Sept. GWR delay-repay claim, first response Dec.

[Kingsman]

Delay repay submitted (logged 19/9/16) for a cancelled Truro - Paddington - Waterbeach journey
(first advance ticket Truro-Pad., first open rtn King's Cross - Waterbeach, 1147 10/9/16 train cancelled, according to staff at Truro because driver failed to turn up for the down train, so no driver for the up train). The first response to my claim was an email yesterday ( 3/12/16) apologising for delay in response due to workload, and requiring "further details" of delay, although I am sure I enclosed full details with the tickets, in what they required to be a postal claim when
I originally telephoned.

I have replied with a copy of my ticket purchases (all made on the GWR website) and that to the best of my memory we arrived 2 hours late at Waterbeach, but is such a long delay in replying usual, and where can I now find any supporting evidence, since I sent them everything I had in September?

I have just received an auto-reply to my reply of yesterday, saying " Due to an increase in customer contacts, we’re speaking with a lot more people than usual, so we may take longer to respond to your email. One of our team will get back to you as soon as possible but this could take up to three weeks." This with a new case number, so I'm not holding my breath.

 

[furlong]

Well firstly you need to become absolutely clear about what your entitlement is and for what reason - whether it's a contractual entitlement or merely discretionary. (GWR Delay Repay???) Your letters should always give them a reasonable deadline for their substantive response with a view to following the process that ultimately escalates any contractual dispute through the courts if need be.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
And always keep a copy of all correspondence!

 

[lightning76]

I submitted, by post, two claims at around the same time as the OP, for journeys on 1 and 3 September. Having heard nothing, I emailed last week to enquire what was going on (giving details of my journeys so far as I could remember). Two days later I received an email telling me that the claims would be settled and I would be receiving a cheque, along with various fluff about moving offices, sorry for the delay, etc.

It sounds to me as if, during the course of moving offices, switching to online claims, and whatever else they've been up to, things have got mightily confused. I get the impression they just want details of your claim in order to identify it amongst a mass of paperwork.

 

[father_jack]

GWR customer relations moved from Serco in Plymouth/Mumbai to Capita in Runcorn the week the Turbo had the SPAD at Paddington. They were unprepared/unknowledgable for what they were taking on anyway. It's slowly improving.

Your story is not an uncommon one. Grin and bear it and and go to whatever Transportfocus might be called this week for extra after (or if !) your initial claim is settled.

 

[Kingsman]

Well firstly you need to become absolutely clear about what your entitlement is and for what reason - whether it's a contractual entitlement or merely discretionary. (GWR Delay Repay???) Your letters should always give them a reasonable deadline for their substantive response with a view to following the process that ultimately escalates any contractual dispute through the courts if need be.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
And always keep a copy of all correspondence!

Well, when I first telephoned they made a point of sending me an email with an attachment for compensation to be filled in and returned by post, so I rather assumed that they recognised some sort of potential entitlement. Where precisely am I supposed to copy all my correspondence from home? I have no time nor inclination to pursue anything through the courts, I'm just a passenger, and thought I was dealing with a reputable organisation.

 

[Gerald Fiennes]

I made a claim for an awful journey Paddington-Gloucester (one power car down, connection missed etc.) in August. Still awaiting any acknowledgement and am just saving up for a stamp to contact Transport Focus!

 

[MrCub]

Similar story here; disaster trip mid-August. 2 hours late etc. Sent all the stuff in a week later; all 'lost' including my tickets. Luckily had some credit card evidence (what if I hadn't?). Sent that in, same again - lost. Transport Focus now involved. We'll see...

 

[Kite159]

Sounds about right for Capita.

Like with Northern, it might have saved money changing to another contractor for customer services, but when that contractor doesn't know the railway industry and bids low only to be swamped with claims due to not having enough knowledgeable staff.

A shame there isn't some sort of penalty system for customer services, where if they don't reply within X days you will automatically get a £Y RTV [like in Scotland]

 

[philthetube]

I did get two free first class tickets from Virgin WC a couple of years ago as an apology for not replying quickly enough to a question I asked.

I never did get an answer though.

 

[gray1404]

A shame there isn't some sort of penalty system for customer services, where if they don't reply within X days you will automatically get a £Y RTV [like in Scotland]

This could be something I would hope that the DfT will look at in future in terms of them imposing it on franchises. Of course it should only apply to correctly submitted claims i.e. copies of tickets and forms filled in.

 

[FQTV]

I have/had similarly long delays in responding to delay claims with VTEC, TPE and ScotRail.

They all seem to be overwhelmed.

VTEC has recently taken to sending cheques with no covering letter or other reference, making it difficult to reconcile compensation with specific claim.

 

[35B]

I have/had similarly long delays in responding to delay claims with VTEC, TPE and ScotRail.

They all seem to be overwhelmed.

VTEC has recently taken to sending cheques with no covering letter or other reference, making it difficult to reconcile compensation with specific claim.

The ones I've had recently do have references printed on the remittance advice.

 

[nickswift99]

I've got 3 claims outstanding from the same period and a complaint about overcharging, which despite follow up phone calls still hasn't been addressed.

If the claims aren't paid before the fares go up, can we all claim a 2.3% surcharge?

 

[bnm]

GWR's Customer Service, never brilliant, is now absolutely pants since Crapita took over.

 

[Kite159]

The ones I've had recently do have references printed on the remittance advice.

Which in my case didn't match any sort of reference previously received from VTEC.

