this with Abellio who chased this up with FGW. Their response was:
Thank you for your patience, I have now spoken to our Accounts Team and they have confirmed the following after speaking with First Great Western.
First Great Westerns response is below; Wokingham to Horsham (route Not London) has no GWR charter discount Wokingham to Reigate (via Gomshall) attracts 5% charter discount.
We issued your ticket from Wokingham to Horsham (route Not London) with a 10% discount in error, this should have been issued at £3884.00, not £3495.60, which we did in error.
When a ticket does not have a discount applied, which is what should have happened with yours, there should be no discount applied for the changeover ticket, as confirmed below;
Passengers can benefit from a discount on the new journey where both the new journey and the old journey are subject to discounts AND provided the new journey is within the same Train Company Service Group.
NOTE - AS THE 2 TICKETS ARE IN DIFFERENT SERVICE GROUPS OF FIRST GREAT WESTERN, THE DISCOUNT CANNOT BE APPLIED TO THE CHANGEOVER Discounts cannot be transferred from the old journey to the new journey where the old journey is subject to a discount and the new journey is not.
Discounts cannot be granted on the new journey where the new journey is subject to a discount and the old journey is not.
If the original ticket and changeover had been processed correctly, there would have been a refund of £65.67.
As the original ticket was issued at £3495.60 and not £3884.00 there is a difference of £388.60 that you have benefited from, I have been advised I am allowed to honour this cost as we have made the error.
The changeover we have issued resulted in a charge of £145.27, if you take this charge away from the discount we applied in error, you are still £243.33 up as the 10% discount had been applied in error (£388.60 - £145.27 = £243.33).
Basically, we issued this incorrectly but you have benefited from this error as the refund you should have received was £65.67 off the original loan amount of £3884.00 so in total you would have needed to pay £3818.33 (£3884.00 - £65.67 = £3818.33) With the errors we have made, you have been charged £3640.87 for the year (£3495.60 + £145.27 = £3640.87).
Basically, you have been issued with a ticket that is £177.46 less than it should be and this doesn’t need to be amended.
So as i understand it, they say that they accidentally undercharged me by charging me £3,495.60 instead of £3,884.00 (Saving me £388.4), however this meant that instead of getting a £65.42 refund, I was instead charged a £146.33 (effectively costing me £211.75). All in all this saved me £176.65.
I have a few questions that I was hoping people could help me with:
1. Is what they've done correct?
2. Why do the 2 routes not have the same charter discount? When I was travelling to Horsham, I would sometimes go via Reigate - so it seems bizarre that one of them is eligible for a discount and one isn't. I've tried to find an explanation of this but with no luck.
Thanks in advance for the help
I've read through the forum and have tried to get my head around how a change to my season ticket is calculated but am still a little confused.
My season ticket was part of my work scheme and so was purchased through an agency (Abellio) and they processed the change over. Details of the change over was:
Original ticket: Wokingham to Horsham (route not London) Start date: 20/09/18 End date:19/09/19
Ticket cost £3495.6 (note normal cost is £3884, but due to poor service I was told I was eligible for a 10% discount when I renewed in 2018)
New route: Wokingham to Reigate (Via Gomshall) - Start date: 05/03/19 End Date: 19/09/19
The change over has ended up costing me an extra £145.27, which seems very strange to me as a season ticket to Reigate is cheaper than a ticket to Horsham. So I would've expected a refund.
When i queried this with Abellio who chased this up with FGW. Their response was:
Thank you for your patience, I have now spoken to our Accounts Team and they have confirmed the following after speaking with First Great Western.
First Great Westerns response is below; Wokingham to Horsham (route Not London) has no GWR charter discount Wokingham to Reigate (via Gomshall) attracts 5% charter discount.
We issued your ticket from Wokingham to Horsham (route Not London) with a 10% discount in error, this should have been issued at £3884.00, not £3495.60, which we did in error.
When a ticket does not have a discount applied, which is what should have happened with yours, there should be no discount applied for the changeover ticket, as confirmed below;
Passengers can benefit from a discount on the new journey where both the new journey and the old journey are subject to discounts AND provided the new journey is within the same Train Company Service Group.
NOTE - AS THE 2 TICKETS ARE IN DIFFERENT SERVICE GROUPS OF FIRST GREAT WESTERN, THE DISCOUNT CANNOT BE APPLIED TO THE CHANGEOVER Discounts cannot be transferred from the old journey to the new journey where the old journey is subject to a discount and the new journey is not.
Discounts cannot be granted on the new journey where the new journey is subject to a discount and the old journey is not.
If the original ticket and changeover had been processed correctly, there would have been a refund of £65.67.
As the original ticket was issued at £3495.60 and not £3884.00 there is a difference of £388.60 that you have benefited from, I have been advised I am allowed to honour this cost as we have made the error.
The changeover we have issued resulted in a charge of £145.27, if you take this charge away from the discount we applied in error, you are still £243.33 up as the 10% discount had been applied in error (£388.60 - £145.27 = £243.33).
Basically, we issued this incorrectly but you have benefited from this error as the refund you should have received was £65.67 off the original loan amount of £3884.00 so in total you would have needed to pay £3818.33 (£3884.00 - £65.67 = £3818.33) With the errors we have made, you have been charged £3640.87 for the year (£3495.60 + £145.27 = £3640.87).
Basically, you have been issued with a ticket that is £177.46 less than it should be and this doesn’t need to be amended.
So as i understand it, they say that they accidentally undercharged me by charging me £3,495.60 instead of £3,884.00 (Saving me £388.4), however this meant that instead of getting a £65.42 refund, I was instead charged a £146.33 (effectively costing me £211.75). All in all this saved me £176.65.
I have a few questions that I was hoping people could help me with:
1. Is what they've done correct?
2. Why do the 2 routes not have the same charter discount? When I was travelling to Horsham, I would sometimes go via Reigate - so it seems bizarre that one of them is eligible for a discount and one isn't. I've tried to find an explanation of this but with no luck.
Thanks in advance for the help
