West Midlands Railway Strike - Split Ticket - Refund Offer

[Pixies]

Good evening. Came across your website whilst hoping to verify Virgin Trains Refund Offer. Purchased tickets in a single transaction through Virgin Trains prior to announcement of strike action.
Hartlebury to Man Picc - split ticket at Stoke-On-Trent (SOT) - Connection time at SOT was + 12 mins out and + 15 mins back.
Offer of refund from Hartlebury to SOT and return only - Virgin claim their trains ran as advertised (delayed by no more than a few mins) so no valid claim on the tickets between SOT and Man Picc.
No West Midlands train ran from Hartlebury to SOT on 16-11-2019 so didn't travel.
Paid £65.80 for split tickets - refund offered £38.40 so the strike has left me £27.40 out of pocket!
Are Virgin Trains correct in their decision to restrict the refund to West Midlands trains only?
If correct then what, if any, legislation can be relied upon to seek redress from West Midlands Railway for the loss of £27.40 incurred as a direct result of the strike action?
Or does this simply highlight a potential risk if using split ticket with different train operators?
Thank you in advance for your input.


Mod Edit: Changed abbreviation of Stoke on Trent to the proper CRS code.

 

[gray1404]

If you did not travel due to the strike action you are entitled to a full refund on the entire combination of tickets with no admin fee applied.

 

[Pixies]

Thank you for the prompt response. 2nd phone call made to Virgin trains - again refused to refund the Virgin trains advance single tickets SOT to Man Picc & return on same basis stated previously - Virgin Trains wasn't part of Industrial Action and their trains ran to time.
I assume the next step is to send them a letter requesting the full refund and see what happens?
National Rail Conditions of Travel (NRCT) section 14 states "You may use a combination of tickets to make a journey" and sufficient time was allowed to change trains at SOT - all tickets for the entire journey were purchased at the same time so hold a single booking ref but section 30 states "If the train is cancelled and you decide not to travel, you may return the unused ticket for a refund" - I'm struggling to find anything that mentions a refund on all tickets covering the entire journey - Is this what Virgin are referring to?
What section of NRCT and/or other legislation should be quoted?
Is there a template for a suitably worded letter?
Again, many thanks in advance - any assistance is greatly appreciated.

 

[gray1404]

Yes, next step is formal complaint to Virgin Trains Customer Relations. Correct, using valid combination of tickets and as planned train was cancelled, you're entitled to a fee free refund.

 

[Pixies]

Update - Formal Complaint raised, as suggested. Full refund now received. Thank you for your help and advice.

 

[Bletchleyite]

I had a similar issue with Trainline recently, and it was a split purchased not to save money but due to the lack of a through ticket (not that that affects entitlement, but it does make it all the more annoying as I'd have bought a through ticket if there was one). Escalating the issue got the full refund.

I guess the answer is to use Trainsplit as they will do it without argument - and now there's no reason (bar Nectar points) to use the Avanti site now they have no seat selector and Trainsplit does!