 

[rg177]

Virgin EC took three months to address my claim and their excuse was "well I guess we forgot about it"

Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

 

[Hellfire]

Virgin West Coast are remarkably quick. I made a claim last week for the delay caused by a person being hit by a train outside Euston. They replied immediately and transferred the value of the ticket via Paypal within 72 hours. Very impressed

 

[Kite159]

Virgin EC took three months to address my claim and their excuse was "well I guess we forgot about it"

Sent from my F3311 using Tapatalk

Similar to a claim from August, took a phone call & email to customer services before they admitted it got lost in the system paying out the bare minimum (you would have through it would be better customer service to give a bit extra on top as a "sorry we forgot about it", even if was only a £5).

XC have been quick to response, I can remember submitting a claim for 30 minutes delay on a Friday evening with RTVs coming on the Tuesday

 

[35B]

Which in my case didn't match any sort of reference previously received from VTEC.

Fair enough. I always submit online, and the reference is in the acknowledgement email.

 

[SirBroccoli]

I'm awaiting a response to two claims which were sent at the end of October, first was for inability to access seat reservation after the Arsenal v Reading EFL cup tie, the other was for an hour's delay from RDG to DIG.

I've now e-mailed my MP Rob Wilson to ask why GWR are continuing to breach ORR standards of service (95% of claims answered within 20 days) and whether the DFT, Transport Focus and GWR can get together to sort the mess out.

Cheers,
Alex

 

[najaB]

I've now e-mailed my MP Rob Wilson to ask why GWR are continuing to breach ORR standards of service (95% of claims answered within 20 days)...

What percentage of claims is being answered within 20 days?

 

[richw]

Similar to a claim from August, took a phone call & email to customer services before they admitted it got lost in the system paying out the bare minimum (you would have through it would be better customer service to give a bit extra on top as a "sorry we forgot about it", even if was only a £5).

XC have been quick to response, I can remember submitting a claim for 30 minutes delay on a Friday evening with RTVs coming on the Tuesday

XC were quick with me as well. 129 min delay. Claimed on the Thursday afternoon, received RTVs on the Monday.

So the question is who does XC customer service, as they are clearly better equipped and adequately staffed!

 

[SirBroccoli]

What percentage of claims is being answered within 20 days?

Shall we go with a conservative figure for the time being?

Will 0% do?

 

[najaB]

Shall we go with a conservative figure for the time being?

Will 0% do?

No. Unless you have an actual figure from gWr's reporting (or an estimate based on a representative sample) then any figure is meaningless.

 

[richw]

Crapita making serco look good is an impressive achievement!

 

[Gerald Fiennes]

I made a claim for an awful journey Paddington-Gloucester (one power car down, connection missed etc.) in August. Still awaiting any acknowledgement and am just saving up for a stamp to contact Transport Focus!

Amazingly, just had a reply promising a cheque for this one. I made 5 DR claims in August with different TOCs, this was the last to be settled!

 

[FQTV]

Amazingly, just had a reply promising a cheque for this one. I made 5 DR claims in August with different TOCs, this was the last to be settled!

I've had another letter-less VTEC cheque this week too, with a reference number on the counterfoil which bears no relation to anything seen before....

 

[Kingsman]

Delay repay submitted (logged 19/9/16) for a cancelled Truro - Paddington - Waterbeach journey
(first advance ticket Truro-Pad., first open rtn King's Cross - Waterbeach, 1147 10/9/16 train cancelled, according to staff at Truro because driver failed to turn up for the down train, so no driver for the up train). The first response to my claim was an email yesterday ( 3/12/16) apologising for delay in response due to workload, and requiring "further details" of delay, although I am sure I enclosed full details with the tickets, in what they required to be a postal claim when
I originally telephoned.

I have replied with a copy of my ticket purchases (all made on the GWR website) and that to the best of my memory we arrived 2 hours late at Waterbeach, but is such a long delay in replying usual, and where can I now find any supporting evidence, since I sent them everything I had in September?

I have just received an auto-reply to my reply of yesterday, saying " Due to an increase in customer contacts, we’re speaking with a lot more people than usual, so we may take longer to respond to your email. One of our team will get back to you as soon as possible but this could take up to three weeks." This with a new case number, so I'm not holding my breath.

Total absence of response, this just to let you know that I will post again if ever something happens.

 

[paddington]

I submitted 2 delay repays to GTR (since we seem to be discussing all TOCs here) via their website at the same time. Both tickets were on roughly the same local lines and for small amounts.

Pleasantly surprised to get one paid out within 2 weeks but also surprised that there was no mention of the other one. I wasn't even inconvenienced by that particular delay anyway so I didn't bother chasing.

Anyway 5 weeks after the first RTV arrived, the second one came too.

Wonder how the system works that claims submitted simultaneously can take such different times to process.

Recent Scotrail compo came very quickly after online submission too.

 

[Kingsman]

Delay repay submitted (logged 19/9/16) for a cancelled Truro - Paddington - Waterbeach journey
(first advance ticket Truro-Pad., first open rtn King's Cross - Waterbeach, 1147 10/9/16 train cancelled, according to staff at Truro because driver failed to turn up for the down train, so no driver for the up train). The first response to my claim was an email yesterday ( 3/12/16) apologising for delay in response due to workload, and requiring "further details" of delay, although I am sure I enclosed full details with the tickets, in what they required to be a postal claim when
I originally telephoned.

I have replied with a copy of my ticket purchases (all made on the GWR website) and that to the best of my memory we arrived 2 hours late at Waterbeach, but is such a long delay in replying usual, and where can I now find any supporting evidence, since I sent them everything I had in September?

I have just received an auto-reply to my reply of yesterday, saying " Due to an increase in customer contacts, we’re speaking with a lot more people than usual, so we may take longer to respond to your email. One of our team will get back to you as soon as possible but this could take up to three weeks." This with a new case number, so I'm not holding my breath.

Nothing further received by email or otherwise, what should I do next?